How Councilor Calvin Brook’s Crabby Old Man Syndrome Melted Away
These are the comments of Councilor Brooks during the City Council meeting of May 4, 2026. Listen on any device, CLICK PLAY.
Thank you, Mr. President. I’m just thinking that there’s a lot going on in the world today. We’ve got wars in Iran, Gaza, Ukraine, dysfunctional Congress, gas prices, sports. We can talk about the Bruins, the Celtics, and the Red Sox. Personally, the construction on Elm Street that seems to be all happening at the end of my driveway. And all these thoughts were going through my head a week ago, Saturday, while picking up beer cans and bottles, Dunkin’ Coffee cups and nips on about 100 yards on West Street next to the transfer station. I kept thinking, why do people from Templeton have to throw their trash out their car windows? As a kid, I remembered the public service campaign against litter. Litter bug, litter bug, shame on you. My crabby old man syndrome was kicking in.
So as I drove away from the cleanup day at the transfer station, I began to think about why I was there. Not the why answer of my picking up litter, but the why answer of someone in this community who thought the litter should be picked up and so organized the event. They did it to make this community better. A couple of days later, I saw a story in the Gardner News about the efforts to bring back the baseball diamond at Stone Field for Babe Ruth play. I remember the years of care that Steve Zoldack gave to that field, and I started to feel good about my community. Tonight we shared, in the kickoff for the Relay for Life, another locally organized event that is successful because of the hard work of the organizers and the participants. Here in this room are people spearheading things like the downtown flower pot program, assisting with overdose awareness in August, and helping youth sports programs in the city. The more I thought about all this volunteer work, all the people who stepped forward to fill a need, the more my crabby old man syndrome melted away.
In many communities, members are only too willing to step back, take it easy, and to complain. We here in Gardner are all extremely fortunate to live in a community like this one, where members are willing to step forward, to do some work, and to give back. That spirit of giving back, of looking out for each other, is what makes this community so special. Thank you to everyone who has taken the time to do just that. I applaud your work and am proud to live in Gardner. Thank you. – Gardner City Councilor Calvin Brooks