Conceit – (kuhn-seet)
Feelings of superiority about one’s capabilities, significance, or position
Other than the business district and a few scattered small stores, the Downtown area of White River City was a financial wasteland. The blight and decay stemming from the west side’s manufacturing decline spread eastward until it stopped at the White River and the developments of the Princemoore family on the other side. There was, however, a small strip of businesses on Main Street that still survived, mostly due to the patronage of students from Princemoore University. For the most part, bars, art shops, and a couple of restaurants comprised central Main Street. At the center of the activity was a club called Holidaze, one of only a few live music venues in the city.
During the Counterculture Revolution of the 1960’s, Holidaze was known as Whispering Willie’s, named after its proprietor “Whispering” Willie Jacoby. Willie was a veteran of the Korean War and had been wounded by shrapnel from a landmine. The explosion damaged his vocal chords, and from that time he was never able to speak above a whisper. Upon his return home he fell in with the beatnik crowd. Years later Willie grew out his beard and hair and joined the ranks of the hippies. Using up most of his inheritance, he purchased a three-story former department store from the 40s, and turned it into an urban commune for artists, drifters, and other revolutionaries.
