Do-Gooders

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Kenny and Jackie Wharton were kids in the tiny town of Canalou Missouri, off of old Highway 61. They moved away for 40 years, but always dreamed of moving back. After Kenny retired, they finally did. Canalou had fallen on hard times. They hoped to do a few things to help restore some of the spirit it had when they were kids: modest, innocent things, maybe start a softball league, build a place for kids to play ball, maybe pave a few streets. And the more they tried, the more people resented them. After three years, they realized that something had changed in Canalou that would take a lot more than two do-gooders to fix. This is the story of what went wrong.
Kenny and Jackie Wharton were kids in the tiny town of Canalou Missouri, off of old Highway 61. They moved away for 40 years, but always dreamed of moving back. After Kenny retired, they finally did. Canalou had fallen on hard times. They hoped to do a few things to help restore some of the spirit it had when they were kids: modest, innocent things, maybe start a softball league, build a place for kids to play ball, maybe pave a few streets. And the more they tried, the more people resented them. After three years, they realized that something had changed in Canalou that would take a lot more than two do-gooders to fix. This is the story of what went wrong.

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Ira Glass