Reserved for the History...
It was though the doors to the enterprise have fallen away as the building's walls began to fade away, along with the ceiling, leaving you mystified as you enter what looks to be the shire. It's day time and many small folk work to build tents, tables, and bake cakes. Everyone in the shire was invited...
"So you're going to go through with it, then," Gandalf the Wizard said
slowly.
"I am," I replied. "I've been planning this for a long time.
It'll give the Hobbits of the Shire something to talk about for the next
nine days - or ninety-nine, more likely. Anyway, at least I'll have my
little joke."
"Who will laugh, I wonder?" Gandalf mused aloud, scratching his
beard idly.
For weeks carts and caravans were coming from all over Middle-earth
to bring provisions for the Grand Old Party, as I referred to it.
Wagons of food from the Dwarvish mines at Erebor, shiny rocks from the
Sea-elves and fancy seductive packages from southern Mirkwood arrived
daily, making the neighborhood generally more crowded and cluttering up
avenues. Even those who hadn't said anything bad about me before were
starting to show their annoyance. "That man is starting to get a
mite annoying," old Gaffer Gamgee grumbled, standing outside the pub.
"Queer goings-on, and no mistake. Why just yesterday a bunch o' pesky
Wood-elves dragged their cart right acrost my yard and ruined my taters!"
"A bunch of Men from Bree came to my place yesterday and tried to
sell me some aluminum siding," mused Old Noakes of Bywater. "They said it
was because they had extra after building that horrible Quonset hut over
the Party Tree, and they were trying to unload it. Strange folk
hereabouts."
"Yes, but it's good for the economy," sneered Bill Ferny, the local
banker. "A lot more money in circulation. Market's been doing well.
Unionization is down because of all the entry-level service positions
that are being created. Widening gap between the haves and have-nots,
don't you think? Good to find work for idle hands."
"And you don't know nothin' about anythin', Ferny," Gaffer Gamgee
snapped, echoing the popular community sentiment. "Mr. Bilbo Baggins is a
right bastard, as I've often said, and it's small wonder if trouble don't
come of him and his imperialist ways. The Revolution's a'comin', and it's
the likes o'you who'll be the first ag'inst the wall, so sayeth the
Lord." And with that he spat a well-aimed beer-nut into Ferny's glass.