Normally this time of year, giving folks a scare is just part of the season. Scaring the wits out of someone is just having a little Halloween fun.

Maybe. For the most part, most of us don’t like being scared — any day of the year.

So perhaps the day before Halloween is a good time to point out that the end of the world is not, in fact, happening.

Despite what’s been reported, although the national economy is in a slump and the credit crisis has created a huge impediment to our country and even the world’s economic growth for a bit, things are going to get better.

We can sense it in the air.

Sure, the stock market is going to fluctuate some more. It always has and always will.

But people are still shopping at Natchez Market, Walmart and Kmart. And people still need to buy automobiles, too.

Sure, the days of loose credit availability may be over for the people who don’t fit fairly tight qualifications, but the world is still spinning and some amazing things are beginning to happen in the Miss-Lou.

After more than a decade of talking about annexation, the City of Natchez is finally turning that talk into action.

Natchez and Adams County are beginning what we believe to be fundamental groundwork necessary if we’re to see a new recreation complex born.

Across the river, things are popping in Concordia Parish, too, with new businesses and new projects in the works.

While the headlines on the short-term financial outlook might look as frightening as tomorrow’s Halloween masks, life still continues and the Miss-Lou is still moving toward the future.