Wednesday, May 03, 2006

Small Town Life Suits Me Fine 

6 miles from the Connecticut border. 20 miles from the nearest Starbucks.

One bar. One school -- 80 kids per grade but it fields a pretty strong softball team. One market, one drugstore, one laundromat. Two kittycorner gas stations with dual service bays.

Total population: 8 thousand, including us four.

Friendly townies of bluecollar stock most in their third or fourth generation wander the streets in the afternoon. Farmers, carpenters, roofers, motorcyclists; sneakers and workboot feature prominently in adult couture.

There is no rush hour. At 3 in the afternoon school gets out, the streets begin to fill up with pick-up trucks, teenagers out driving their parent's cars, white utility vans. The market lot stays crowded until it closes at seven.

Sitting in a local barber shop while the car gets a long-overdue inspection offers, almost demands we revisit the smalltown life we have chosen. Here the gossip over the scissor snip; there on the window colorcopy flyers promote church ham suppers, fly fishing tournaments, the high school production. On TV they're interviewing a woman three towns over. The world passes by the windows. And it is good.

posted by boyhowdy | 9:52 PM |

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Comments:

Suits me, too. :-) I'm glad it's working for y'all.

# posted by  Anonymous : 8:07 PM, May 04, 2006

 

And me as well. My college friends wonder why I don't want to live in a (Southern) city.

This is why.

# posted by  Anonymous : 10:06 AM, May 07, 2006

 

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