Wired Writer

There's no place like home, there's no place like home, there's no place like home

Ain't No PettiCoat Junction, But We're Werkin' On It

Reasons why I love the town I live in, even though it has grown exponentially and yet still has not sprouted a Starbucks:

--Strangers patiently holding open doors for me while I wrangled a double stroller through, down, and over steps and otherwise chunky, non-stroller friendly thresholds.

--The life size statue of the Colonel Sanders seated on the back porch of a distant neighbor's yard. Totally white, except for the rims of his glasses and his bolo tie. Those were painted black. The owners regularly changed his seating strategy, moving him from porch swing to lawn chair to patio bench with the tender care of an elderly relative being assisted during his daily constitution.

--Walking into a department store one day behind an older lady and having the clerk, who never looked up while browsing Good Housekeeping from behind the counter, say "Mabel, your daughter's looking for you. For once use that darn cell phone she gave you and give her a call."

--The filled-to-the brim change jar (Mason, no less) at a Raymond Road farmer's stand with a sign that read: 'Closed for dinner. Leave the money for your produce here and make change from the jar. We'll get it after dessert and the news.'

--Taking your children to the local restaurant/bar where they can sing and dance with the rest of the town's children on the back patio to the beat of a live band every Friday night during the summer. Overseen by pizza-stuffed, chatting parents and preschool teachers having a beer. For a five-star evening, children go home happy with arms covered in at least two temporary tattoos from the dispensers by the bathrooms. Tattoos DO NOT come off with soap, oil, or Brillo pads. Kids are still comparing them three months later as they candy-collect on Halloween.

--Surprisingly good (thought not Starbucks good) cappucino from a machine at the Shell gas station at the entrance of my subdivision.

--Kids riding their decorated bikes in the Fourth of July Parade through downtown, right after the fire trucks.

--Lastly, the liberal pet smoking policy:

posted by A.M.Adams @ 8/26/2005 11:38:00 PM