Wednesday, May 24, 2006

Life in a Small Town

After picking Jack up at school today, we started driving to The Read Leaf and saw one of our neighbors, a junior high student, stuggling along the side of the road with a huge tuba case. We stopped to offer some help, put his tuba in the back of the Jeep, and dropped it off for him a couple of blocks away at his family's shaved ice kiosk (btw, we didn't have room in the Jeep for both him and his tuba--he had to walk).

When we got to The Read Leaf, Jack and his friends, Johnny and Benny from the Chinese restaurant next door, and I walked less than a block to the bank. While I was making a deposit, chatting it up with the tellers who all know who I am, the boys went next door to the drug store and ordered huge ice creams for $1 at their old-fashioned soda fountain.

When we got back, Roger headed out to the post office, which is less than two blocks away, to mail off a packet of photos that he got developed less than four blocks away at a store owned by our old neighbors. Johnny, Benny and Jack headed out to play at the playground by the library, less than a block away. Incidentally, the director of the library happens to be a neighbor of ours!

The other night we attended a wedding reception for one of our neighbors at the local art museum and people we didn't know recognized us from The Read Leaf! Last night I went to a little "work party" to help Shelley, who is a bookseller here at The Read Leaf, with her wedding invitations. One of her friends at the party saw me and said, "Didn't I see you at the reception at the art museum on Saturday?"

Shelley is having her wedding reception at her family's home. To avoid traffic congestion, they'll be asking people to park at a church parking lot a block or two away. Roger and I thought it would be a hoot to find a golf cart and offer a shuttle service that night. And who are we borrowing the golf cart from? The neighbor family of tuba boy who owns the shaved ice kiosk!

Crazy.

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