So This is What You Do in a Small Town

Well, there is nothing like a sugar high. I am going to try to write something relatively positive and upbeat and maybe that will make me feel better.

I got some of the Attune probiotic bars by mail today and they definitely make me feel better. I wonder if they would have made me feel more better if I hadn't followed them with more granola, organic chocolate chip graham cookies, and one chocolate covered pretzel. Eh, at least most of it's healthy junk food/snack food.

So, I was at the health food store yesterday. Big surprise, right? And the day before that, and the day before that, and so on. Usually I have been only going in like maybe 3 times a week and spacing it out so as not to deal with the minor smelliness of the store more than I had to; but lately I have been enjoying talking with M who works there and decided that made up for dealing with the minor smelliness.

So, I went in every day from Tuesday to Friday this week. On Tuesday, I went in just to say hi and get some peanut butter cups, and ended up staying half an hour talking to her, which surprised me. On Wednesday, I hadn't intended to go in at all, but the whole town smelled like a laundromat and I had to cut my walk very short and was very dejected about it, so I decided to stop in and say hi to her on my way back, figuring that if I was going to be miserable about a smell anyway, I might as well do it having the benefit of talking to another person.

So, I went in and said hi, and we started talking, and long story short, by the time I left, I looked at the clock and couldn't believe it, it said quarter of 6. I had gotten there at quarter of 5. It didn't feel like a whole hour, just standing there in my heavy coat, chatting! I guess when you're glad for human company (and very enjoyable and entertaining human company at that), you're really glad for it.

It was kind of interesting, being there for so long and observing who came in and out. There were about three people I believe, all older white men, all very nice and chatty and amicable (still haven't seen any black people in the store yet I don't think). One of them knew me as he had seen me in there before and we had chatted briefly, so he said hello. One stood there for a while, casually commenting on some of the products and engaging M in a lengthy but lighthearted exchange about some kind of herbal, medicinal honey they had. One (and this might all have been the same man, I can't really remember) started a long conversation with J at the same time I started one with M. It was the closest thing to the feeling of a "town gathering spot" or "town community center" I have ever encountered; just in that these people were so relaxed, laid back, obviously coming in to chat as much as they were to buy stuff. That is a nice feeling, of everyone enjoying each other's company. Of course, most people that I have seen come in come in quickly for a few items and leave (most of them after exclaiming how excited they are to have found this place, speaking in a heavily accented voice, or both), but some particularly the men who came in on Wednesday, like to linger.

There's this one guy, I don't think he was there this week, I can't really remember; I think it was last week. But I saw him when I was passing the HF store on my walk, and saw him when I came back 20 minutes later. He engaged me on a lengthy and rambling discussion of the health practices of Switzerland, Germany, and Italy (I think). Apparently they don't sell pasteurized milk there and have many other organic, healthy ways of doing things. It might have been interesting except for the way he was rambling and repeating himself over and over again and not allowing for any audience input. I had my fill after a few minutes and tried to politely take my leave, thank him for the information, tell him I had to go do my shopping, and walk away; of course, in a store that small, you have to make quite a production out of walking the four of five steps to the other side of the store, lol. And he followed me and kept blabbing. It was actually kind of weird because I heard his voice and thought it was coming from the other side of the store, and then looked up and saw his face reflected in the glass that seperated the section I was in from the aisle next to it, and thought I was seeing things; then realized he was standing right next to the glass.

So, at that point, M intervened and told the man to "Leave her alone, she likes to focus on her shopping," to which he replied "She's not listening to me!" (No, really?) and she replied, "No, she's listening, she just can't concentrate on more than one thing at a time." I do appreciate good conflict intervention skills. He shut up after that.

The woman who came in today was funny, too. She came in and said, "I am so excited to have found this place!" I swear at least three people have said that. Neither M or I can figure out yet why they are so excited, or why it so hard for them to find the place. Must be something in the water. She was accented, too. She said she was from the Bronx and was moving up here because it was too noisy in the city. Well, I finally figured out a reason someone would want to move to Liberty. If they lived in NYC beforehand. Somehow, anything seems better than NYC, but that's just my take on it; I know plenty of people love NYC....seven million of them, to be exact, but it's not really my cup of tea, what with all the noise and chaos and people and having no country station. They do have good food, though.

So, anyway, on Wednesday, I stood talking to M for an hour, and I don't really remember what we talked about, but I know some of it was funny, and we were laughing. I think that part was about the Hassidic Jews. She was telling me how the Hassidic Jews came here in the summer, tons of them, and they were all very rude and unpleasant and impatient, not just in the store but everywhere in town and in all the stores she encountered them in. I said she should learn some swear words in Yiddish. She said some lady tried to tell her one once but she forgot it. Obviously, she couldn't use them at work, but they might come in handy elsewhere in town. Hell, if I have that problem when the summer comes, I might just learn a few myself. We can practice our dirty Yiddish together, lol. Maybe someone can start a class. Not such good PR for the tourism, though. I've never seen or really even heard much about Hassidic Jews in my life; so that should certainly be interesting.

So, then, Thursday I came into get some more granola, but not until 5 minutes before closing time, so I couldn't stay long. Today, though, I got there about half an hour before closing, and we talked for half an hour.

She got the last six peanut butter cookies from the bakery yesterday, and her 2 year old son ate them all this morning when she accidentally left them home. She is very theatrical in her telling of stories, a quality I very much like in people, and that is rare to find, and she managed to make a simple story like that into a compelling and entertaining tale. She even acted out her son's voice, her mom's voice, and her's, as she went through the tale of the missing cookies and her frantic efforts to fruitlessly secure more from the bakery. As I said, I like people like that. When you have a sense of humor and can make a good story out of every day incidents, and laugh about them, then you'll most likely do okay in life.

And then somehow we got to talking about tying up babysitters, apparently a common past-time we had both shared as children. You never know what will bring people together.... :)

I guess the "slower pace of life" quality I have often heard exists in the South, applies also to small towns, and maybe that's not entirely a bad thing.