My “Our Town” Life

I’ve lived and/or worked in the same small town for the past 25 years. For 11 of those years, I lived and worked in the same town. We moved about 15 miles away, but I’ve continue to work in the same town since then.  We raised our kids there.

It’s the longest I’ve ever lived in one place.

In the past few weeks, I’ve had a birthday. It is not one ending in a zero, but it will be next time around.

Assuming I make it.

But this birthday brought out some reminiscing in me. For some reason, I have been thinking about all of the places I’ve lived, the people I’ve known, the jobs that I’ve had.

And no, I won’t bore you with that whole list.

But I realized how much I enjoy working in the town that I do-and how nice it is to live in a small town.

Here is an example of a rather routine day for me:

-Stop at a drive-in coffee spot…..the person ahead of me has paid for my order. I then pay for the person behind me.

-Arrive at the courthouse for court hearings…. the bailiffs greet me by name….”Good morning! welcome back!”

-Stop at the drugstore for prescriptions…..the clerk pulls out my stuff without even asking-she knows my name. We chat a few minutes while she rings up the order.

-During my lunch hour, I stop at the bank drive through. The clerk says hello to me by name as I send in the tube with my deposit slip. If I were to have my dog with me, they send out a dog biscuit for him. He is like Pavlov’s dog now, and starts to drool as we pull up to the kiosk.

-Lunch is often a take-away from a small restaurant within walking distance of my office. At the deli, the Asian restaurant or the other deli, they know me, and often just ask if I want the usual. Yes, I am a woman of habit.

-At some point mid-afternoon, I will often walk to the coffee/bookstore for an afternoon caffeine injection. There, they also know me, the barista knows what coffee drink I prefer, the owner and I discuss books.

-I am constantly running into people I know, in nearly any place I go. It is a joke of the office…..if I haven’t run into someone who greets me, my office mates are disappointed.

Of course, if I lived and worked in any other place this long, I am sure it would be the same. And I am sure that many other people enjoy living in  similar town.

There are a few downsides, of course. Every so often I run into clients whom I really would rather not see, and who would rather not see me. And sometimes people see me and I don’t even realize it. I often hear comments such as “I saw you going into the post office yesterday.” That makes me a little uncomfortable at times.

Overall, though, I love it. It has been a great place to live and work. In a few years, I will be retiring. The plan would be to move to a smaller house, likely close to or in the city.

Maybe someone will even notice that I’m not around town any more.

Or not.

Either way it’s ok. I’ve enjoyed it.

Advertisement