Small town life

I live in a small town. The kind with a gas station, a grocery store, a Sonic and about 5 churches (Catholic, Southern Baptist, Methodist, "Holiness" and Church of Christ - not to be confused with UCC).

Now I know a lot of people think living in a small town is dull. And I suppose it could be. But the truth is that I find more excitement living in a small town than I did in a large city (metroplex of 1,000,000+).

This week Doc Wilson got a new car. Now I know, that sounds dull, right? In a large city, people get new cars everyday. But you don't know about it unless you work with them or live on the same block, or maybe if you go to the same church. In a small town? We all knew about it. We all made appointments with Doc Wilson or found other excuses so we could go check it out.

It's a cute little car. He says it won't work for long trips, but it's sure fun to drive. It's an "upscale" sportscar. More of an old person's sports car. Not a ferrari, not a miata. Naw, it's really only a sportscar when you compare it to the Lincoln continentals normally driven by the more elite in our town. But it is cute.

Of course, going to see the car allowed us to catch up on all the other gossip in town. Mayor Zebrowski's daughter is going to have a baby. No one is quite sure who the father is, but we're sure he'll turn up before the baby is due. There's just not that many men in town. We've already divvied up the knitting tasks. Since I've recently learned to make baby socks, I get to make all the socks the baby could need to get it through a winter (yeah, our winter is nonexistent, but details!).

The Southern Baptist Preacher and his wife are expecting another bundle of joy. This makes eight. She claims to be "quiverful". No one is quite sure how many kids are in a quiver, but we're just all glad it's her and not us. Not that the kids aren't well behaved, for kids, but 8 kids under the age of 12 scares us. She's talking about homeschooling them, but always says "as soon as the baby is a little older". Of course, by the time the baby gets a "little older", she is pregnant with the next one. One of the less charitable women asked her how the southern baptist's felt about her teaching her male children, given their belief that women should not teach men. She ignored the woman. Of course, I thought it was a good point, but I would since that's why I'm no longer Southern Baptist.