AND HOW SMALL IS IT ????

I live in a small town. And how small is it you ask? You did ask didn't you? Well it hasn't been that long since we finally got our second traffic light. Our newspaper comes out once a week. Walmart is the social hub of the town.

The front page of this weeks newspaper shows a picture of a dump truck laying asphalt. Now it is a color picture ( we are small, not backward). The caption under the picture is as follows:
"Workers are busy Monday laying asphalt for the parking lot of a new Dollar General Store on E main Street between Bar None Bar-B-Q and the Church of the Living God. The store is slated to open in the next few weeks." This is the leading news of the week. I guarantee there will be food and music for the opening. Garrison Keillor would love this place.

I hope this does not sound belittling for I totally love my town and its very smallness. It was one of the reasons I settled here. People wave when you pass them on the road. They wave when you go out to your mail box. Shop keepers know you by name. Friendliness is natural and open, not part of a job description. I have not been here that long and yet I know a lot of the people who are subject to news worthiness. You know your politicians and their families. If you don't know them personally, you can get filled in quickly by any local.

We are a tourist town but the very thing that attracts tourists is what the town did for years before anyone knew it had commercial value. It is a town steeped in music. Primarily folk, county and gospel music. In good weather, almost any night, you will find musicians in the town square, under a tree, against a corner of a building, playing and singing. A hundred musicians is not unusual especially during festivals. Strolling from group to group with either an ice cream cone or a basket of fried green tomatoes is a great way to spend an evening. When it is cooler, bonfires keep you warm.

If you were not born here, you are considered as being, "from off." At first I took offense thinking my mental health was in question. It just means we are "from" somewhere else. Fortunately or maybe unfortunately, since this area is gaining more popularity from articles in National Geographic, RV magazines and an HGTV special, there are a lot of "off" types moving here as a retirement mecca.

This is a picture of my little town at festival time. Probably the very things that make this town special, will eventually destroy its specialness by its becoming large and commercial. Hopefully I won't see it, though I know I am part of the problem. Long live small.