Meteor Shower-- Small Town Style

   

   
We set our alarms for 3 a.m. I woke my kiddos and they grabbed blankets and we headed to the car. It was touted as a potentially huge meteor shower.  Some even called it a "meteor storm".  We are only a few miles from country darkness, so we decided to find a dirt road, far away from town lights.

     We were surprised by a spectacular display of light-- blinding, white, blue and red-- in our rear-view mirror.  I saw the officer headed toward us as we drove through town and he turned around just as we passed. He followed us for a few blocks, then turned on his lights and pulled us over. He said my license plate light was out.  Aren't license plates reflective?  Is a license plate light something required?
       I felt a little sheepish as I sleepily handed over my driver's license.  I'm sure he noticed the  wide-eyed, pajama wearing kids in the back seat. Should I tell him what we were doing?  I didn't offer an explanation.
      After mentioning the license plate light being out, he said he was just checking for impaired driving: (Translation: anyone driving this time of night must be either insane, drunk, or high on something.)   He did not test my blood alcohol level or make me walk the line.  He just took my license and grabbed his shoulder radio.

     Now, we live in a small town, and our police budget is limited, so our police cars are not equipped with the latest technology-- like computers.  So, the officer, while standing by my open window, proceeded to spell out my full name "Juliet, Echo, November, November, India, Foxtrot,Echo, Romeo"....and so on over his radio.  Being from a small town, and knowing that there are insomniacs out there who listen to the police scanner nightly, I knew I would hear about this later.  Our family has been in this area for many generations and is well known.  I'm sure there were many questioning why the Baptist preacher's daughter-in-law's name was called over the scanner at 3:30 in the morning.
     He received word back from the police station that my license cleared and we were free to go.  We drove a few miles outside of town and found a quiet road to sit and look at the stars. We watched a sliver of moon just peeking over the horizon, first pink, then orange, then white as it rose further into the sky. My girls and I talked about stars, and the moon, and the facts of life and law enforcement.  I answered their 9 and 10 year-old questions about everything.  We saw lots of stars, the Milky Way, constellations and only one meteor. But we still had fun making memories.
     I must admit, I was afraid to drive back into town for fear of getting stopped again.  There were no other cars out at that time of night, so it would have given the officer something to keep him busy.  All-in-all, I am grateful for our police department, no matter how Barney Fife-ish they may seem at times.  They play an important role in our community and it is a blessing to have that kind of protection.  If they'll stop someone for a license plate light being out, they'll find those crooks too!!  But, you'll get that in a small town!

Country Winter Olympics

     Our family has been enjoying watching the Winter Olympics this week in Sochi, Russia (you know, that place near Siberia where it has been 40 degrees warmer than the temperatures here, and they actually have to make the snow-- oh, the irony).  As I reflected on our rural life this frigid winter, I realized that a lot of our everyday tasks could be like Olympic sports! Here's the official list:

1.Ice Dancing-- that beautiful pirouette your car did just before landing in the ditch

2. Moguls-- your first attempt to get out of the driveway just after the snowplow went by.

3. Double Axle--  Both axles, locked and loaded.  Four-wheel drive: don't leave home without it!

4. Giant Slalom--  What others affectionately call your steep, winding driveway.

5. Speed "Gating"-- That mad dash in sub-zero temperatures from the warm truck to open the cattle gate, and then back again to close it.

6. Snow Boarding-- Having to spend the night because of a snow storm at your friend's house, a stranger's house, your church, school, barn, or pickup cab.

7. Bronze "Metal"-- a.k.a. rust

8. Silver "Metal"-- that last nickel in your pocket after paying your heating bill for last month.

9. Cold "Metal"-- They say your tongue will stick to it.....but, will it REALLY????

     What fun to watch our fellow Americans compete against the world. GO, Team USA!  We love hearing about the heroes from small town America, who became experts at doing what they love...............but you'll get that in a small town!

Ode to my Snowplowing Man

Ode to my hard-working, snow-plowing man. 

(Written this morning at 3:30 a.m., after he left to go plow more and I couldn't get back to sleep!!)

Cell phone rings, are ya' listenin'?

Customer calls, snow is glistenin'.

A pitiful sight,

I'm out all the night,

Plowing in a winter wonderland.

Gone away is my sanity,

Here to stay is the reality.

I sing a crazy song, 

Because the coffee's all gone.

Plowing in a winter wonderland.

In the church lot I can build a pile,

15 feet for kids to slide it down.

Another call, I answer with a smile,

"I can do the job when I'm in town."

Later on, I'll perspire,

As I fix another wire.

I'll face unafraid

The snow that has laid

Plowing in a winter wonderland!

*Poems are made by snow-bound fools like me.............but you'll get that in a small town!!

Small Town News #3

 I'm wondering if anyone else in our area caught the latest typo in the recent newspaper:

 

     I have wanted to ask for an editing job of this particular newspaper many times, but I would greatly miss the once-in-awhile laugh I get from their many mistakes. 'Hope this brightened your day...........you'll get that in a small town!

Small Town Festivals

     Every small town has at least one.  That special time of the year when the town celebrates its uniqueness by highlighting some product or hobby that is prevalent in the area.  It is a great opportunity to attract other folks from other communities to your  neck of the woods. 
     A small town festival is made up of many different facets, and each town has it's own special way of celebrating and attracting out of town tourists.  There is usually a theme, whether The Corn Festival, Strawberry Festival, Bluegrass Festival, Watermelon Festival or, as in our town, The Mule Festival.  Each town has their own special area that is their line of expertise.  There is always food of all sorts.  Maybe the Catholic ladies set up a tent to serve meatloaf or home-made beef and noodles, the Lions serve their famous homemade ice cream and the local boy scouts have a lemon-shake-ups stand.  Private vendors also attend hoping to tempt your taste buds with Kettle corn, Funnel cakes, corn dogs and anything else they can batter and  fry up for you.
     Most towns have some sort of a parade through town.  It's always a chance to show off your fancy truck or tractor, or get your business name out there.  Often there are car shows, dog shows, tractor shows, engine shows, baby shows, and any other item you may own and want to show off to try and win the prize.  I honestly never understood the baby shows.  Dress up your little one so people can come by and judge which baby is the prettiest. And, what happens if you don't win?  Sorry, babycakes, you weren't the prettiest?  Hmmm.
     Of course, there are always contests.  We country folk love to compete.  We can haul in our livestock so people can judge whose is the heaviest, and the strongest, and the best looking.  We can haul in our baked and canned goods for people to judge which is the tastiest.  We can haul in our old junk cars and drive them around an arena with a bunch of other junk cars trying to hit each other and see whose will last the longest (which, by the way, is known as a demolition derby).  We can haul in our souped up tractors and pickup trucks and see whose can pull the greatest weight. There are plenty of ways to compete in the country!
   I was recently perusing our local "Shopper" newspaper.  It was crammed full of ads for festivals, since this is the time of year that we celebrate the nearing of school and the end of another farming season.  One particular ad caught my eye:

 

     Seriously?  Just seeing that headline conjures up some disturbing images and some rather unusual questions, like,"Do they provide gloves?" "Does chicken poop make the game somehow more enjoyable?" "Fun for all ages?" Sorry I don't think toddlers should participate. Sometimes I think we country folk try too hard to be rednecks and come up with stunts like this.  Maybe next year I'll see an ad for The Chicken Poop Festival.....but you'll get that in a small town.

She's a gettin' old.........

     Our family vehicle reached a milestone this month.....literally.  The odometer turned over 300,000 miles.  We have been watching the miles go by for several years, counting up to this number.  For some reason this number seems to be the magic number in terms of vehicle age.  Does this mean she has reached full maturity?  Or maybe this means she is officially ready for the automobile nursing home. According to the mileage, we are already on our way back from our trip to the moon. We hope there is a prize for reaching this number, maybe Chevy will send us a new one in exchange for letting them put this one in their museum.

 

     I got to thinking about all the memories we have that include this vehicle.  We bought her when she was only half this age.  She was all shiny and new looking.  She was the newest vehicle we had ever purchased.  We were excited that she had A/C and cruise control--and that both worked at the same time!

     This old girl has been with us through thick and thin.  We've had many an adventure together. Some happy, like family vacations and excursions here and there.  Her worn out carpet has spots of melted crayons and coffee stains, and blemishes from spilled soda.  A lot of her many miles were spent in the happy company of kids singing and playing as we traveled on our merry way whether visiting family, taking a vacation or a field trip. We also spent many a mile discovering new roads and trails in our neck of the woods. There were also many miles that were not so happy. Soon after we got her we started making multiple trips to a doctor a few hours away due to complications with a pregnancy.  If you could use a black light to find tear stains, I 'm sure it would illuminate many such spots as we journeyed, waiting for answers, wondering, hoping, praying.  And then, the journey home after our little 8 day-old daughter passed away.  There were also trips to the emergency room for injuries and accidents.

    

 

     In all of these miles, she has left us stranded only a very few times. On one particular trip to the big city, a bearing went out and we spent 5 hours at an exit (thankfully there was a Dairy Queen and a Walmart there!) waiting for a trailer so we could haul her home. We've gotten used to some of her quirks, like the windshield wipers turning off and on when she decides!  Every once in awhile, we have to tighten the battery cables, but all in all, she runs great!

 

     We've added a few after market accessories to her.  We broke a tail light on one of our other trucks ( identical to this vehicle).  After searching for a replacement, we found we could buy a set of cool "urban" style ones for a third of the price of one new replacement one. So we souped up our family vehicle just for fun!

 

 

     Other accessories that she has gained since we bought her were the snowplow attachment and the bumper sticker.  She became the back-up vehicle when my husband was plowing last winter.  Old trucks often break down and so we needed her to step up and take the place of another plow.  Probably after 24 hours of plowing snow, radio blaring, windows down, forward, reverse, forward, reverse....she was ready to rest! As for the bumper sticker, my husband found this one and couldn't resist.

 

 

 

 

     We have had our nicknames for her through the years.  "Suburban" is a huge mouthful for youngsters, so at one time our little boy called it the "booban".  It is still quite a mouthful when you are hollering at four children to "go get in the suburban", so at times we just call her the "sub" or "burb" or just the "car". When she seems a bit sluggish, the kids have heard me say "C'mon Bessie", though we never gave her an official moniker.

     When something breaks down in the future, which no doubt at her advanced age will happen, we won't replace her, we'll just replace the broken part.  My husband keeps the local auto parts store in business with our fleet of old vehicles and he is a master mechanic, able to fix anything that breaks!

 

     It's rather unusual for such a lengthy blog to be written about one's vehicle, but this is redneck country, and we country folks keep our trucks for long enough that we become quite attached to them.  So, here goes:  Blogs are written by fools like me, but only Chevy will make it to 3 .......

hundred thousand that is............but you'll get that in a small town!



Country Kindness

 We heard the usual approaching sound of vehicles on the front street,

but suddenly we heard the screech of brakes...........

car doors slamming........

excited voices. 

 We anticipated the wail of sirens, but it never came. 

 Upon closer inspection we saw what all the excitement was about:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A turtle in the road was trying to reach the other side.

Both lanes of traffic were stopped as the drivers got out of their cars to move the unsuspecting creature out of danger.

 

 

 

 

 

 

  Country kindness...........you don't just find it anywhere

.......but you'll get that in a small town!