Small Town Living

The nice thing about living in a small town is that when you don't know what you're doing, someone else does.  Anonymous

Truthfully that has got to be one of my favorite quotes ever and I think it's because it is both funny and has a lot of truth to it.

I have lived in a small town with an actual water tower for many years now and grew up out in the country near some almost nonexisistent little towns as a child and there is no doubt that everybody knows everybody and what comes along with that is that everybody "thinks" they know everything about everyone.  I smiled and giggled just thinking about how the rumor mills fly in our small town and how some people would literally have nothing to do and wouldn't know which way to turn if they didn't have their local gossip to spread about.  Sad really.

Gosh, I don't think I can count on both of my hands how many times over the years that I have likely been the subject of one of these stories, and I often think it would be real fun to be a fly on the wall when people are talking about me so I can hear everything and see how falsified the story really is.  I'm not quite sure why certain people get off on this kind of bullshit really.  And why they have to be so childish when they are grown adults and dish out information to others that isn't even true 80% of the time (percentage is just a guess of course), but I choose not to be a part of it.  Another reason why I left the corporate world, where rumors are as common as changing your underwear, and have recently turned into somewhat of a hermit.  I just don't need that kind of stuff in my life and don't see a reason to hurt somebody else by talking about them.  I'm better than that.

This by far is one of the biggest downfalls to living in a small town BUT at the same time there are a lot of advantages to living in a small town as well and the boys and I took time today to experience small town living.

Samantha has left us all for the week to travel to Washington DC and Virginia through a school trip opportunity and it's been just me and the boys.  Yesterday was spent grocery shopping and running to the White House of Music to pick up an Alto Saxophone rental (not cheap by the way) for Zachary as he has decided he wants to take band in summer school and next school year and try this out.  We'll see how that goes?  Wish me luck. 

Well today, after getting some things accomplished around the house the boys and I and Lucy the dog took a walk to our local drugstore, Burmeschs, to get a Slushie (or Hushie as Luke would call it), a glass bottle of Coke for Zach and an ice cream cone for Mom.

Zach and Luke on the way to Burmeschs for our "goodies".

Lucy watching the window at Burmeschs to see where her boys went?

The boys enjoying their purchases.

Oh the trip back had it's moments as the boys kept competing for first place on the ride home and Luke kept getting ticked off that Zach was passing him up and "winning".  Meanwhile I am carrying my ice cream cone, Luke's Slushie and trying to walk the dog who keeps stopping to smell things while monitoring the situation ahead of me.  I wanted to drink heavily by the time we got home.

But once again, it was at that moment when I decided that once again I was blessed.  I felt lucky to live in a small town where I can go for these crazy walks with my boys on a daily basis if I want and not have to worry about crime and being safe.

Blessed that I wasn't in the office at my old job all day while my kids were on summer vacation and that I could spend this extra time with them when they are home now.

Blessed that although I live in a town where everybody knows everybody's business it is a small enough town that I also know who to keep my kids away from and chances are for the most part I know all of the parents of the kids my children are going to school with.

I don't wish to live in some big Metropolis.  If I choose, I can visit Milwaukee anytime I want and enjoy the "big city life" at that time.

You take the good with the bad in pretty much everything you do in life and you learn to accept them both.

The boys are getting along now (I won't say that out loud).  Once again, that is also a blessing :)