Small Towns

What are the best and worst things about living in a small town? The best thing is that you know everybody. The worst thing is that everybody knows you.
Having lived in a small town for many years, I have experienced many of these best and worst, but this is an instance that stands out.
We owned a small auto dealership in this small town. We worked five and a half days a week, closing at noon on Saturdays. My mother lived about a mile out of town and on many Saturdays, she would prepare a lunch for us.
We were having a lunch one Saturday when the phone rang and it was for me. A traveler had car trouble and needed a part. The traveler was very polite and apologized for disturbing my lunch. He would wait for me, if I could come and sell him the needed part. I agreed to meet in an hour or so.
As I hung up the phone, I became curious as to how he had found me, not at my home, but my mother’s house.

We finished lunch and I met the traveler and sold him the part he needed. As we were walking back to our cars I asked him how he had found me at my mothers house. This is what he told me.
He saw the dealership was closed and asked a worker at the Dairy Queen if they knew the auto dealer and where he lived. They gave him my phone number, which he called, but I was not there. They then gave him the general directions to my home. He drove into town and stopped at a convenience store on the main drag. He asked the convenience store owner if he knew where I lived. This is what the store owner said “ Well, he lives on down that street a ways behind the ball park, but he ain’t there, cause I saw him drive by a half hour ago and he usually has lunch at his mothers on Saturday”


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