Life In a Small Town

January 18, 2007

I live outside the "city" limits of an itty-bitty town. Itty-bitty as in a smaller population than the public high school I attended, back before time began. When we first moved here, I was all Cute Little Tourist - "Oooh! Honey! A tractor pull!!! Can we go? Huh? Huh?"

The phone company has free popcorn every Friday and we're encouraged to pop in and grab a bite, even if we don't have any business to do there.

The hardware store has large-stuff storage space across the street in a warehouse that shares space with I-don't-know-what-else. Need a half dozen bags of soil? Sure, just pay here, drive into the warehouse across the street and load up your pickup.

Okay, this may be how the world is supposed to work but unfortunately my experience in the more metro areas is that if it isn't nailed down, expect someone to walk off with it. So, THIS is what life's like in Mayfield, eh? (Give yourself thousand brownie points if you got that reference....)

I've not been posting much, mainly because I expect it will take about half a second for you to say, "Sheesh, another Look-At-The-Winter-Weather post?" Well, this week, in addition to Weather, we've had a canine visitor. Bee-yoo-ti-ful lab-looking dog, very friendly. The dog was also VERY cold and VERY hungry. He had a tag, but the phone # on the tag has been disconnected. After three of the coldest days/nights of the season, I finally figured out how to do some small town thinking.

First off, I scanned last year's phone book for the number on the dog's tag. I found the number (under "S") after about 3 minutes of reading the phone book. Told you it's a small town. Then I looked in this year's phone book to see if the person with that number had just changed numbers. No dice.

Then I called the local phone company. Here's how it went (edited because you know how I get):

Me: "We've found a lost dog and he has a tag, but the number's disconnected. I looked it up in last year's book and found it belonged to So and So. I'm hoping that you can tell me if that person has a new number or if someone else got the number. I realize you can't give me the info, but maybe you can contact them?"

Cool Lady at the Phone Company: "Ohhhhh, what kind of dog is it? Really? Is it skinny? Sounds like it hasn't been taken care of. Just a minute, let me check.... yes, So and So used to have that number but it was given to someone else after they moved. Now it's disconnected again. Give me your number and I'll see what I can do. Gosh, sounds like a great dog, but I've already got 6, so I can't take him in."

Me: "Thank you so much! My number is 1234.... " (we don't have to state the prefix here because, well, you know. Small town.)

Ten minutes later, Cool Lady calls back: "Hi, Joey used to have that number but it was disconnected when he moved back in with his mom and dad. They're just down the street from you. I talked to his mom, she's not sure if he's home or at work now, but mom and dad's number is 6789 and you can give him a call."

I called. Joey was there. Said he'd be right over to get him.

That's just COOL.

Labels: babble

permalink 2 Comments:

At 1/20/2007 8:56 PM,  Otter Babbled Back:  

Ohhhh....you have a local phone office? Cool! Sounds downright uptown to me!
Someone I know of in my town died today. Reason I know that is cuz the power went out this morning and it had something to do with the phone lines too....cuz I am getting someone else's phone calls. Well, my phone is ringing when theirs does, but all I can do is listen in on the conversation...over the dial tone. Well, I heard two names and knew it was brothers. Called another friend and found out what happened.
I am just glad my line isn't crossed with one of my neighbors, like it usually does. Her voice could put hog callers to shame.
Cyndye B

At 1/27/2007 10:18 AM,  sheep#100 Babbled Back:  

Now, that is a small town.
Does Mrs Olsen work the switchboard?

Handwashing socks - nah - that would take time away from actually knitting them - or spinning some yarn!

Thanks for visiting.

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