Saturday, May 24, 2008

SMALL TOWN LIFE

I wish I had taken my camera to lunch today. Just when I think I'm adjusting to small town life here among our population of 933 ....

My parents are here for a visit, so we wanted to go out to lunch together. There are four restaurants in town - one is a fast-food restaurant, one is a pizza delivery place, one is a family-owned Americana grill, and one is a Mexican restaurant. We opted for Americana cuisine, but found that they were closed so that they could go watch the high school girls' softball championship game. Hmmm. Okay, that's a little hokie, but whatever. On to the Mexican restaurant across the street from the high school.

Shortly into our burritos and enchiladas, we noticed people starting to line up along the street in front of the high school. Not a lot of people, but they were noticeably lined up. Then we heard a fire truck coming, sirens blaring, and the little line of people began to cheer. The fire truck turned into the high school. It was followed by a police cruiser, siren wailing. The line of people continued to cheer. At this point, I was thinking this was a pretty pitiful Memorial Day Parade. Then we saw a school bus full of high school girls' softball players, followed by cars full of parents all honking their horns and cheering. The fire company and the police were actually escorting the (I'm assuming) victorious high school softball team back to the school. And people actually lined up on the street to greet them with cheers and clapping.

Right about now, my friend Tanya, who grew up in a small town like the one where I live now, is probably wondering why I think this is so weird.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ha! Where I grew up we did that for midget football. Only a city person would think there was a Memorial day parade on a Saturday. That would be more of a Memorial day weekend parade. Just sayin...

Kara said...

Ahhh yes, small town life. Where we used to live everything closed down on prom night so everyone could go view the red carpet entrance of the couples! I had never seen anything like it before:)

Life in the Crazy Lane said...

Ha! Yes, Joe, I knew Memorial Day wasn't on Saturday. I just couldn't come up with any other explanation for the spontaneous gathering of people along the side of the road.

natasha said...

my favorite part is the restaurant closed to watch the game. classic.

Tanya said...

LOL! Yes, you're right. I read this entire post wondering what the problem was. You mean East Coast towns DON'T roll up the sidewalks every Friday night for football games?? How do you show your support?? :) People think the movie Friday Night Lights was just a movie. No, no, people. It's real life. And Karen, my dear, you are living it.