How Good We Have It
Author: Bill Garwood
HOW GOOD WE HAVE IT
In small towns, everybody knows everybody. This can be good and bad, if you do something bad the whole town finds out soon! However, if you know most everyone around your small town, you are never alone. People wave to you just walking down the street, they may stop and ask you how you are if you have been sick, they will tell you all about the cold they have. A short walk can become an hour’s marathon. You do learn all about the folks of your town, whether you want to or not.
In a big city “unless” you go out of your way to talk to someone, they won’t respond. Even then you will get a vacant stare like “Why are you talking to me? I don’t know you; you could be planning to murder me”. In a small town, most everyone looks you in the eye when they speak to you. A city? Those folks won’t look at you at all, never mind actually look you in the eye.
I see every day around here, people stopping to help one another. In a city if you need help with something you have to hire it done. City folks most times don’t even know their neighbors, AT ALL! They hide in their little apartments, or big brownstone buildings watching out their windows “from behind their curtains” to watch the world go by. I have needed help with moving things several times, (hey, I’m old, ok?) I even had a guy stop behind my truck where I was trying to lift a massive, heavy box of apples into my truck. He jumped out and asked me if I needed a hand, and he helped me load the box. Good neighbors are all around us in small towns.
Folks driving around town will wave at a second’s notice. People in a city will stare straight ahead, not daring to look out their windows! (Somebody might want something EEK.) City dwellers are a sad lot, they think because they have money or social standing they can’t trust others. Caution is fine as long as you don’t take it to the extreme and hide from the world. Most times trust must be earned, and many times that takes a leap of faith. The old saying is: “Trust, but verify”. Although, if you do an online search on everyone around, you have serious problems.
In “our” small town Spring has sprung, get outside and enjoy each other’s company as well as do some yard work. That rat’s nest you have been neglecting all year NEEDS some love! I really need to train my Squirrels to take care of the lawn, it IS their carpet they should do some of the work around here. Enjoy our spring folks and celebrate the small-town feeling. Remember: the crazy people in the park, MIGHT be on their cell phone and not just talking or screaming at the empty air.
