That Townsend Smile
Author: John Larsen
THAT TOWNSEND SMILE By John M Larsen "Hmmm." I thought, "That person just smiled and waved their hand at me."
Now that is nice when it happens, but I do not know why some total stranger in an oncoming car, would smile and wave.
It was 2019 and I had just recently moved to Townsend from Marsing Idaho, a town of about 1100 people. I had been there for 25 years and no one would smile and wave unless they were a personal friend and or acquaintance.
Another peculiar thing is if you want to cross the street in the middle of the block, usually an oncoming car will stop and let you cross over. People will hold the door open when you want to enter a business or grocery store. People will usually smile when you approach them. I am sure the people of Townsend are used to this behavior and have grown accustomed to this courtesy and probably tend to take it for granted but, it seems rare compared to other parts of the country.
The subject of the unique Townsend spirit came up at a recent Wednesday morning prayer breakfast held at the Mint Cafe. This is a weekly interdenominational get-together and there were members from 4 different churches present. The subject came up and all agreed that the Townsend residents were friendly, helpful and generous in donations for whatever worthy cause seemed appropriate.
I had noticed when I came to Townsend there was a good spirit in the community. I had 4 children living in Montana at the time, two of my daughters and their mother were living in Townsend and they also agreed that, for the most part, there was a loving friendly spirit in our town.
We might pause and ask ourselves, "What's a good spirit?". It can come in the form of a beautiful sunset or the reaction with someone you love. It may be over a church service where there is peace and forgiveness. In the case of Townsend, the good spirit seems to guide most residents toward positive activities.
On the topic of bad spirits, I get a depressed feeling just driving into a place like Portland Oregon. It seems the people are like apples, in that, if you pack them too close together, they start to rot. There were a lot of evil spirits involved in the prison ministry I had for 30 years so it was good to leave them behind and go to a climate with a peaceful sweet spirit.
There will always be some angry people and some malcontents who are never happy, but, they are far outnumbered by a lot of good things and good people for a town this size. Townsend had a music day where any church who wanted to do so, could send a group to sing or play. This activity has gotten sick from the covid epidemic, but I hear there are plans for a comeback. There are a lot of good things available in Townsend such as gyms to work out in, and many hobby-gift stores. Unique to a city of this size. There are several Alcohol Anonymous groups. There is a Celebrate Recovery group that is active in the city for those who need help with some form of addiction.
There is power in a smile. I experienced this sort of gradually. I had a habit of walking around with my head down with no particular issues present but friends would say,
"What are you mad about?"
I would look up in surprise and say ;
" Nothing! Do I seem mad?"
But evidently, I had gotten into the habit of walking around looking grouchy. I found that this was a great habit to get out of. When I realized this I began to make a conscious effort to smile when I saw someone coming. Guess what? They would smile back. It seems to work like this; When you make eye contact with someone and they frown or give no reaction at all this comes off as a form of rejection. On the other hand, if they smile back at you, it implies they like what they see so you feel accepted.
You will notice that if someone new does not wave and smile back at you, then they often have out-of-state license plates. Remember to keep a good thing going so smile and wave at strangers. I bet they will smile back. Let's keep Townsend a great place to live.
