11.
“I moved from a very large city to a town with a population of less than 1,000 people. I was shocked that everyone there knew each other, and most were related. Any news was the talk of the day. If someone had a baby, that baby was the most famous person in the town that day.”
“The day I moved in, I had no less than 60 people pull over, introduce themselves, and offer help. I had at least a dozen people bring food to me. Of course, they already knew me by name because my landlord lived in the town and told everyone he rented the place to me.
The day after I moved in, there was a funeral for someone who lived in the town. Every store (all three of them, including the gas station) closed for the day, the bar opened at six o’clock, and everyone in town stopped by.
But it was so damn boring — living in a small town is truly akin to Groundhog Day. Once, an older lady burned a pie and caught her stove on fire. She put it out with a fire extinguisher, so there was no damage, and the oven still worked. But for three days, I was involved in conversations about how ‘Mrs. M must have dementia. She’s normally a great baker. She won the bake-off a few years back. Her kid needs to leave college and move back home to take care of her, etc.’
The lady was 65 years old and fell asleep. The incident was nothing, but there wasn’t anything to do other than drink and gossip.”