Living in a Small Town

I'm still adjusting to life in a small town and it never ceases to amaze me. Yes, I know I moved from one small town to another, but for some reason Eastford seems much 'smaller' than Andover - despite the fact that it's physically much bigger. I never had such small town dealings living in Andover. Here are some examples of what life is like now . . .

Last summer I made a call to the town tax accessor. Boy did I dread making that call as I knew nothing good could come of it. Well, I had the pleasure of talking to the most delightful lady, who not only felt sorry for me, but did her very best to help out. Six months later she remembered me and when the new mill rate was announced, she made a personal call to me just to give me the good news about our personal property tax bill. Talk about personalized service.

This past weekend I visited the library for the first time. I walked in the door and found the librarian sitting at the desk. I announced, "This is my first visit to the Eastford library" and the librarian said, "I know." Can you imagine that she recognizes every single person that comes in? We had a pleasant little chat and when I wanted to check out a book, only to realize that it will be due when we'll be away, she said, "No problem, I'll just make a note that you will be late returning the book." Imagine the Hartford Public LIbrary 'making a note' that you will be late? What a riot.

Now it gets even better. While I was at the library, Karlo was across the street at the hardware store. Since we were going 'downtown' we decided to kill more than one bird with one stone. Karlo was buying some lumber and the salesman wanted to know how he was going to get it home. Karlo pointed to the VW and said he would tie the wood to the roof. The last time we were there to get wood we had my car and the trailer. Now mind you, we've only been to the hardware store a half a dozen times in the last year. The guy says, "Oh is this car your work horse and the Saab your every day car?" The guy REMEMBERED the make of Karlo's other car? You have got to be kidding me. Next time we should drive the bike just to confuse him.