Quaint

Drove thru a quaint little town a few days ago.  Must now be less than 1000 residents, but in a farming region, so I would guess that most of the people that call it home don't actually live in town.  Still.

One of the larger stores is the local sporting goods outlet.  You can rent your tux for your prom or wedding there, buy your new deer rifle or the ammo for it there, buy work boots, or sit around bs'ing with the good ole boys.  The stores name?  He-Mart.

Next door to the He-Mart is the local movie theater.  Now showing: Inglorious Bast$$$s.  Really, that is exactly what the sign said.

And I almost forgot: "Wally's Market - consistently low prices every day"  Maybe they were consistent; consistently about double the price at WalMart last time I checked.  But the nearest WalMart that I was aware of was over 100 miles away.

Half the Post office is now a local bank.  The Main entrance leads into the bank.  You wanted to mail a letter?  Oh, you want the side entrance.

Met some really nice and helpful folks there.  Really, a nice town.  If I thought I could find steady work there I would have tried to stay, but I really don't want to be in Ag related work, no I really don't.  But it is good to see that towns like this still exist.  Places are known by the name of the original owner.  "Oh, that's Bjornson's place.  I don't recall who lives there now, is it Jackson?  Don't remember.  They have 600 acres in potatoes."

Half the buildings on Main Street are empty.  I didn't notice that any were boarded up, but looking thru the windows you can see that the roofs are leaking, ceilings collapsing.   It is sad that small town America has to die like this, but I don't know what anyone can do about it.  They are very traditional.  When I asked why they did something a certain way, I was told that is the way it has always been done.  When I pointed out that there might be a different way I was told that the old way works ok so there is no need to look for a better way.  And that was from a farmer with a college degree.  So be it.  And I liked his bumper sticker, he was laughing at me as he showed it to me: "My Tractor costs more than your sports car".  I didn't ask him how much he owed on his tractor.  The 5 that I saw were all gigantic, steering by bending in the middle, quad tires on each corner, GPS controlled to within an inch.  You tell it what field you are working in and it will run the planter down the exact same rows as it it will run the harvester down in 6 months.  No steering, the 'driver' sits there and watches the tractor drive itself.  Damn.  But imagine what happens if the satellite signal goes down.  It does happen in bad weather, then the operator drives it back to the edge of the field, gets in his truck and goes home.  Farming still depends on the weather.