Three years ago today, I reformatted the hard drive on my loaner laptop, said an early morning adios to the small gathering of compatriots I had known almost my entire 7.5 year stint at the internet company where I worked, handed over my security badge to the guard at the front reception desk and walked out the double doors of my Pasadena cube farm job forever.
Sixteen days and 1300 miles later, while attempting to get settled in to my new life as a stay-at-home-Dad in the land of the waving wheat, I started YASTM with
this entry.
At the end of my first year here, I was
here.
At the end of my second year here, I was
here.
And now, an update from my opening post...
Wheat fields and cows pastures as far as the horizon line reveals. There are a few more housing developments that have popped up around the outskirts of town, a new WalMart Supercenter is up, it's 24-hour parking lot lights polluting the pure black of the surrounding evening sky and the GM dealership that in the southern section of town has relocated even further south of town.No mountains to tell me which way is north. No beach awaiting me at the end of the 10 freeway. No King Taco at 2 a.m. if I so desire. The Taco Bell in town in open 'til midnight, but authentic street tacos al pastor are still sadly lacking from my life.Main Street shuts down around 4 p.m. Nothing opens on Sunday until after church services are over (and even then, for limited hours).A few eating joints in town open up for a few hours to cater to the after-church feed lot crowd, but mostly Main Street is abuzz with golden stillness. Of course, Walmart has always got it's freak on.40 minute drive to the nearest McDonald's.People in town are just now finally beginning to realize that our new McDonald's is just that...a McDonald's. Lines are still long in the drive through and their $1 DVD rental booth is rumored to be making a dent in our one and only local video rental shop.We are talking, out there. Still feels that way...
Out here. Yep
Just out. Say it, brother.
I've moved my family from the urban sprawl of LA and millions and millions of people, to a wheat farming community of 4380 people.We must be closing in on close to 4,500 citizens by now.Hiho, hiho, onto year 4 we go...
5 comments:
Congrats on sticking with both the blogging and the small town.
Re: "Of course, Walmart has always got it's freak on." Oh, heck yeah!
I'm happy to have been here, reading your funny and occasionally touching musings for much of the past three years.
BTW, you sound a bit wistful about all the new stuff coming to town. Or are you simply observing?
And are your girls acquiring Okie accents?
"Wistful" about our town growth?
Good word. Pensive, melancholy -- all pretty much sums it up.
Our older, smaller Walmart was more than tolerable, as was having to drive 40-minutes for a Happy Meal.
If I were to run for office in my small town, my platform would be "status quo works for me."
As far as the girls getting their Okie p-funk speak on, I'm doing my best to keep their dialects as generically broadcasty as possible, but when I find myself kickin' into local-yokal at times (it's so easy), the pressure lifts and we all explode into a rousing round of "Surrey with the fringe on top."
i hope that you all pick up a regional sound . . . the loss of our regional differences in speech, dress, food and the like is one of the great tragedies of the homogenization of our society. wal-mart, MTV, cable news, mcdonald's etc etc etc etc ad nauseum: the worst part of all of that is that we're becoming the same and one town looks-sounds like another from coast to coast.
One word...sprawl.
Post a Comment