Reflections on Small Town life

This posting is all about aspects of a small town. Small town life is pretty great in many regards. #1 positive for me is no traffic. The most car's I've waited for at a stop sign is 4, and I guess that must have been rush hour. The other positive is it feels very safe. It probably feels more safe than it really is. People don't lock their cars, or homes. They leave their purses in the car, and their tools out. Some people don't even take their key's out of their car. Gabe remembers these things from growing up in Danville Vermont but it's all new for me. I still can't leave things unlocked, or the key's in the car, and I doubt I'll ever get there with my past and being from the city. Feeling like nothing bad can happen get's people into trouble here though. There are still drug addicts, people with nothing to lose, and people who have nothing at all. I know because that's who ends up in my office. Since we've been here I've had one client who left her purse in the car, and came back to find cash missing, and her medication gone. Not the purse though, chances are the purse might show up later and she could track the thief down, or at least I assume that's why the purse was left. I also had a client tell me a horror story of being asleep in her bed while a robber broke in and riffled through her belongings in her bedroom drawers before leaving with nothing. So these are some of the reasons that I still lock the doors, and keep my belongings close to me. However despite these few stories I must say the crime is low. When the police report is printed in the paper it's laughable. My fellow clinician and I sit and read them around the office and joke about how funny it is. She's also from a city and recently moved here, so we really get a kick out of Joe Shmo calling the police because someone's car has been parked on his street too long. Or because someone's carbon monoxide detector was going off when it really just needed the battery changed. Really we love it though after living in a city where people are assaulted and murdered. There are several other things that are nice about living in a small town, for instance the stars are as bright as I think they can get, and it's quiet, so quiet that you can hear the quiet. Everybody waves in Haines, driving on the road or walking down the street. It's weird not too. I remember when we opened our bank account. I had set aside a whole hour to do the task thinking this would leave time to grab a bite to eat too. Well no, after you've told your story to the bank workers, joked around, gone over every paper in detail, and chosen your checks it's about an hour and a half process. However the upside is we know Jennifer at the bank, and we can wave every time we go in. And when those checks don't come in the mail, you can call her up, and she remembers you. Everything is personal, which is good and bad. I went to buy candy at the grocery store today. Of course the checker had to comment on my purchase of 3 different types of candy. Like I don't feel bad enough already. But like I said, everything is personal. People like to tell you how it is here, they like to give you lot's of information sometimes to the degree that it's a huge waste of time. They like to tell you what your doing wrong, and what your doing right, where to watch out for bears, and their opinion on Haines weather. That's the other part, everyone has a different opinion. For instance Bears, some say 'no big deal', 'they'll stay away from you'. Then some say, ' you better get a dog, that's the only way to not see a bear when your hiking'. Then some say, ' I never go ..... without a weapon'. So what do you do, well we got a dog, but not a weapon, then' well watch our ass and maybe have bear mace. At the end of the day everybody's looking out for each other but you have to figure out what works for you. After we were here for a while people started to ask us how long we were staying, when we said we were here for the time being, they ask more. 'Where do you live?' 'What do you do?' 'What's your name?' All questions I was told from a young age not to tell to strangers. There's a different kind of sense here which I reflected with my mother-in-law recently. I was comparing it to Hawaii where we were this summer. Any kind of island fever, or feelings of isolation that were in Hawaii are here ten fold. People here do whatever they want. It doesn't matter if the shop is open from 9-5, you just learn that sometime between 12 and 1 Johnny is going to be out having lunch, and it's too bad if you planned otherwise. Because Johnny owns the shop, and he's the only one with a shop like that in town. There isn't a great deal of accountability here, people are successful because they do good work, or their trusted in town, but at the end of the day they make their own rules. People don't communicate as well because of these same reasons, and what's the rush anyway if it doesn't get done today, it will probably get done tomorrow and that's just as good as today. There's no rush, and the only priority is going home at the end of the day. My theory is that the isolation creates a different sense of reality for people, it's partially a lack of accountability but it's also their sense of priorities, and a lack of the hussle and bussle of the city. There's no competition, and it makes you wonder if that's better or worse. I guess you could argue either way, but it seems like that in general it takes the sting out of the work day to feel like everything will get done... when it get's done. People seem generally more happy and they laugh and wave at each other, and generally value each other whether your gone for lunch or not. People value your services enough that it doesn't matter, because without you they would be without. Things get more meaningful when you realize how close you are to being without. When you see that costco order after not having been to a costco for months it looks pretty good. It makes you value your neighbors more, and the things you do have, and as frowned on as that is in our modern world I think it's healthy.