And That's Why

I grew up in a small town. Well, actually, I grew up outside a small town or, as my wife loves to remind me, out in the middle of freakin' nowhere.

I'm not lying here: I remember once in high school we played an away game at Quinlan and all of us were amazed at how big a city it was.

As a kid, I hated it. I couldn't wait to get out of there and move off to the big city. My parents love to joke that as soon as I got my diploma, I hopped in a car as quick as I could and sped off to college. I think I was in the dorms before they were officially open.

After college, I moved to the big city where I hung out with other big city folks and tried to be all trendy. Then I got married, moved back to a small town, where I have to admit, I thoroughly enjoy life.

Of course, thanks to Twitter, Facebook and the blogosphere, I get to live the big city life vicariously through my friends.

Occasionally, one of those friends will ask me just what keeps me in small town America. It's tough to explain to anyone who hasn't lived that life.

It's just different.

Perfect example happened tonight when I got home from work only to realize I'd left my laptop at the office, meaning that I had to load up the kids (because it was the wife's girls night out) and trek back through the Friday afternoon "I want to get the heck home and start my three-day weekend" traffic to the office.

I know, this doesn't make that small town life sound intriguing, but stick with me on this one.

On the way back, I found my way blocked by a pretty hefty tree limb that had fallen across the road thanks to one of those inconvenient afternoon storm cells that get Pete Delkus to roll up his shirtsleeves.

As I pulled to the side of the road to get out and see what I could do about the limb, the local mechanic was passing by as well. He jumped out of his truck, we manhandled the limb off the road and both jumped back into our vehicles with a hearty handshake and a few well wishes.

I'm not trying to throw out stereotypes here, but if that had happened while I was living in the big city, I'd probably have been rear-ended for stopping to avoid the limb, honked at and give the bird by plenty of passer-by drivers and I'm pretty darn sure I'd had to lug that limb off the road myself.

Do I miss my Chinese takeout? You bet.

But I'll take the trade off.