Small Town Christmas

The first year I attended the Sebring Christmas parade, having spent the previous 10-15 years in Nashville, TN, I was appalled and slightly embarrassed by all of the rigamarole. Sure, it was cool that the kids got to march with their dance class or ride on a "float" but I had never envisioned "float" to be synonymous with SUV pulling hay trailor with some tinsel stapled to the side and hand-written signs announcing the company that was being advertised. This, however, is my 4th Christmas parade here and I absolutely love it. Last night my friend pulled up a lawn chair for me right in front of the police station and I sat, waiting expectantly for the small town extravaganza. I was not disappointed. Led by a screaming police car siren and the colorguard I stood reverently (thanks to the prompting of my friend who was raised in an era where not standing before the flag was taboo) and then sat back down to watch hometown creativity coming to life. The middle school DARE group shouted their motto to stay off drugs while grouping together in cliquish marching groups. The county commissioners waved from the back of convertibles donated for the occasion by the largest car salesman in town. The radio station (there's only one local station) float blew bubbles into the air (FL snow, I believe they were trying to simulate) and the local paper was led by 6 alpacas with reindeer antlers attached. The 4-H groups led well-brushed dogs and a wagon with bunnies in cages followed by a float with pigs. And, of course, every schools marching band was represented with dance teams and a couple of churches. The community church sported an amped up (in many ways?) music director singing carols with an electric guitar though I didn't see the church I saw last year with the giant white cross AND nativity on the trailer bed. A man dressed up quite elf-ishly with a guitar and amp on his back as he roller bladed the streets of downtown. All in all, it was wonderful. I can't imagine anything drawing community together more than homemade floats. Oh, and I forgot the many golf carts with strings of Christmas lights on them. It wouldn't be Christmas in FL without them. Where was my church? Well, as much as we're growing, we still haven't caught the "community spirit" that sets Sebring apart. We're kinda removed from the culture given our distance, and so we'll await another year to join in the festivities. So I just sat in my lawn chair with my sparkling Christmas vest on and watched my kids marching with their cheer team just as proud as pie (because that's what you say in small town parades). And then, in the dark, I walked two blocks by myself in the downtown to the post-parade party at the girls' gym. What a wonderful night!

A Real Town

Today, the best thing in the whole world happened. We got a bookstore. Books A Million opened today in all of its splendor and glory. It seems too good to be true. All of this time I've been taking deep meditative breaths to calm myself so that I can stay in this little town connected to the world of books by a tiny cable linking me to the glorious Amazon.com (please link from my site!), but now I can officially browse in person. I went in today, opening day, and felt that all was well with my soul. The little coffee bar sat off to the side and the rows and rows of new, non-dusty books brought color to my cheeks. The entire right hand side of the store (or at least 3/4 of it) was covered in children's books and an additional 4 aisles of children's books presented me with wonderful historical autobiographies like Who Was Johnny Appleseed? and other such books that every child needs to have. My youngest sat down and began reading immediately, carefully turning the pages of books we won't buy. My oldest browsed as intensely as her parents had taught her, reading story summaries and series openers, studying content and asking questions about classics like Black Beauty, The Hobbit, & The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Oh, life is good in the swamplands of Florida! Our new shopping center also has a crafts store, a shoe store, a discount clothing store (without many discounts), and a Panera Bread Company. I indulged in a Portobella and Mozzarella Panini that was to die for and how happy I was when my daughter was able to order an organic chocolate milk. Of course, now that we have "arrived" I can still order for less online and I probaby will. (I so enjoy being "surprised" by packages arriving at my doorstep!) I'll also frequent our local used bookstore where I typically find all kinds of sappy love stories begging me to read them. After all, I believe in giving mom & pop stores a lot of business. But occasionally it's nice to know that I can splurge and pretend that I am not living on the end of the earth, far removed from chain stores (or stores of any kind for that matter.) The other good thing that is happening around here is that our northerners are beginning to come back, meaning our roads will soon be crowded with people who shouldn't be on the road but are because they crave their own independence over any one else's safety. Whoops! I think I said the other "good" thing that is happening . . . well, SINCE the northerners are returning, our produce stand officially reopened today. As I drove down the road, my eldest daughter let out a "whoop!" for fresh produce. Ahh, my dear sweet darlin'!

So this is the news from Arbuckle Creek, where the population doubles when October rolls around, the community gathers for Bookstore openings, and children still watch for alligators in their backyards. (the local community paper -- 8 pages/month! -- told us that a 12 footer had been removed from our canals! Yikes!)

Dental Work

About 2 days ago I noticed my gums on one side of my lower jaw were swelling a bit. Typically I find that the waterpik takes care of getting out whatever food has slipped below the gums and everything settles down, but today, Saturday, I woke up with a swollen gland as well. Not good. I went to WebMD to self-diagnose and discovered it was most likely a dental abscess or the mumps. Being that I've been vaccinated against the mumps, I decided to call my dentist on a Saturday. Fortunately for me my dentist is my dad and is only an hour and a half away. Given the tooth that had started it all, he was pretty sure I would need a root canal and since I've never had one of those, I wasn't too excited about the prospects . . . especially on a Saturday. So the girls and I loaded up to go visit nana and grindaddy and they were psyched and I was . . . well, . . . not so psyched. So dad took me apart -- numbing my entire lower jaw (imagine what he did when I was a teenager giving him grief!!! just kidding . . . ) and taking x-rays which showed nothing. Then he decides to look in the filled cavity to see if perhaps something there would be able to be drained. After drilling half of my tooth to remove my very large filling, he discovers nothing new stumping him (and that's hard to do since he's been in practice over 30 years). He consults with another dentist in his building (also working on Saturday) and he too is stumped. So now I'm on antibiotics, hoping to rid my body of this crazy swelling. A part of me is wishing it might be mumps so I don't have to preach tomorrow, but that's a pretty lame request, isn't it? I really don't feel like suffering and all. The good part is that I got to spend some time with my family and we even got a day of homeschooling done at Nana's (they've had some time off since I've been away so we're playing catch up.) Here's hoping I heal quickly. DH insists I look like I have a goiter with this swollen gland (he's so romantic!)

Oh, and while I'm talking about my hometown, let me tell you that they've torn down all of their old schools and built humongous schools -- the elementary school looks like a fine hotel; the middle school looks like a junior college; and the high school looks like a full service college. It's unbelievable. It's also a bit uncomfortable for me. I am sure these are wonderful monuments of learning for the children in that county, but I can't help but think that two counties over, we do not have the money to establish such landmarks. And maybe that's OK. After all, we just converted the old Food Lion supermarket into the kindergarten learning center. We're "recycling" rather than "rebuilding" and there is something to be said for that too. FL is notorious for tearing down and building things that are bigger and better, but sometimes I wonder if bigger and newer IS necessarily better. Just something going on in my Arbuckle Creek-ish mind.

For this is the news from Arbuckle Creek, where the schools are still standing, the golf carts have headlights at night, and the women gossip excessively while watching their children in sports.

Hair and Small Town Connections

I got my hair cut today! For those of you who haven't seen me in awhile, I was wearing it long, but because of a bad highlighting job my hair was breaking all over the place so I fell in love with the new Katie Holmes bob and suddenly it's on my head. (to my friend Dixie: I really hope it's not a helmet style! You've got me paranoid about my own hair now!) Anyway, it took me a couple of years here before I trusted anybody to cut my hair. I was afraid I was going to get a beehive and, well, that's just not my style (but it works for our choral director). Last year I finally found just the person and when I walked in, she asked me a couple of questions and it turns out she had been one of my daughter's daycare workers when we had first moved here. Small town. I was talking to my secretary this morning who was raised in this little place and when I told her who cuts my hair she asks, isn't that the girl who married my friend so-and-so's brother? Turns out, she was right. Small town. I finish getting my haircut and treat myself to Arby's and while there I see our substitute musician (also a dentist's wife) and a member of my congregation and we strike up a really nice conversation. Small town. From there I went to the chiropractor's office (you know, my social hangout) and on the table next to mine (it's open adjusting) was the woman who works at my bank. We too struck up a nice conversation amidst the popping and cracking of our adjustments. Small town. I went over to the gym to pick up the girls and ran into an "occasional" church go-er who fell in love with my hair and then the coach stopped mid-sentence with 100 kids to compliment my hairstlyle. It felt good to be recognized.

In a small town, there's really nowhere you can go to "get away" from people except your own home. And really, unless you're mad at the world, that's not a bad thing. It's nice to be seen and to be known. We all crave that. Sure, there are some days we'd like anonymity, but that's what the internet is for. In the real world, it's nice to be identified. When I lived in the city I still yearned to be known and I was -- in specific places. But here it's nice to be known, to be "found" in the crevices -- in the potholes and in the corners, in the bank drive through and in the Dollar General and walking down the street in my own neighborhood. And this is the news from Arbuckle Creek, where all the women drive golfcarts, the men are blatant carnivores (EAT MORE BEEF!) and the children watch for alligators in their backyards.

I Just Don't Get It

I went for a walk this morning (please, applaud, it's true, I exercised!) in my neighborhood which is the golf course part of "town." It's a nice quiet place to walk -- usually a few bicycles or golf carts, but not much activity during the summer and no road noise. I started early since the FL heat has been miserable and walked toward one of the newer golf courses which has a health club with a pool that I've been considering joining. As I turn down the road leading to the health club, I notice a barrier. On the barrier is a typed sign stating: THE POOL AND HEALTH CLUB WILL BE CLOSED FROM JUNE 15 THROUGH SEPTEMBER 1. Now, I can understand closing down the golf course -- the FL heat is really unbearable and very few golfers are devoted enough to play past 8 AM. But the pool . . . .????? I just don't get it. Here's their chance to make TONS of money on the school kids off for the summer and looking for something/anything to do and they CLOSE the pool? But that's the way things work around here. Everything closes sometime between April and June and everything reopens between September and November. Sure, we have a ton of winter visitors who come for the fall/winter season to escape the freezing temperatures up north, but what about the rest of us who live here year round? Why do we get penalized? The produce stands shut down in the middle of fruit season? The pools close? Even the pizza restaurant takes a month or two off during the "slow" season? It is SO counter-intuitive to me, yet developers wonder why more families aren't buying up the new houses popping up around here. Hmmm . . . I wonder . . .

Well, that's the news from Arbuckle Creek where the women drive golf carts (with their dog on the seat next to them), the men are blatant carnivores (EAT MORE BEEF!) and the children watch for alligators in their backyards.