Rural Living

There are big cities and small towns. And then there are rural communities like mine--Angier, North Carolina. 

We’ve gotten a bit used to the idea that almost all of the restaurants and cafes close at two o’clock in the afternoon. If you’re hungry and want to stop in for a bite at three o’clock, you’re plumb out of luck. Some of the restaurants open again at five o’clock for the dinner crowd, but a lot of them don’t. This is true laid-back country living. Our best guess is that everyone takes a siesta in the afternoon because it’s obvious they aren’t serving food. You want a burger, go to McDonald’s, they’re always open.

Another way we can tell we’re in rural America is that there are fields alongside every road, all of which are in different stages of being plowed in anticipation of the growing season—mostly tobacco. You see John Deere equipment everywhere—on lawns, in fields, on the roads, everywhere. It’s evident no one here uses a push mower to mow their lawn; everyone rides a tractor.

Looks like the field across from our house will be one of the last to get plowed as it’s still a large expanse of green. They raised tobacco last year, what it’ll be this year is anyone’s guess. I’ll keep you updated on the planting progress. 

Rural living really hit home today when we stopped at a drugstore in the little town of Coats just south of Angier. Unlike Angier with a human population of five thousand--horses, cows and goats up the population number considerably--Coats has a population half that size. (But they do have a farm that sells delicious homemade ice cream!) Coats has two stop lights and if you blink, you’ll miss the town entirely. Coming home today from the bigger city of Dunn, (pop. 9500), we needed a product, okay Fixodent for dentures, and since we were driving right by the Coats drugstore, we figured that was as good a place as any to stop.

I entered the store, found what I wanted, and since there was only one tube on the shelf, asked the clerk if she had more in the back. She said, “No, we only stock one tube at a time, but if you want more than one, call us and we’ll order two or three for you and get it shipped here.”

After paying for the one tube, I walked out of the store laughing and shaking my head. What drugstore EVER carries only ONE of a product? Stewart and I laughed all the way home.

We definitely live in the country. Others can have the glitzy cities, I'll take our one-tube town any day.

Quote of the day: The country life is to be preferred, for there we see the works of God; but in cities little else but the works of men. And the one makes a better subject for contemplation than the other.  William Penn