Small Towns and Newspapers

The place where I live is just one of the many things that has changed in my life in the last couple of years.  I left the big city and the beltway and moved to a very small town in the remote county where my mother grew up.  I love it here.  It's home.  It's beautiful.  It's a place where I can be myself and do the things that make me happy.  It's a place where people bond together into a community, and care about each other. 

It's a fantastic place to live for so many reasons; but it is small!  For example, it's so rural that we don't have mail carriers to deliver the mail.  Each small town has a post office and you have to stop there to get your mail.  Now this isn't all bad.  When you stop at the post office, you have a chance to run into a friend or acquaintance that you haven't seen in a while.  When you stop, you can chat with any number of people who have also stopped for their mail.  The post office is somewhat of a social center, particularly when the postmaster is as friendly as our postmistress.  In some ways, it's part of the heartbeat of our community.  You can also tell we're a small rural community by reading our newspaper.  It comes out weekly, and is delivered through the post office.  The newspaper carries stories of interest to the community; things like local sports updates, articles about the farmer's market, and ads from local government candidates, as well as tips on how to deal with an early frost.  Of course there are also the obligatory legal notices and a section of classified advertisements. 

Today, we went to the post office to get our mail.  As we were chatting with the postmistress, I gandered through the paper (to see if there was a story about the football team...there was).  Here's a classified ad that caught my eye, and caused me to laugh out loud:

PAY FOR MY DUI

(name deleted) is asking for donations to help pay his find for a DUI.  On August 21, he came down to see the Rodeo, he slept in the back of his truck at his nephew's sawmill.  The next morning, he couldn't resist doing a couple of doughnuts, the cops were called, and he got a DUI.  You can send donations to:  (address and phone number deleted).  Any help is appreciated.  Thanks.

I was so tickled that I was almost tempted to send a buck....almost, but not quite!