Small Town USA

I have lived in many small towns in my life. I wouldn’t say the town I will be moving into a week from Saturday is the smallest. The smallest was probably East Brookfield, Massachusetts…although it did have a blinking yellow light. Upsala doesn’t have a traffic light anywhere to be seen.

Here are a few things that tell me I will be the resident of a small town:

•      I can get a library card without proof of address. For one, the part-time librarian’s husband is the maintenance guy at camp. She had already met me and just told me to bring in proof of address when I permanently moved.
•      The next time I went into the library, I presented Wanda (the fulltime librarian) with my card. She scanned it and said, “Oh! You’re Melissa!” I confessed that I was (the TX plates on the car is rather a giveaway). I am no longer surprised that Wanda knew all about me and my love for reading even before I accepted the job. I have since learned that Wanda is information central. If you want to know anything about anyone in Upsala, ask Wanda.
•      Anyone can find you. Although I don’t think I will be attending, I have visited Covenant Community church in Upsala with Andrea (the girl I’m living with right now) the past couple of Sundays. I didn’t fill out a visitor card or anything…everyone knew who I was. And today, the pastor of that church called me at work to see if he could visit and answer any questions I might have. I think it’s a little disconcerting that everyone in town has my number…and knows where to find me.
•      There is one gas station, one café, everyone has a PO box because there is no mail delivery, no traffic lights and you get directions by people telling you to turn at such-and-such church or so-and-so’s house. Thankfully, there aren’t a lot of places I have to find because I don’t know so-and-so.

On a further note, can I just say that the Great River Regional Library system (which Upsala is a part of) is the best system I’ve seen since I lived in Connecticut. It has 32 libraries. I can go to any of them. I can put holds on any item located at any of them and they will be delivered to Upsala. And, on their website I can make a list of all the things I want. When I’m ready for them, I hit reserve and I’ll have them in a week or less (if no one else is in line before me). Libraries and lists…there’s a combination you can’t beat!