Main Street, on the way from the post office where I pick up mail once a week or so. If you blink, you miss Port Orford.
We could spend hours catching up with people at the post office. You find out who died, who is being visited by whom, how many speeding tickets were handed out last week.
Did you know about those women on the beach?
No. What happened?
They got caught in a sneaker wave and pulled out to sea.
No!
They found one. They're looking for the other. Both elderly. One lives right by you.
Who? Her? She's local. She should have known about the waves.
Yes.
Tragic.
I share: we are redoing two bathrooms.
What? Didn't you remodel five years ago? Yes. Now, one of them has had a leak that caused a major problem and...
And the other one?
It never got remodeled. So...
Poor us, I go. All these expenses at a time when the house is worth less than we paid for it. Yeah!
What happened to that teacher at your school?
More sharing.
So, you are not cooking with all that mess at your house?
I'm cooking. I'm sick of cooking three hot meals a day; but, if I don't, we eat junk.
I saw you the other day at Crazy's.
I shouldn't have fish and chips. No. But I just can't resist it.
How are they doing?
They are now open again all week.
Are you still in Bandon's Writers' Group?
Yes. On Mondays. You write also, yes?
I used to. Well, gotta go. I have to run to Coos.
We were there yesterday to order tiles.
Tiles? Where are you putting tiles?
In the bathrooms!
Oh. Well. Give my best to your husband.
Yeah! Thanks.
Great! See you!
See You.
Life, Death, Remodeling, Food, Hobbies, Other Neighbors: Enough news for a week.
31 comments:
Love the building with THEATRE on it! And, do you carry a tape recorder with you? Great conversations, just the lazy, simple best kind. Connecting kind.
If you blink, you miss Port Orford.
Huh! The town north of you, Langlois, where I live is so small nobody stops. That port office conversation would be outside so someone else could get in to their PO box. And Port Orford's speed limit is so slow people HAVE to blink several times to drive through. Here they barely slow down.
When will YOU stop in to Wild Rivers Wool and see my work?
So true of small town USA!
My post office is the same in my little town (population 2,600), except we've grown so big so fast that many of don't know each other; we just shoot the breeze with strangers...
smiles. that was the post office of my childhood...
Shooting the breeze--chewing the fat--it's all small town enjoyment!
I love and loathe the gossipnessI know that isn't a real word but it works here for me) of small towns. It keeps you feeling cared for but also like living in a goldfish bowl. The jury is out about which is best in my head.
So true! When I lived in a small town, the PO was one hub for information. And the dump was the other!
How nice to be in such a small place that this happens. I lived in two very large cities and never ran into anyone who knew me for the last five years. Now that I'm back home, I see people all the time that has these types of tidbits. It's nice.
Those sneaker waves! They scare me.
That's a wide road for so few vehicles .... I'd forgotten how spaced out everything was in America. Nice post :o)
So funny, you are, Rosaria...thanks for the running commentary...so nice to be allowed in on the local chat! Thanks for sharing...wish I had a local spot like that...I'm quite disconnected, anonymous...which is why blogging is such a lovely thing. We can reach our hands around the whole world. :)
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I love this post very much!
I’d like to live in one place long enough to have a similar conversation on local issues...
Instead, redoing our home is still my full-time endeavour and the only thing I have in the vicinity, (approximately 2 km away from where I live), are the garbage cans; around them I usually don’t meet anyone for a chat!
I remember my home town where we met at the Post Office. Now I know no one but do sometimes talk to strangers if there is a line.
Growing up in the country, mail was delivered only a couple times per week. We all gathered and waited for goodies in the mail. It was a great time to socialise.
Hope you are well. one love.
When I was 8 or 9 we vacationed at uncle Fred in Maxville, Ontario, about 1600 people. Four times a day, after each morning and afternoon trains from Montreal and Ottawa, the whole village gathered at the station then at the post office.
Us kids listened to the yarns told by the old timers. I guess some must have been tall tales...but what fun we had.
Sounds comforting and nice and perhaps a bit nosey too?
cool rosaria. i only go the post office to send mails, not to chitchat with people. i don't know anyone there. :(
When I read the title, I thought the post would be about the legendary quality of service at the Postal Service. And about employees "going postal."
Instead, a delightful reflection on life in a small town. Distinctly I remember. Like potsoc.
Hello = Thanks for visiting my blog and I've enjoyed the return visit to yours. You are a gifted writer. Having just read some books set in Oregon, I enjoy seeing photos of your area and reading about life there.
I am aghast at only getting your mail once a week!
Ours plops through the letterbox every day!
Nuts in May
Wonderful conversations and sound a lot like what I run into at Walmarts ( our social gathering place). Small towns are great huh.
We have similar conversations at Wal-Mart, local grocery store, bank. since we have mail delivery, my visits to post office are infrequent.
Clarification:
Some of us have P.O. boxes for the convenience of having a safe place to store mail while we go on with our lives, traveling, leaving when we want, returning when we want. The post office delivers on my street. Those of you who have lived in rural places may know about having boxes at the Post Office.
Do I want my mail more often than once a week? Not really. We pay all our bills on line, email friends and relatives, and have no need to check our mail box at all. We do receive some surprises now and then, so having an actual postal reference is good.
For deliveries through UPS we have to use our regular address. Here, everyone is cool with that.
Have a lovely weekend wherever you are. It is sunny here, and I plan on being outdoors, fighting with weeds, and inhaling cool ocean breezes. My gardens are calling.
Thanks for the visit!
I read this intently, as though I were reading a novel, a poem, a bible of sorts. It is what we live. It is how life goes. It has great significance, and none at all.
Loved this for exactly what it is. Best to you with your bathroom and life and death. Ha!
xo
erin
Amazing! Talk in an American small town is very similar to that in a French small town.
love the small town talk
.
i dip
the tip of my fingers
in the river of life
and rejoice
in its smooth flow
.
This made me chuckle :)
I love the photo... it's always interesting to see other corners of the world.
Converstations are the same all over the world :)
thank you for all that you share.
x Robyn
Love these vignettes!
Small town life...but there is something so wonderful about it.
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