Stateside

Thursday, November 16, 2006

Small Town Life

Durango is a town of about 15,000 people, more if you count the outskirts. I am really enjoying the differences of small town life versus the big modern city I'm from. The parking meters only take coins, and a quarter gets you an entire half hour on main street and 45 minutes on the parallel streets. I work in a restaurant and most of the people that come in are regulars and they all know each other. Not only that when you are new they immediately know that and ask you your life story. I went to the used book store. The lady said "I haven't seen you before, are you a student?" This is a common question as Durango is home to Fort Lewis College. "No," I always answer, "I moved here from Portland." That is never enough though, people want to know why I moved here. So I have started to head them off at the pass. "No, not a student," I answer the book store lady, "I moved here for love." Her face lights up like the trees on mainstreet the day after thanksgiving. "Really!" she exclaims, "That's why I moved here..." And she launches into the story of how she and her husband were having marital problems early in their marriage, they lived in some big city, "and then we decided to move here, this town is a wonderful place for a romance, after we moved here we had our two girls and now we've been married for 17 years!"

She gave me the locals discount and with a big smile wished me good luck, if I was dating a 'Durango Boy' I was already a lucky girl she said. The folks around these parts are very proud of their town and feel they were somehow 'chosen' to inhabit this much elevated state. Many are from surrounding areas but they come here and make it there own. I like how many people go into business for themselves and then pass on that business to their children. If you want to make a good living you have to start a business because high salaried jobs are scarce. There aren't large firms here but that doesn't mean there aren't opportunities. I have decided to start a free lance editing business. Apparently there are only a few editors in town and they are very busy. My first project is Kayak Reef by Brad Stewart (Ben's Uncle) It is a story of prowling on the arctic (the practice of sabotaging poaching boats.) It is fanciful and geared for the 8-12 year old set. Due to be published by a subsidiary of Random House. Brad calls himself a plumber that ran into a book. Before he wrote this book he didn't know there were three ways to spell there, their and they're.

Yes its fun to live in a small town. On Sunday we threw the football back and forth across main street. They love their football here and all the passers by got involved..."Go Long!"

There isn't much crime here, unless unruly teenagers decide to go on a drunken spree through town. The newspaper the Durango Herald prints all the calls to the police the morning after:

Animal Control
11:15 a.m. A gray Suburban had two dogs inside with the windows rolled up in the Centennial Center in the 300 block of South Camino Del Rio.
1:43 p.m. A llama was stuck in the fence in the 31500 block of US Highway 550, near Hermosa.
4:38 p.m. A brown pit bull was running loose in the 3700 block of West Second Avenue.
6:44 p.m. A woman wanted to talk to an Animal Control officer about cats in the 1000 block of Airport Road that possibly had rabies. They were biting people.

Durango Police Blotter
8:24 a.m. Four or five signs were blocking the sidewalk near the Volunteers of Foreign Wars Post No. 4031 in the 1400 block of Main Avenue.
9:44 a.m. Someone found a cell phone in a backyard in the 600 block of East Third Avenue. It was possibly left by a prowler a few nights earlier.
10:12 a.m. Someone spotted a Hilltop escapee Tuesday evening near the Durango Community Recreation Center. (I have no idea what Hilltop is, the insane asylum maybe?)
12:12 p.m. A student was causing a disturbance with teachers and other students at Needham Elementary School.
2:36 p.m. A man wanted to talk to an officer about a cut on his hand in the 900 block of Camino Del Rio.
6:04 p.m. A drunken man was arguing with a trolley driver in the 100 block of East College Drive.

As you can see it is a relatively safe place to walk the streets at night ;)
Cheers from the rocky mountains!