Living in a small town is just different. I knew this when I signed up for this. During my first visit I found out that people don’t lock the cars or their homes for that matter. No big deal it is a small town with almost no crime. I also come to find out that some people leave their keys in the car, some even in the ignition. This was all fine and dandy. I could live like this for a while; a little slower pace would be nice. It was not until I moved here that the really unusual things came to light.
Parking meters that take pennies. You get 12 minutes for a penny, 1 hour for a nickel and a full maxed out 2 hours for a dime. The kicker is that if you somehow get caught not paying the meter the fine for an expired meter is one dollar. I do not see how the town makes any money collecting change form the parking meters.
As I was driving to St. Louis on business I was passing through another small town. I saw what looked to be a coke machine and a food vending machine in front of a store on the side of the road. As I got closer I could see that they were in deed vending machines, but there were no Snickers or Kit Kats in these machines.. The machine that looked to be a coke machine was indeed a “Live Bait” machine and the machine next to it, though it looked like the candy vending machine. Well that was a machine of a different type, it was a tackle machine.
The gas stations discount gasoline 5 cents on Tuesday and Fridays. I am not quite sure why anyone buys gas any other day of the week it is not like it is very far from where ever you live to work.
More about the parking meters. This weekend is Sidewalk Days downtown. All of the shops have their sidewalk sales right before school starts. And in a move of good PR the city has put bags over the parking meters so people don’t have to pony up the pennies to park. And to give it that small town feel, unlike most cities that place those heavy weight vinyl bags that padlock over the meter, here they put white paper grocery bags over the meters.
Since Chicago is about a two hour drive from here and most of my business trips are fairly lengthy I do not want to leave my car at the airport for a week at a time or more. Luckily I found out that the company has arranged a shuttle to and from the airport. I was told to inform one of the administrative assistants that I have a flight out at a certain time and she would arrange the shuttle. I do this, she emails me back with the pickup time and that it is actually her husband that does this service. I find out later that this guy is actually the mayor of town and does this on the side.
I ask around about where to do laundry. I found out there are several different coin laundries in town, but the newest one with the best machines is at the 76 Station on Main Street. I figure that is next to the gas station, but I stop by after work with my laundry bag in hand. And it is exactly like it sounds, a combination gas station, mini-mart and Maytag Laundromat. There are some booths against one wall with a television to watch while your load is drying. As I waiting for my darks to come out of the wash I was perusing the periodical selection. I was hoping for a Business Week or Rolling Stone. No luck but I did come across Bow Hunter Digest and Vermin Master. And as you may have guessed by its placement next to Bow Hunter it is a magazine about hunting vermin.
I ended up getting car insurance from a local agent instead of the big national chains. Once I finally decided to go with this policy I needed to sign the agreement and pay my first months fee. My work schedule was really crazy and since their office closed at 4:30, it would be a few days until I could get the plan signed. But, in a very nice gesture the agent offered to bring the policy to my place of employment in order for me to sign it and pay my first months fees.
I wanted to open another checking account to run my business expenses through. I heard good things about a bank that is located downtown. So I stopped by after work one day. Parked, paid my penny at the meter and walked on down to the bank. I walk up to the door, try to pull the door, but it won’t budge, I try again, no luck. I look over to see the hours of the bank, they close at 3pm. I thought the days of “Bankers hours” were over. That made up my mind though, I will go with another bank that has normal hours.
