Friday, January 27, 2006

Embracing local customs

The area I moved to last year has had a population explosion in the past 10 or so years. New developments are being built all over the place. My development has 100 houses which each have ¼ acre of land. But, right across the street are homes that existed before the boom that all have about 3 acres of land. The people in my development leave for work in the morning in their SUV’s and they drop the kids off at daycare. The people in the homes across the street leave in the morning in their pickups and go huntin’. Along with all the new homes, there are new businesses that cater to the newer crowd. There are also some old school business with the local crowds.

Since we moved in last year I had been driving the 40 minutes back to my old hood to get my haircut. I know and trust the person who has been doing my hair for years. It’s very difficult to make a change. Yesterday I finally decided to go to somewhere closer. I went on the internet and looked up the place closest to my house. I stopped by on my way home. As I pulled in, it was very obvious I was stepping into a “locals” establishment. As I walked in the shop, the owner’s dog greeted me at the door while his bird had open range to fly anywhere it wanted inside the shop. I sat down with a deer head mounted on the wall above me, a prized trout mounted to the wall and a taxidermied (is that a word?) fox sat in the window. I was supporting the locals and proud of it. My only concern was whether or not it was safe to get a haircut from a guy with a mullet.

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