Known

Having grown up in a small town I always knew people and was always known. Even to this date I cannot walk into the grocery store when I go home to visit without running into someone I know. When I moved to the city I was anonymous. I never ran into anyone that I knew. Part of me really liked this new anonymity, I could run in and out of Target in 10 minutes flat and have a whole cart full of stuff. If I was back home it would take me 45 minutes to get a gallon of milk after I chit chatted with every person between the door and the back cooler.

Today however I feel like I have turned a bit of a corner. We have a cute little hardware store that is just around the corner from our house that we use when we are missing a piece of PVC or if we need a few more screws. Tonight was one of those nights, we needed a bit more mud to finish up the walls so off to the hardware store I went. I grabbed my mud and up to the register I went. Here is the conversation that followed:

Clerk: "That it for you?"
Me: "Yep"
Clerk "Only job worse than mudding is plumbing"
Me: "Ya this mudding sure isn't fun."
Clerk: "So did you finish up all that plumbing you were working on?"
Me: surprised he knows me "Ya we did, and I will be happy when this part is done too."
Clerk: "Well Good Luck, see you later."
Me: "See you later"

He knew me and he knew the projects we have been working on and he wasn't someone Mitch or I work with. We have started to form a community, we have started to build a network for ourselves.

I thought I loved the anonimity, I thought I was annoyed with being recognized, but tonight I realized I missed that.

I miss hearing a horn honk and waving rather than figure out who is mad at me.

I miss walking into a restaurant and ordering a bowl of soup and having them leave the green onions out because they know you don't like them.

I miss walking into the hair salon to get my hair done and see my Grandpa sitting in the chair across the shop.

I miss getting pulled over and having the cop threaten to call my dad on me.
OK maybe not this last one, but it was kind of funny...

I miss my little town but the awesome part is I get to go home whenever I need a little piece of that back and I am lucky enough to have a hardware store right around the corner where, not everyone knows my name but at least someone does, or at least knows I am done working on plumbing.