So, I was sitting at work on Friday afternoon and two work neighbors were talking about Oregon and retirement. The one guy who is retiring soon, was talking about the place in Oregon where he has bought a house where him and his wife will spend their retirement years. He described things like how the people at the bank, the store, his insurance, etc all know him by name. And how he didn't really have to wait in line at the DMV. And how cheap things were. And how friendly people were. And the lack of traffic. And what a sense of community he felt there compared to San Diego. The guy listening to the story was completely and totally amazed by all this and how different it was from California and said that he had found "Mayberry". Seriously, the younger guy could not have been more blown away by all the simple things described about this place. (He was like an audience member in an infomercial -- except he didn't clap. I thought he was going to though.)
Even though I didn't want to hear the whole story...couldn't really help it. (The guy telling the story is a very loud talker.) And I also couldn't help but think - "It doesn't sound all that impressive to me. It sounds a lot like the Croghan/Lowville area of New York where I grew up."
I left work Friday afternoon kind of chuckling to myself. I'm 2500 miles away from my hometown, in what most people consider a perfect place to live and what happens -- I hear people describing and blown away by a description of a country lifestyle. In fact, the one guy can't wait to retire, get out of San Diego and live in paradise. Funny! I guess maybe there really is no place like home?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment