It's a Small Town After All

Some of the things I have to remind myself, now that we live in Smallville rather than Metropolis:

• When I see someone pushing bags down the street in a grocery cart, they are not neccesarily a homeless person. They are probably just borowing the cart for convenience sake.
  
  
• When I see a group of men on a rooftop, it is highly unlikely that they are snipers trying to protect us from terrorist attacks. They are probably just fixing the roof.
  
  
• When I request a book from the library, there are probably not 478 people in front of me in line. In fact, I am probably next in line, as there aren't as many people knocking each other over for the next McSweeneys book here. It's very weird to be able to read these books close to when they come out.
  
  
• I cannot go anywhere without running into people I know. People often referred to neighborhoods in Metropolis as being "like a small town" in this regard, but those people must not have ever lived in a small town, because there it felt very anonymous compared to hear. I feel guilty listening to my ipod as I walk to work as almost every day I walk right past someone who I should probably talk to if I don't want to be rude. Of course, this problem is made much harder by the fact that I am not very good at remembering names in general, and right now I am trying to memorize the names of 80 students in addition to a hundredish faculty/administrators and their significant others and children, not to mention the civilians in town who I run into. I have flashcards for my students, but I think that would seem weird for the mail lady or the tellers at the bank.
  
  
• OK, maybe this doesn't have to do with small-town life, but it is still worth mentioning. The other day we saw some French and Indian War reenactors. Now, everyone knows about Civil War reenactors (and some of us even know people who were injured participating in such, but I digress), and I certainly have seen Revolutionary War reenactors (especially if you include the Boston Tea Party reenactments). Heck, I even read with great interest the stories earlier this summer of Vietnam War reenactors. But the French and Indian War?!? Next thing you know we'll start having people reenacting the Rwandan Genocides. Or maybe the Clone Wars. ( I'm on board as long as I get to be General Grievous...)