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Dispatches From Arizona: Living In Another World
I live in a rural area of Arizona. We have three traffic lights on the State Highway that runs through a small town. We do have three Mexican restaurants, one Italian restaurant, one Greek restaurant, and a BBQ restaurant. We do not roll up the sidewalks at night because there are no sidewalks.
There are two DMV’s to choose from, one located closer to Tucson, but still about 30 miles away. The other is 30 miles north in a small mining town. I always go north to the mining town. On a busy day you might see a rancher leaving the DMV. He’ll touch the brim of his hat, and say “Howdy”. He doesn’t want to hear your life story, but he’ll acknowledge your presence. The expectation is that you’ll return his simple greeting with your simple greeting, and you do.
When you go to the market in town it’s not unusual to see a cowboy or two wearing their spurs, or residents carrying a pistol. The local firefighters that have the duty are there as well. I always ask them; What’s for dinner? They answer by reciting the menu.
I live slightly less than 3,000 miles away from the center of what some call the center of the universe, Washington DC. I’m separated from the smarter people by mountains, high temperatures, a variety of venomous reptiles, and mammals with fangs, and claws. I’ve lived on the east coast, and the best part of the east coast was seeing it in my rear view mirror when my wife and I decided we weren’t going to raise our future children there.
In light of the scene in a DC restaurant where a woman was heckled until she had to leave, let me offer some friendly advice. If you decide to interrupt someone’s meal in a three stoplight town you’ll probably get the Michelangelo view of the restaurant ceiling.
Published in General
Most of the venomous reptiles are in DC.
The only thing they have in common with small town Arizona, but unlike snakes they have no dignity.
Loved this, Doug: the imagery, the simplicity, the truth. Thanks.
Like. Like. Like.
Are there enough decent people in DC to effectively boycott a restaurant that would not only allow a patron to be so harassed but actually applaud the miscreants for doing so? I’m generally opposed to boycotts but if I were anywhere near DC I would never set foot in the place except to let them know I wouldn’t give them the time of day let alone any business.
Venomous reptile here. In the future, I’d appreciate it if you wouldn’t write quite so well about the joys of being, er, someplace else and far from here. Make it sound less appealing. Or something.
District of Columbia 2016 Presidential Vote:
Clinton: 282,830
Trump: 12,723
I’ve been contemplating that. Put together two groups of people to eat there at the same time and “protest” each other. Did you ever see the scene in The Blues Brothers where Jake and Elwood pry Mr. Fabulous from his gig at the Chez Paul? Like that.
Where is Ambrose Bierce now that we need him?
For that matter, where is Ambrose Bierce whether we need him or not?
I did see that movie quite a few years back but can’t recall the scene.
But if there aren’t enough people of good sense and even moderately good character to take some kind of stand against this kind of mob action then I can only be glad none of my relatives live near there. As well as being appalled at the moral sinkhole that our Nations Capitol has become. No people anywhere should put up with this kind of kindergarten behavior regardless of the justification. It’s fine to disagree with a policy or action but we, thankfully, have ways to deal with that at the ballot box and through civil discourse. This was anything but civil.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JzzE6XLbC8M