You know you're in Warsaw when......you arrive at your new home in August and it is unlocked...with the key waiting for you inside on the kitchen island
...the boy next door can jump off his bike and leave it on the front lawn for however many days he'd like and it never gets stolen
...you call your doctor's office and Christian radio is their hold music
...ice cream places close down for the winter (though we did mention to Ritter's Frozen Custard that they might want to revise their November 11th closure date in deference to global warming)
...ECW is alive and very well, and the end-of-the-year party was on a pontoon boat
...a TV star comes to visit her grandparents at Christmas...and actually comes to church (Hayden Panettiere)
...everyone waves and says hi when you're on a walk
...you pull in your driveway at night and there's a deer in 'your' headlights
...the city might just offer you use of one of their trucks if challenging health problems and inadequate finances make it hard for you to clean up a house they've declared unsafe (from the local paper)
...a plumber says he'll be by tomorrow and it's OK to leave a key for him if you're not going to be home...but when he finds out you will be home in the morning says 'Oh, I'll be sure to come then!' And he does...
...gas prices don't seem to jump when the price of oil goes through the roof (might they be less greedy in waiting for their supply of cheaper gas to run out before jumping on the high price bandwagon?)
...awesome community concerts are FREE! Musical talent abounds!!
...a local dry cleaners gives you a biscuit for the 'dog in the car'
...DMV (actually BMV) offers an 'In God We Trust' license plate...and, thankfully, a cardinal one!
...you look up at the night sky and see more stars than you thought God had ever made
10 comments:
Wow, it sounds wonderful. So glad you found this little paradise! "There's no place like home"
...some of the highlights of Warsaw sound like the California I grew up in over 40 years ago {no keys,village atmosphere..} some of it sounds like the midwest I knew 30 years ago [friendly people] it all sounds like a great place to be in the "here and now"...
Kind of sounds like Dover. My dry cleaners gives out Dum Dum suckers, though. It's the bank drive thru that gives out dog biscuits.
Welcome to the midwest.
Oh, and be careful about the use of the song. Note what happened to Gary.
And those are all the reasons that we fell in love with Warsaw too when we were there at the end of September! Every day we discuss "when we move to Warsaw." We call it our "Norman Rockwell" town! I'm so glad you seem so happy there...but we still miss you soooo much here!!
What a beautiful environment you live in, it is so nice to hear of these spots which have so much friendliness and trust and they remind me of places I have been and times when I, for years even, didn't lock my motorcycle because I knew it was safe.
Sometimes these heart warming things happen, even in a world stuffed full with bad news on the media trying to make you believe it doesn't exist.
4 years back when we moved to this place here, we had the garage full of my husbands business, full of computers and tables and just stuff, filled up to the roof, it was there until our basement was ready for them to move in and one night, yes, one night one of the guys forgot to close the door and all the goodies were there exposed for the night and more, but nobody took advantage and sometime around noon the next day we suddenly realized the doors had been open for 15 hours or so. I think that was the moment I felt welcome in our new home and neighborhood (and it definitely beat the feeling we had when we had bought our first home and only 2 weeks before we moved in it was on the news because there had been some shootout in that neighborhood and a bullet even hit our future garage door! only my hubby's dry comment of 'now we should be safe for the next few years, as it won't happen twice at the same spot' made us move in and not bail, haha... but in the end we had a great time there).
all the same, it doesn't keep up with the beautiful scenes you've painted :-)
thank you so very much for your visits - I always look forward hearing from you and it inspires me to work harder, to learn and tweak my tools so as to be able to paint with words the dreams that make up our lives.
It's wonderful to know there are still places like this in America! I've been told Stockton used to be like that. Not anymore, though...
BTW, I've tagged you with a Google-fu meme (see yesterday's post). Unkle Phil even played along. :)
...DD, check out Miz Minka's Friday Frolic 2...the bird dancing is at a bird rescue very close to Warsaw...
square peg, we've loved the paradise of each place we've been called to live...and carry, lovingly, treasured 13 years in a certain central valley.
catsinger, Yup. It's the good ol' days...but here and now. I could point out that the three orthopedic companies here paid out a $300 million + settlement to the government not un-recently. See? A mix of idyllic and very wall-street-down-to-earth. A fascinating place. PS: I haven't heard of the northwestern bird town. Must be small, but possibly on the way to Chicago...
...as is Gary, scout! UR right. Gary fell hard after pride. Yikes. Dover is sweet. I still want to bring Miz Minka for drinks sometime.
mm - we still and ever miss the blessed life in San Joaquin. Profoundly blessed.
marvelous marlyse, you have a motorcycle!?! What a rich life you have - and still do - live. I so enjoy your artistic and rhapsodic prose.
minks, i remember when Pacific Avenue still had farm houses north of UOP. Can we go to Dover for margaritas now?
I've never lived in a place like Warsaw. Even though I'm from solid Midwestern stock (on my dad's side), I'm a lifelong East Coaster and all that that implies! Although for a summer I did live in a farmhouse outside Charlottesville, Va., where my nearest neighbor was about 1/2 mile away, and the stars were exactly as you described them and best taken in soaking in the hot tub and nursing a glass of wine.
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