The Got A Twisted Sugar...We're On The Fast Track To The Big Time

 One of the charms of living in a small town is the small-towniness. It's everywhere. People wave to each other. You hardly ever have to wait for traffic to turn onto a road. The air is cleaner and the people are nicer.

It's been an amazing experience and we've love it ever since we moved in 2020.

But, it won't last...it can't last.

That's the downside of living in a small town.

I've mentioned many times that the town where we now live is so much like the town we used to live in, only how it was fifty years ago. We had Main Street, some houses, and some farmland. It wasn't unusual for many neighbors to have horses on their land behind their homes. The church they attended was over a hundred years old and everyone knew each other...or so it seemed.

That's how it feels for us now where we live. I also feel change is coming. I feel this because I've seen it happen. We live on one side of town, a town that has a lot of businesses. We've watched over the past year as a new mini-strip mall has been built. We've wondered what will go in the smallish spaces. Well, we found out a month or so ago what one of those shops was going to be...a Twisted Sugar shop.

It opened recently and earlier this week, I stopped in to check it out. I've never been to one--didn't know anything about the place other than the obvious--it's got tasty treats. I chose the Pina Colada drink and it was very good. Unfortunately for our family, they use artificial flavors in their products which means, my family will not be stopping in for tasty treats. Bummer.

I think many of our fellow citizens are excited about the prospect...a new place to hang out, to get something new. That's how it starts. There's excitement that new things are coming, and it is exciting. It's fun, and the prospect of other new things only adds to that excitement.

But, one day they'll turn around and the town will have doubled, new traffic lights will be installed (because they're needed...) and it will take fifteen minutes to take a trip that used to take only five. Yes, they'll be new shops, new stores, new many things, but it'll come at a cost. We're on the fast track to the Big Time. I just hope people are willing to take the good with the bad.

Visiting A One-Hundred And Six Year Old Library

 I spotted the building the first time I saw the church...they're across the street from each other. The first time I was able to go inside was last week. It is, in a word, important. 

The Garland Branch of the library is the second building in their system. The other is in Tremonton. We visited the Tremonton Branch first...it's the bigger of the two libraries. I think the Tremonton building is the younger of the two. 

What I love about about these two buildings is that they still exist. In a digital world many things that once were have disappeared...Sony Walkmans, wrist watches, Blockbuster Video stores, but libraries are still here. It's a testament to their importance. 

The top floor had books and media for adults and young adults. The basement was for kids and middle-grade. The basement also has an activity center, but I imagine since covid it, the building hasn't been utilized as much as it was before.

When I worked in a library for a few months years ago, I think they needed at least six employees at any give time, more during the busy shifts. This library had a staff of one...that's all that was needed.

I ended up buying a couple of books that were for sale, a Jim Butcher novel and a collection of the best 1980s short stories. I asked the librarian if the building had always been a library. It had, which I thought was the coolest part of the building. There's even a framed photo of when the building was dedicated on December 12th, 1914, ten years (almost to the day...) from when my father was born. She also said the library was built using a grant from the Carnegie Foundation.

A quick internet search for old libraries brings up many many incredible libraries all over the world where floor after floor of shelves hold thousands of books in buildings that better resemble palaces than a place where books are stored. Societies have built monuments to our collective knowledge. But a building does not need to be spectacular or opulent to be important. The Garland Library is the mind of the community and it has stood for one-hundred and six years.

Americana...A Little Different, But Still Out There

 We pulled up to the diner, put the van in park. We weren't there but a minute when the young girl emerged from the building and came to the driver's side window, which I lowered. I asked for recommendations and ordered a shake, just a shake. As we waited, I gazed into the the diner, at red and white benches, formica-covered tables, and chairs unused to a year.

It was a snapshot into what life used to be, the way things once were.

In that space--at those tables--people fell in love, and hearts were broken...all over greasy food and ice cream, served in a myriad of colors and flavors. Teens met friends and parents ordered food at this singular location, a place replicated all over the country, thousands and thousands of destinations, in every city, in every state.

And it's survived for decades.

I haven't spent much time outside the United States, though I did live in Europe for a few years back in the 1980s. They can build a Pizza Hut in Copenhagen, but it's not the same. You don't have a wicked big-block 1970s muscle car pulling up, reviving the engine, and having both teenagers and the adults turn their heads in admiration or disgust (but, really admiration...). It can never be the same thing.

I don't know the history of Brigham City's Peach City, but I can imagine it's similar to that of all the other places in big cities and small towns across America. Thousands upon thousands of people consuming tons and tons of food...and the memories that endure.

We weren't allowed in the building, so we joined the other auto-bound patrons waiting for our food. I know somethings will never return to what we once considered "normal," but when all this crap has settled, I hope at least the neighborhood diner can return...to what it once was.