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Columbia Gas Dept. GAS LEAK or GAS SMELL Contact Numbers 24 hrs/ 365 days 270-384-2006 or 9-1-1 Call before you dig 
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Rev. Joey N. Welsh: Thanksgiving thoughts on small town virtues Another Angle, the occasional musings of a Kentucky Pastor: Some Thanksgiving thoughts on small town virtuesc first printed 27 November 2005 in the Hart County Herald The next earlier Another Angle: Rev. Joey N. Welsh: Good Ship Lollipop and the Titanic By The Rev. Joey N. Welsh Several years back, at a mission study that took place at First United Methodist Church in Munfordville, a discussion question asked us to think about differences among urban, small town, and rural lifestyles. We shared a number of insights and images, recalling circumstances that simply don't occur in big cities. Things can happen where everyone knows you - I remembered that one time when my car was at the local gas station getting an oil change, the mechanic discovered that my rear tires were dangerously worn and needed to be replaced. I hadn't yet had a chance to get to my house to retrieve that news from my telephone answering machine, but I didn't need to. The mechanic had already called Ann Matera, Horse Cave City Clerk, to see where I was, and she tracked me down and broke the news to me before I was even close to getting home. - A member of our study group recalled that one of her family's cows had gotten loose and wandered a couple of miles away. The family didn't need to fear, though. The people who spotted the cow not only recognized her and knew who owned her, they also knew the cow by name and could be comforting to her. Thus, telephoning the cow's owners was an easy matter and a simple courtesy. - I remembered moving to Hart County from an urban setting, discovering that I could simplify my life by relying on one maxim -- if I really needed something and couldn't find it at one of the local dollar stores, I could do without for a while. I discovered that life is more sensible, affordable, and streamlined when you don't depend on shopping malls, designer labels, and heavily-advertised brands. - Folks in the group noted that they were able to trust several of the local repair people, who were also their friends and neighbors. On days when something needed to be fixed at home, they didn't worry if they had to be away for a bit; they could just leave the back door unlocked and a note explaining things on the kitchen counter. They could then arrive back home and discover that the repair was done and the bill was on the same counter. - I also noted the restroom arrangement at the Horse Cave Library. Because some kids had been a bit playful and messy in the restroom in the past, the door key needed to be out of the reach of small children, yet available to adults. The solution? In order to get into the restroom, one only needed to go to the library's biography shelves and remove Kitty Kelley's unauthorized biography of Frank Sinatra. The restroom key resided there behind the book, high enough to be above the reach of kids, but accessible to anyone who knew this open secret. Home: where they "have" versus "want" to take you in These vignettes reflect a quality of life that simply doesn't occur in the anonymity of a big city. They speak volumes about why it is so easy to feel truly at home in a small place. Almost one hundred years ago, 1915, in his poem entitled "The Death of the Hired Man," Robert Frost spoke of the concept of home, and he wrote: Home is the place where, when you have to go there,They have to take you in.Frost's thought may be all well and good, but I think it is a far, far better thing to be in a place where people take you in because they want to do it, not merely because they have to. When the tornado ravaged Munfordville early on November 6, many people suddenly found themselves in houses that were uninhabitable. Because so many kitchens were damaged and without utilities, lots of meals were served at the spacious new facilities of First United Methodist Church, where there also would have been space for cots, if people had needed them. Disaster response in a welcoming community In most places such a disaster would require the services of a large emergency shelter for the displaced victims to bed down at night. Did that happen in Munfordville? No. It didn't take place because the people who found themselves homeless were taken quickly into the welcoming homes of friends and family, automatically and without any public plea, because this is how people practice the concept of home in these parts. In big cities people often don't know even the names of close neighbors. In a small town, though, there is seldom such a thing as a stranger. On this Thanksgiving weekend, let's remember to give thanks for the way people around here live out their ideas about the virtues of life, community, and home, virtues that are found in precious few places these days. E-mail: joey_n_welsh@hotmail.com This story was posted on 2011-11-20 17:39:01
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