City Girl Goes Home: 11/3/13

Welcome to my New Home!

I have moved back to my birthplace - a town of about 1800 in rural New Brunswick, Canada.

I have been gone for 20 years working in various cities, but not a lot has changed around here. People still leave their keys in their cars and their front doors unlocked...people still walk into your house without knocking and help themselves to a cup of coffee....and neighbors are both nosey AND some of the most helpful and wholesome folks you will ever find!

I am not sure if I will fit in here. I am used to "breakfast, lunch and dinner", not "breakfast, dinner and supper" which leads to all kinds of confusion when my friends show up at noon for a meal I was making at 6pm. I am also used to wearing $100 Lululemon yoga pants not $15 WalMart specials. (Not that there is anything wrong with WalMart!).

I have a convertible, which is completely inappropriate for a town that has snow 6 months of the year. I loved it when the old-timers would say, half-smiling, "So, you gonna be driving that car this winter?" like I might have just fell off the turnip truck the night before. I'd make my big blue eyes as big as I could as I would sweetly reply "Do you think I could....?"

Well, I WILL adjust, I WILL! One way or another, I want to be part of this town. I want to "be the me I was when I was child", not the one I created while living in the city.

So, let me share my experiences with you, as I adjust to this new, but old, environment.

Thursday, November 7, 2013

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner

I have no idea what "winner winner chicken dinner" means, but it is really catchy and makes me smile when I hear it. So, why not make that the title of this blog entry?

I have never even won a chicken dinner.

But I did win 3 things in my life, and I won all 3 of them at different stages of my life in P-A.

When I was in grade 2 at Andover Elementary School, it was safety week, and we were all tasked with drawing an illustration of what "safety at school" meant to us. I was 7 years old, but was astounded that I won $2 for my picture. $2 could buy 8 bags of chips, or 4 bags of chips and 4 bottles of pop. Wowsers!

The reason I was astounded that I won the contest is because I can't draw, and what I did draw made no sense. I drew a stick-child under a bus. The contest judges must have figured it had some deep significant meaning. However, when I looked at it after I had won the contest, even I could not figure out whether I meant:
a) don't nap under buses,
b) don't terrorize your bus driver to the point he wants to run over you, or
b) don't hurl yourself under a bus if you really, really hate school. It would probably traumatize the bus driver.

The second thing I won was when I graduated from Southern Victoria High School. Right after graduation, we had "Safe Grad", and alcohol-free party at Loring Air Force Base in Maine. After a full night of dancing, bowling and going into the hot tub fully clothed, we returned to the school and prizes were given out. I won the girls bike, Darren McQuade (how do I remember this?!?!?) won the boys bike. As my picture for the local newspaper was being taken, I was quite worried that the flash on the camera was going to show that I did not have any under-roos on. After I went into the hot tub with my clothes on, I decided my under-roos were uncomfortable, so I took them off. Somehow during the night the wet clothes I was wearing dried out. Not sure why the 'roos did not. Anyway. I was 17.

The third thing I won happened last Saturday night. I won our local Perth-Andover Firemen's Lottery. $6121!!!! That will buy 3,008 bags of chips or 1400 bags of chips and 1208 bottles of pop. Wowsers!