The Difference Between Big City and Rural Life

Something very nice just happened. There was a knock at my door, and when I opened it, the two little girls from upstairs were standing there. They asked my permission to clean the snow off my car. I said sure, "How much do you want?" They just looked at me with strange expressions on their faces. I said, don't you want any money to do it, and they said no, we just want to clean off the snow. I said, okay, just be careful. And right now, they are working diligently cleaning off the almost four inches of snow piled on my car.

And therein is the difference between life in a small rural town compared to life in a big city. When I owned my house in a rather large suburb of Chicago, I would have youngsters come knock on my door and offer to shovel my sidewalk and driveway, too, but for a price. I usually took them up on their offers as long as they weren't too expensive since snow shoveling is not one of my favorite things to do. Having arthritis in my joints, my body does not really like the cold, so I try to stay as warm as possible during the winter. Having someone else shovel the snow and clear my walks and driveway was an absolute must.

Anyway, my point to this post is that here in the small rural town where I live now, these two young ladies not only aren't charging me for cleaning off my car (they are almost finished as I write this), they even came to my door to ask my permission before they did it. And I think that is a very nice thing for them to do. Hmmm, I just might have to fire up the oven and bake some cookies this afternoon, since they wouldn't take any money. After all, one good turn deserves another!