Three examples of why I love small towns

I’ve lived in Alma and St. Louis, Michigan for 10 years now, and small town moments occur so often now that I rarely think twice about them. But three that happened this week stand out.
On Monday a man walked into Sportsman’s Barbershop in St. Louis after I washed windows there and said a dog was following him. Sure enough, a friendly dog was right behind him. Carla the barber called the cops. An officer showed up less than ten minutes later, looked at the dog and said it belonged to a friend of his. The guy’s got an invisible fence, but the dog didn’t have his special collar on. The cop put the dog in his cruiser and took it home. Never happen in a Detroit suburb.
Tuesday I was in St. Johns and had just finished washing windows at Silvestri Paint. In the process of getting paid, I noticed for the first time in ten years of doing windows there that owner Mel Wieber is missing most of the pinkie on his left hand. How did that happen? I asked. Years ago in high school shop class, Mel said. He cut it off on a band saw. Teacher was Mr. Neeme (which I’m probably spelling wrong). Okay, so there was another fellow in the store, had to be at least 20 years younger than Mel. Turns out he had a similar story of a friend who cut half a finger off in shop class. Guess who the teacher was? Mr. Neeme. Probably at least 20 years after Mel severed his digit. I was forced to wonder how many other kids lost fingers under Mr. Neeme’s tutelage. 

Two days later and I’m nearing the end of my work in Ithaca. I got to talking to Gratiot Insurance owner Steve Bakker about his antique office door for some reason. I opined that the door, which has 12 small panes of glass in a wood frame, had to be at least 50 years old. It’s at least 60 years old, Steve said, because Jefferson P. Arnold put the BB hole in one of the panes when he was knee high to a short pup. So what’s Jeff Arnold doing nowadays? He’s about 70 years of age and practicing law from an office next door to Bakker’s insurance office. And, of course, I wash Jeff’s windows, too.

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