small town america...

One of the pleasures of small town america is walking into these convenience stores. You walk into this store and immediately you feel the quietness in the cool and vast comfort of that store. The floors are shinning clean. The low aisles filled with small products is a welcome change from the menacing 10 feet high aisles bulging with even more menacingly gigantic products catering to the needs of giant americans who like everything big.

You stroll around the aisles. Outside is hellishly hot. But inside its cool. You walk past the soft drinks fountain and look with amazement at the 2 liter cups neatly stacked. These are called "Thirst Busters". Unlike the coastal americans, the middle americans have a voracious appetite. Coming from Boston, it is some what of a disconcerting experience to watch elephantine people laboring around in the loosest fitting clothes. Compared to Asia and Europe, where servings are small but nutritious and delicious, the focus in small town america seems to be on quantity. It is always somewhat of a horror to walk into Wendy's and see a "Triple Decker" hamburger, which is nearly one pound of meat! What kind of human being consumes this much meat, with three slices of cheese and generous mayo in one sitting, not to mention the mega size soft drink, fries and other "nibblers" that usually accompany?!!

Back to convenience store. The old lady working at the counter is always busy with something, even though I doubt this store gets more than one customer at a time, especially in the early afternoon. I look around. The floor is spotlessly clean. The aisles are neatly decked. There is not even a drop of spilled coffee around the coffee maker. Even the restroom that I visited when I entered the store was awesomely clean. So what is it exactly that keeps her so busy? I cant tell. But there she is. Honest to the bone in making an honest living. Finding something that she could do to improve upon during the time she is getting paid for. Quite admirable. I look at her wrinkled face and the simplicity of her demeanor. And not for a second I doubt my feelings that she rarely stepped out of 100 mile radius of this town.

I stop for a moment at the coolers filled with rows of soft drinks. There are all kinds of soft drinks, some of them new flavors which you dont see in Boston. For example, I didnt know that Mountain Dew was now market testing strawberry and melon flavors. Unlike the stores in Asia where the soft drink bottles are 250ml, the smallest bottle you would find here is 600ml.

I still am the only customer in store. It is hot outside, but it is so cool and quiet inside that I feel like lying down on that shinning floor and falling asleep. But then grudgingly I bring soft drinks, a copy of local newspaper and a locally made nougat to the counter. The old lady asks me in a drawl "would that be all, hun?" I look around on the counter. I notice a basket full of hush puppies with "3 for a $1" written on it. I dont remember ever eating hush puppies.

Yeah, small town middle america is a different country.