Small Town Funnies

First, let me give you a little background. I grew up close to downtown Nashville. I don't think you could call it the inner city, but I could get there on a bicycle. For the last 15 years (almost) I've lived in Lebanon which is about 35 miles east of Nashville. It would be called a 'small town' though that is changing.

Before we moved, I started working in the IT department for Cracker Barrel Old Country Store and knew many people in town. When we moved here, I was uncomfortable. No matter where I went, I kept running into people that I knew. In Nashville, you rarely run into people that you know in public.

My first real dose of small town life was when I was trying to call the local insurance agent to move my policies from the agency in Nashville to the one in Lebanon. I looked the number up in the phone book, but dialed the wrong number. The conversation went like this:

Donnie: May I speak to so-and-so?
Helpful Lady Oh, you've dialed the wrong number, he works at the Farm Bureau, their number is..
Donnie: (dumbfounded silence)

The idea that a random wrong number would know who I was asking for and be so helpful as to give me the number was completely foreign to me. I mention this because I had a similar conversation yesterday. I was calling to check on my truck (It was a good deal, I promise). I dialed the number for the repair shop (so I thought) and a lady's voice answers...

Helpful Lady: Hello.
Donnie: I'm sorry, I believe that I dialed the wrong number.
Helpful Lady: Yes, you did Donnie.
Donnie: (dumbfounded silence, I'm good at that)
Helpful Lady: This is Tara.

I had called my good friend Tara Beard whose phone number was strikingly similar to the repair shop's number.

I love this place.