Small town America is a special lifestyle, not always the simple life but never the less small scale. When I go to the local grocery store, the cashier could be a local minister’s wife, a woman that went to school with my daughter or the lady across the road. You meet neighbors, relatives, and friends in the aisles. That has always been my way of life, so city life is very foreign to me.

When I was a little girl my parents raised chickens. Mother gathered the eggs twice a day and would sort them by size. Friday we went to the local store (at that time there were only 2) and she would give the eggs to the storekeeper. He would count them and give her credit for the eggs.  This is what we call bartering, back then it was just a trade for groceries. The building still stands but the store is long gone. I miss that simplicity in life but embrace the way I live now as well. Here in Lancaster County there are some very small stores that have a semblance of that era. When guests ask I send them to those “outposts”.