Feb 21 2009
Adapting to smalltown USA
Our first day here we knew that our life had begun. Next door neighbor brought over some clam chowder and introduced herself. Southern accent and all. Still in the back of my head I can hear my LL telling me the “nosy neigbor” still didnt heed her warning. Didnt take long to unpack and sit in awe of the place. This by far was the nicest place we have ever had. We are use to apartments people below or above, small living quarters. The place we have moved from was more expensive and half the size of this place. there is so much space we dont know what to do with ourselves. There is a enclosed front porch which we turned into Cassy’s playroom. a decent sized living room a huge dining room from which I am blogging. A full bath that is big enough to have all three in it at the same time and still not be crowded, the kitchen and then a smaller enclosed back porch. up stairs is a bit smaller with a full bathroom a master bedroom and a regular bedroom. Cassandra just loves her room and the bunk bed that was waiting for her.
Fortunately we were haveing a warm spell and it was nice outside so this was the first time she was able to play outside since August. She of course wanted to play outside and do her hopscotch, never played it before but that was ok she wanted to do it. The neighbor told us about the beach and so we decided to take the uhaul and go see.
So what is the first thing we do? we see sea gulls and decide to feed them. Well that is not allowed but we didnt know. Here we are feeding the sea gulls crunchy cheetos looking like the opening credits of Three’s Company when all of a sudden it turned into looking like the movie The Birds. they were just inches from our faces! Couldnt believe it. So once we stopped feeding them and they eventually went away we started walking on the beach, Cassy was amazed, every few feet or so there were shells mostly a bit broken but alot in tact. We walked and walked and walked, this was all worth it. We went up the dunes to walk back to the uhaul and we saw hoof prints boy I must say I did get excited to think we were going to see a pony, but alas we didnt. We stopped at the little vistors center to find out more about the goings on and that is where we learned that we were not suppose to feed the gulls. The nice lady there showed us all there is to do on Assateague Island, Assateague Island is where the beach is its on a National Wildlife Refuge which is awesome in my opinion because it cant be developed. On our way back we saw the bridge the guide said we could fish from without a license because its state property which is great. Then we had to bring the Uhaul back and no more beach for the time being. its about 5 miles because you have to go thru a bunch of marsh land to get to the actual beach but there is lots to see and I think you can clam along the marsh.
I promised Cassy that now that we live here that we would go out just about every day. Well I said that when the weather was warm. I just assumed it was like that all the time I didnt know it was just a warm spell. Even though it is much warmer then Poughkeepsie.
A few days later we decided to go look around town. now when I say look around town I mean walk to main st. that is basically one of 2 major roads with stores on them. Chincoteague basically consists of a bunch of hotel/motel and B&B’s 2 gas stations, one movie theater that plays one movie, and a bunch of unique shops on main street. there are also alot of restaurants but most are closed in the winter months. So we decided to walk down to main st. We get to main street and right across the street there are about 30 ducks, not even exagerating. Cassy got very excited but I didnt know the protocol about feeding ducks, didnt want to get introuble or get a fine or something so we just said hello and walked by. We were passing shops that were closed because it was a Sunday(thank god not having to go into any) and we came across a bronze statue of a pony. Well I knew it was Misty from the book that is talked about all over. Misty of Chincoteague, I guess its a book written by someone who stayed here or something still havent gotten the whole story about it but it’s WAY important to the people around here. but funny thing there was a duck and a chicken bronze statue with it. didnt state why they were there just a plaque talking about Misty. There were docks so we went to take a peek. very nice slow living here.
Got home not finding the library though so we decided to look for it another time. Can you believe it took 4 times of me going down on main st to finally find the library and I have pasted it each and every time. Talk about a small town. it was the white building right next to the Misty statue. Our library consists of a small white building, they are adding on to it but the structure they are putting up is kind of small. but maybe they like it that way.
Our neighbors across the street the “islanders” are nosy in the aspect they sit on the porch and just watch everything going on. even when there is nothing going on. I had to use their phone which they said we could. I had to call and let places know I moved. Well my daughter was outside on her little riding pony with her father and while I was on hold I would hear the older lady called “ma” saying look there she goes not past the post oh what a good girl. I dont know I just thought it was odd. My neighbor is an older lady in her 50’s I would say and her mother is always over there everyone calls her “ma” well she is an “islander” and she goes on about outsiders and this and that. Calls black people coloreds lol can you believe that. They just seem to be a bit nosy I guess my LL was right.
One good thing about smalltown life is people are friendly. When I lived in a city, (not Poughkeepsie) and there was an event called “Death By Chocolate” that would usually mean that there would be an event that would be selling tickets at a pretty expensive price for the pure enjoyment of going there to eat chocolate. money, money, money that is what it would be plain and simple. Well here “Death By Chocolate” is totally different, anytown america feel. You go to different stores on main st, get a piece of paper, they have all the participants on the paper and a question to answer for each store. When you go to the store you have to answer the question which is located in the store you are in, which is kind of easy but some were hard, especially with a 3 year old not wanting to hold your hand. and at each stop they sign the paper or stamp it and you get a piece of chocolate. Isnt that nice? no get up no bait and switch, dont have to buy something, and at the end of the event (which I didnt finish only read about) you go to one of the hotels conference rooms and at 6pm they had a chocolate buffet including a chocolate fountain and then you would put your paper with all the answers completed into a box and there would be prizes drawn from gift baskets to hotel stays. Now that is small town nice and that is the main reason I want to write about this small town.
