Shortly after we settled here back in September 2014 a handyman told me that The Duck! City was a much smaller town than one might think on short acquaintance.
On the surface, it seems a lot like Bibleburg or Tucson: All three are sprawling, medium-sized Western cities dependent upon military installations, universities, and tourism, with transient, ever-changing populations.
But dig a little deeper and The Duck! City feels more like Pueblo, where some folks really put down roots.
I don’t know that I ever met a native Tucsonan, and born-and-bred Bibleburgers were likewise rare. But in Pueblo, and The Duck! City, it’s easy to meet people whose attachment to location runs generations deep.
Longevity breeds networking, and this can work for you or against you. I took the handyman to be hinting that outlandish douchebaggery gets broadcast faster than a triple murder on local TV.
More often it’s a case of meeting some rando in the course of doing a bit of business and finding out that he or she knows everyone you know, and probably a whole lot better, too.
This was the case with the landscaper we engaged to tackle our back yard. North Valley guy, of an age with meself, and in one of our first chats it turned out that he knew more than a few of the guys I used to race bikes with when we lived in Fanta Se back in the late Eighties and early Nineties.
Then last night we’re chatting about the final touches to the project and learned that his mom saw the same doctor as Herself the Elder, lived in the same assisted-living home (albeit a few years earlier), and passed on there, just like HtE.
He knew the owner of the place, and the staff, and also was familiar with the operator of HtE’s previous digs, noting with discretion that he decided against housing his mom there.
A small town indeed. In a town this size, there’s no place to hide. Everywhere you go, you meet someone you know.
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Lots of people up this way who have lived here practically forever. Our neighbors, going on 90, bought their Casa Solana home when the place was built. Before that, they lived somewhere else in Santa Fe.
Yeah, my pals Matt Wiebe and Marc Sani have been there forever, as have a few more riding buddies from the Before-Time. And I know a couple people in B-burg who have been around since we were in high school.
But down here I meet native Burqueños all the time. Family trees with deep roots. Moms, dads, cousins, the works.
Your average Burqueño will talk your ear off on the first meeting, too. I’ve learned more about some stranger in a five-minute chat than I know about my own kin.
I have not heard that song before. Thanks! We are doing two Prine songs, “Other Side Of Town” and “Crazy As A Loon” at our next gig on Thursday. Playing for free at the neighborhood rec center.
Your post applies to Sierra Vista, and after 42 years here, I am an honorary local boy.
Can’t go wrong with a John Prine song, Paddy me boyo. It’s an easy one to play: D, G, A, A7. Every now and then I put on a Prine album, look up the chords, and fumble along.
Steve Earle also has a tune called “The Other Side of Town,” but it’s a little darker.
That’s how it starts. Just like you sometimes wish you could ride more, you also wish you could play more. Some of those Prine songs need a capo to get into your vocal range. I use a Shubb. Your local music/guitar stores should have a good selection.
I can’t help but think of white piggies flying across that beautiful sky. It must be the memory of some Floyd album.
My thoughts of a small town I may have lived in once is best put into song by Tom Petty:
Enjoy your holiday weekend ! I hope you’re all able to escape your own one story towns for a while.