Our Town

This past weekend Rob and I were home for the first time in several weeks. So we set out with a list of goals to accomplish on Saturday and ran into some adventures along the way.

I'm a big fan of shopping local and supporting the "little guy" if you will. Plus, with gas hovering around $4 a gallon, there's no need to travel far away for things you can buy locally.

So we did our part this weekend to help the little guy starting with a visit to our local hardware store (an ant infestation in our kitchen and a missing trash can because of the storm prompted this stop), then the bank, the post office, a visit to our local CSA farm (check it out -- www.victoryacres.org if you live around us) to pick up our weekly supply of produce, rounded out by a visit with friends who are building a new tree house for their kids. I wanted to throw a few garage sales in there, but it was raining too hard and I figured they wouldn't be set up anyways.

But the highlight of the day was getting our new mattress. We drove by this store in the next town over from us a few weeks ago on our way to Chicago and since I am all about shopping local we decided to check it out. Plus, we figured since they were close by they could deliver for us and that was definitely something we needed.

Little did we know we were going to encounter our newest friend Vic, also known affectionately as "grandpa." Vic was a stocky, white haired fellow with a Nike basketball shirt and basketball shorts and white sneakers. He showed us all around his mattresses, touting all the benefits of each like any good salesperson would. He kept calling me "young lady" and celebrating our upcoming marriage with us. Then he'd say, "well, this is the part where grandpa leaves you kids alone and lets you make the decision," and off he'd go to some other part of his mattress fortress.

It would be hard to put Vic in a nutshell, but he was one of those sorts of people that just make you love Indiana. So friendly and jolly, the kind of people who've lived in the same place all their lives and have a love for it. He wasn't afraid to share his faith and view of the world with us, which he quickly followed up with a, "I'm not trying to preach to you guys, but you know, young people today...." and off he'd go again.

We didn't mind his soapboxes and really agreed with him on things about life and the way some things are these days. He was so endearing. He made us laugh too by showing us this little game -- a toy mallet mounted on a frame that smacked down on a quarter and a cardboard piece of cheese. The idea was to guess what it was. (I guessed it was the economy getting it's butt kicked but that wasn't right.) The correct answer Vic informed us when we gave up was a "quarter pounder with cheese." Hahaha. Maybe you had to be there to see this little riddle, but it was pretty clever I'll admit.

Later Saturday afternoon he brought our mattress to our house ($10 delivery was just what we needed) and helped us set it on our newly constructed bedframe which just so happens to take up our entire bedroom. But hey, we figured a new bed and a large bed is pretty important in marriage. :)

I think what endeared us the most to him was as he was walking out the door he stopped and said, "Now I can't do this everywhere," and just started praying. It was such a funny, unexpected, beautiful moment where this white haired man with matching sneakers who we'd met just that morning was praying in our living room. And as he headed out the door he said, "One more thing, in your marriage, you keep God first, and then each other second. Do that and you will have a good life. Now I'm not trying to preach at you...." And off he went.

Those kind of people are the people that make the world go round. The Vics of the world who have devoted themselves to one woman, one God, and one job, in Vics case selling mattresses, for their whole lives. The kind of people who don't mind a good beer with their steaks (Vic informed us he couldn't really afford a good steak anymore with the price of gas, but it was certainly a treat when he could.) and who don't mind stopping to pray with a young couple in their living room 20 days before their wedding.