Welcome to Hicksville, USA
I live out in the country. This is a fact. I know it and I like it: It is green. It is forested. It is quiet.
But just down the street from my house, there is a beer joint. It is called the Country Corner. It is a brilliant name for two reasons: 1. It is in the country. 2. It is on a corner. It has been here for at least as long as I have, so, at least since 1995. And it's as if the Country Corner could read the pleading dedication in my 1995 yearbook, "Don't ever change!" Because it never has. It looks exactly the same as when I first moved here. It's still a white, double wide shed that open on one side to reveal the bar, darts on the wall, and a pool table. It's still decorated with beer signs in neon lights. And also, its parking lot still fills up with very large trucks every weekend. The sometimes shirtless, possibly partially toothless, and mullet sporting drivers hop down from their jacked up trucks and go in for what I suppose, they find is a good time.
Perhaps to thank its inebriated patrons for their years of faithful attendance, the Country Corner has been doing something new. They've started reaching out. On the on-ground marquee, also in its same spot since 1995, I've begun seeing different kinds of messages-- not just the ones advertising the "Big Buck contest", or "Free Kittens," but birthday messages to Country Corner faithful. I spotted this one the other day:
"Happy Birthday Jimbo R"
Apparently, they have more than one customer named Jimbo who frequents the country corner. At least two. Maybe more. Enough Jimbos to warrant the inclusion of the last initial to differentiate between them. And not just because Jimbo is a name, which, considering the location of the Country Corner, reeks of country bumpkin-ness, but because there's more than one of them, is why I now believe I don't just live out in the country, I live in Hicksville, USA.
Oh well. I still like it. It's still green. It's still forested. It's still quiet. And there's plenty of Jimbos to go around.
5 comments:
This one had Dad and I both laughing out loud! So glad you thought to blog about the Country Corner after all the family commentary we've kept up about it all these years.
It was great reading about and seeing the Country Corners once again.
Hhaaha, well I miss good old hicksville and the country corner. I need to visit Texas sometimes soon, or we all need to move to the same state!
Hahaha, good ol' Jimbo. Good ol' Country Corner.
HAHAHAHA!!! I've never thought about how strange it is that that place IS exactly the same as it was 15 years ago. And, was it really 15 years ago that we moved to Texas? Really? That makes me feel old to remember something 15 years ago.
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