If you live

in a small town, you might occasionally gripe about its

disadvantages. On the other hand, there are times when the

advantage of small town life is evident. I recognized one

recently.

A wave of stifling hot air engulfed me. The

sun’s rays beamed warm on my head as I pushed my shopping cart out

of the store. I headed to row number eight in the parking lot,

popped my car trunk lid with my remote, and put my keys in the

trunk. I transferred my bags from the cart to the trunk, and

reached up and pulled the lid down. “Oh my goodness, my keys,” I

groaned.

So there I stood in the parking lot staring at

my car trunk, sweating in 100-degree heat and who knows how high

humidity, with a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach.

“I knew better than that,” I scolded myself

and headed back inside the air-conditioned store. I plopped down on

a bench, dug my emergency road service card out of my billfold, and

scrambled in my purse for my cell phone. I’d never noticed how

noisy a store could be before. I listened to an automated message

twice before I finally heard it clearly and then punched a number

to speak to a real live person — a very nice person.

I explained my situation and answered all her

questions. Between my trying to hear her over the noise around me

and the difficulty she experienced finding my location, the minutes

ticked away. She searched diligently for the store address. For

some strange reason, she had an incorrect listing in her map

material.

I held on until she was finally ready to

contact someone to help me. She said she would call me back with

that information. From previous experience, I suspected it would be

someone out of town. That meant another long wait. I had an

idea.

“Tell you what,” I said. “While you do that,

I’ll just cruise around here in the store and look for somebody I

know. Maybe I can find someone to take me home to get another car

key.”

I started at the front of the store and walked

toward the back. I paused to look down each aisle, searching for a

familiar face. I was approaching the back of the store when I saw a

couple I knew. I got right down to business after we said our

hellos.

“I’ve locked my keys in my car. Would you mind

taking me home to pick up an extra set and bringing me back?” They

graciously offered to do so. In a few minutes, they met me at the

front of the store, drove me home, waited while I got my key, and

took me to my car. They even waited to make sure the key worked in

my car door.

The road service representative was surprised

on call-back. “That’s one of the advantages of living in a small

town,” I said.