Again, today’s delight is wrapped up in a huge delight. I got my first COVID vaccination (shout-out to Thrifty White pharmacy!) last week. I came by it honestly – Minnesota has now declared that those over the age of 50, living in a 3 generation home, may now roll up their sleeves. Well, I am about to become a grandma (say what?), and I am planning on moving in with my daughter and husband to be a full-time nanny. OK, maybe not, but I am prepared in case they ask! In any case, I plan to spend as much time with the baby as the parents will allow, which means we will be living under one roof for at least a few days, I hope.
So, let the search begin. You’ve heard all this before. Getting an appointment requires one overarching skill: being able to sit at one’s laptop and press “refresh”. Again and again. Suddenly, I struck gold: a single appointment! … in Slayton, Minnesota.
Where is Slayton? Only Google maps knows. It is an hour and 20 minutes from Sioux Falls, where my daughter and her husband live, so after visiting them for a few days, I drove off to my destination, this town of 2,000 inhabitants. And right there on Main Street was little ole Thrifty Drug.
So, the overwhelming delight was of course getting the first vaccine.
But the joy within this joy was visiting this small town. My dad grew up in Everly, Iowa. Every summer, the 7 of us piled into the station wagon to visit Grandma and Grandpa. Honestly, some of my fondest memories of childhood include visiting Everly. My sister and I would walk “downtown” to buy some trinket at the “Five and Dime”. On the way, Uncle George (my dad’s uncle) would spot us and press a quarter into our palms, with which we very carefully chose our treasures.
So, imagine my delight as I drove into Slayton. It looked just like the Everly from my childhood – same wide main street with added parking in the middle of the street. Same main town newspaper office. Same little drug store. A few “upgrades” like a funky coffee shop, but what town these days does not have a coffee shop? When I sent a picture of Main Street to my dad he texted, “My goodness, isn’t it wonderful there are still towns out there that look like that?”, to which I had to agree. Not that I’m going to move there, it’s just nice to know they still exist. And even more, it was nice that this little town could bring back such warm memories.
So, thanks Thrifty White for the vaccination. And for this week’s joy: memories of a small town.