Down to Earth People

A few weeks ago Sadie and I went to the Bay Area with her Dad, Paul, and went on a walk while he was at school.  I realized right away that I've gotten really used to living in the country during the last few years, because everything seemed really loud.  We were walking down a busy street in Sunnyvale and cars zipped by us every few seconds.  Sadie was in her little pink stroller and I think she was a little overwhelmed by all the noise.  Her response, as usual, was to fall asleep.  

Apparently seeing a sleeping baby being pushed down the street by her mom made a lot of people really happy.  Now my question is, how would you react to that happy "look there's a baby" feeling.  Would you smile to yourself and maybe wave?  Or would you honk your horn, like an idiot, scaring the baby half to death?  

During our one hour round trip walk, three people opted for the later choice.  They would see us, slow, possibly even wave and then honk two or three times, in a friendly way.  Unfortunately babies really don't see a large vehicle with a blaring horn coming at them as a happy thing.  This really does nothing for my "I hate the Bay Area, these people are idiots" attitude.

Sadie and I had never really gone on a long walk on a busy (relatively anyway) road in Trinity County, so I couldn't definitely say that it would be different.  When we walk around here it's on a dirt road, although once and a while cars on the other side of the river do wave.  Yesterday while Paul was getting his hair cut at the barber Sadie and I started to walk down the side of Main Street (which also happens to be a freeway) to the bank, which was our next stop.  It was afternoon and there were a lot of drivers out on the road, including several big log trucks headed to Redding.  

The log trucks were headed towards us, downhill, and I winced when I saw the first one coming.  He had his jake break on (which they aren't supposed to do in town), which makes a loud vibrating sound.  About a hundred yards in front of us however, he must haven noticed the baby, because he released the break and coasted until he was a good distance past us.  

People are pretty down to earth around here and while the area is pretty redneck people are polite and have common sense.  And that's why I want to live here and raise Sadie here for as long as we can manage it.  Unfortunately with the lack of employment opportunities, I'm not sure how long that will be.  Hopefully it will last until Paul is ready to start his PhD and we'll be on to another adventure.