Understanding the New Town's Culture

July 6, Trip 4, Day 7

Understanding the New Towns Culture

Our goal today was to find self-tapping screws to finish our window project. Today is Sunday. We are in a small town, Poteau, Ok, where nearly all stores and businesses are closed on Sundays. We knew there was a possibility of the one big box store in town having them, which was open on Sundays, but we wanted to start heading down toward my sisters, and we would have had to back tracked to go to the BIG STORE, which means we were going to try to find a hardware store on the way.

The morning started the same by enjoying a moderately tasty breakfast at the hotel, and setting out. Our first store that we knew would have tapping screws, was closed, and wouldn’t open until Monday. There were three more stores that we believed would have the screws we needed, but of course, they too, were closed.

As we cruised through town, we reached the end of town. With all stores closed, our mission was not going well. We decided to try the next 3 towns, but our hope was getting dashed because these were even smaller than the previous ones we just drove through. And sure enough, no self-tapping screws were to be had....ANYWHERE! We were brainstorming several solutions to finishing our window project without screws, knowing we were leaving tomorrow to head back to California, and had to get all the windows secured open for maximum air movement for the summer.

As we meandered through the mountainous forest roads, we saw a single road sign….”Mena, Arkansas - 34 miles”. I looked at Will and said, “Do you want to check out Mena, AK?” he said “Sure, why not”. So, off we went to Mena, Arkansas to find self-tapping screws. It was a nice 45 minute drive on a two way tree lined highway. We eventually reached the town of Mena. This town too, was closed down because it was a Sunday, but we found a big nation-wide store that had the tapping screws we needed. Well, at least we could finish our project.

A thought to ponder: Having lived in a larger California town compared to these much smaller Oklahoma towns, we will need to adjust our thinking and habits. Where we lived, most stores are open seven days a week. If we needed supplies, from coffee to hedge cutters, stores were mostly open. Understanding many southern state towns, which lean more toward church-going residents, businesses are closed to allow employees to attend services. Planning ahead, and realizing their culture will give us the understanding we need to assimilate to this new state.

Now, headed back towards my sister’s town, we were able to finish the last of the window screens and moved all the cats into the larger living room area. Now the cats will be cooler and have better air movement through the hot humid days of Oklahoma that are on the horizon. We cleaned up, and invited Sis and her husband to go to dinner. But her husband wasn’t feeling well, so we headed back to our hotel, picked up some microwaveable dinners, (but we also bought some festive drinks for the evening) plus a dessert and we called the day finished. A long day, a relaxed day, a productive day, a simple day. Tomorrow we head back home to California.