Small Town Living

The town (village?) that my parents live in (and that I’ve lived in for the majority of my life, about 15 years or so), is pretty small. It’s not the kind of everyone-knows-everyone-else tiny, but small in that I went to school with the vicar’s son and the optician’s daughter, and people’s grandparents from primary school will stop me in the street and talk to me. That kind of stuff.

Recently I got a job volunteering in the local Oxfam shop, which only opened a few months ago. It sells mainly books (also videos, DVDs, records and CDs, and some Fair Trade food). After seeing my sister’s pictures from Prom, I realised that I work with a girl that my sister knows (and dislikes) from school. I’ve also served the family of a girl I used to be really good friends with when I was about 10 and seen a guy I went to high school with. Walking down the High Street, I saw a girl in my year at school with her daughter (!), and in Costa I was served by a girl I used to go to sunday school with. It’s interesting to see who recognises me, who looks at me like they think they know me but can’t place me, and who completely fails to recognise me.

Even though KFC and Subway have opened recently, and some of the landmark shops (non-chain) have disappeared, like the bookshop that got burnt down and the shop that sold a ton of plastic crap, mainly for kids, it still scares me how similar the people are. Obviously people move away and move back, and get temporary jobs while they are students. But some stay in this place their whole lives, never living anywhere further than a couple of streets from where they grew up, simply leaving school and having kids. It’s so weird to think that some people my age have 5 year old children.

The people I work with at Oxfam are really nice. The manager is really laid back, and I’m used to working with people a lot older than me (generally speaking), so that’s not a problem at all. One woman who I worked with last week though, really annoyed me. She was constantly looking down at me for no reason whatsoever, and barely spoke except to say ‘Where do you live?’ in a very snooty voice. However, last Tuesday I worked with a really nice woman who, as it turns out, lives the next road up from me (see what I meant about it being a small town?). I’m working today from 1 till 4, and my hair is still wet and I’m not dressed so I need to go and get ready!