Small Town America

I am absolutely exhausted yet wide awake at the same time. I really hate when this happens. Which is why I don't drink caffeine, however, I really, really needed a Coke on my drive home from Canton today or I was simply going to fall asleep.

I love road trips. I love exploring places I have never been, seeing all the interesting sites and just experiencing the culture of the country we live in. Today's was especially nostalgic. As I was driving to Canton I was listening to a podcast about Route 66 and how it helped bring America together and how it is very sad that there is a giant expressway right next to it and most people choose the expressway over venturing through little towns. As I was driving and feeling depressed that America has lost it's pride and everyone is just focused on getting where they have to go, not the journey it takes to get there. As this thought was passing through my head, I saw an overpass cluttered with old, beat-up American flags, and then I passed another, and almost every overpass I drove under was covered with tattered American flags. I have not been able to get that image out of my head all day. It made me think about how much American culture there is in the state of Massachusetts. Almost every person who lives there, has pride in where he/she lives. They root for a baseball team that never wins, they can't pronounce the letter R and they are proud of it! It made sense to me that the Rebels who through the Tea into the Boston Harbor(or Harbah), were from Boston. If there was going to be any people in America who were going to say "stick it" to whomever, it would be Boston(mostly because this was before Texas was around)./The whole road trip made me feel very American. From listening to stories about Route 66, to seeing tattered American flags still flying high, driving through the small towns wondering what sort of culture I could discover. To going to a meeting full of people who are employed by a company that celebrates Capitalism. I then realized it made a lot of sense to have the Regional Store Support Center of the New England Region in Massachusetts, because if any thing could get you pumped up about selling things in a flat economy, it is a short man with a Boston Accent telling inspiring stories about how customer service leads to sale, in a quaint, All-American town.

This whole adventure today made me very excited to take the Road Trip out to Colorado because, there have to be thousands of places like Canton, Massachusetts. Where American culture just flows out of, a place where you can not just pass through because you feel the need to stop at that small diner and have a piece of Apple Pie. Somewhere, where people are not afraid to say God because churches still influence their community. A place that reminds people what America is about, reminds them there are still thousand of Soldiers fighting overseas everyday to keep us safe. Somewhere that still believes in the hope and innovation that formed our Country. In New York, we just simply do not have a lot of that left and it is comforting to know that America has not lost it's spirit. That even though times are tough for just about everyone in the country. There will always be small town rapport that can bring us back together again.

I hope everyone, at least once, gets to visit a town like that.