Pawn Shops, FedEx, and Small Town Directions.

The Perfect dinging bell rang as I walked through the doors of the post office of our newly acquired small town.

I was struggling as I carried in a wrapped gift nearly half my size.

I had a slew of packages to ship off for my business and said gift. Nothing crazy but does anyone else feel an immense amount of inadequacies in a post office?

Where ya just feel like you have to ask “ how to do this?” every time you walk in? Always writing the address in the wrong place or accidentally buying packaging for triple the price and the post master gently reminding you of cheaper options after you’ve inserted your card to redeem your overpaid destiny.

That’s me and has been me for the entirety of my post office attending years.

I mailed off my pre-packaged items and felt super secure, like a seasoned post office-r.

Then came the moment I dreaded. The package that was my size. It stared at me so beautifully packaged to await its “How do I do this?” destiny.

I picked up the package and said, “ What is the best way for me to package this? Do y’all have a bigger box it can fit in to ship?”

The man at the counter stared at it a while and then decided on calling in reinforcements because he didn’t think they had a box big enough to wrap up that gift.

The next man walks in. Gives it a good stare. Then he begins. Begins a language that I didn’t know still existed. He gave me small town directions. Both figuratively and directionally.

“Alright ma’am” he started in an accent similar to the ones I have always felt were exaggerated in Hollywood.

“You got a couple of options here. Number 1, you can go back up the road to the walmart, grab you a bigger box. All them boxes is right next to technology stuff. Can’t miss it. Grab you one of them, box it up and bring it back here to us.”

I listened intently hoping that another option would come up to keep me from making my 74th trip to walmart that day.

“Now option number two is this: Go on up to walmart, grab ya a bigger box, package it up and go to Latham’s Pharmacy. It’s just right up the road.”

‘A pharmacy’, I thought. I need to understand how this is all a part of shipping options.

“Now when you go in Latham’s you’ll have the pharmacy, the grill where they cook burgers, and then the UPS. Go to the counter and tell them that you are there for UPS and they might be able to ship it for you.”

At this point my ability to opt out of walmart was slipping through my fingers.

“Now ya third option might keep ya from walmart” He went on.

‘Glory to you Father’, I thought.

“You know where Burger King is on 231?” He asked

I nodded.

“Across 231 from Burger King is a pawn shop.”

At this point, the words “pawn shop” made walmart sound glorious.

“Now the pawn shop has 2 doors. One door takes you in the pawn shop but the other door is a FedEx. Now I am not too sure which door is the Pawn Shop and which one is FedEx but when you go in just ask and they will let you know if you are in the right place. The owner decided to get one put in to help folks ship stuff. Just kinda goes together… like salt and pepper, you know?” he finished.

‘Does it? Does it go together like salt and pepper? ’ I lovingly thought.

I smiled… and repeated back his very detailed instructions to me. Made sure I understood and walked back to my car. Trying to decide which fate I would take all while wondering what world I hand landed in.

I opted for pawnshop/Fedex because it seemed like the option that would give me the most bang for my buck and honestly I just didn’t want to go back to walmart.

I took a leap of faith, drove myself to the pawnshop to find that the post man was indeed wrong, there was a small fedex sign pasted to the door defining which side to take when coming to the shop.

Thank you Lord.

As I write this I cannot help but laugh.

Not necessarily that the descriptions of everything he told me were so random and seemingly absurd, but because there is something so sweet about a small town.

There is a lack. The good kind of lack.

Lacking pretentiousness.

Lacking a need for 3 brick and mortars when you can have a pharmacy, grill and UPS store all in one.

Lacking a care that that isn’t the norm for any other town carrying a population of more than 10k people.

I love that directions involve landmarks instead of road names.

That it involves engaging with people to figure out if you’re in the right spot AND knowing that when you ask, the next person will willingly take you to where you need to go, without an ounce of hurry in their bones.

The best lack I have noticed in this small corner of Alabama is that not a soul on earth is in too much of a hurry to help someone else.

It’s the norm.

And honestly, I am hopeful that one day it will be mine.

That I can release the spirit of hurry out of my life by living here long enough to realize what I have missed because it ruled over me too long.

For now, I’ll smile and giggle to myself when I eat a hotdog at the pharmacy/grill/UPS store before passing pawnshop/fedex shop on my way to walmart.