Small Town, USA

          When I told my friend, Srianee, about my 2021 goal to have a conversation with 1,000 strangers, she came back the next day with a plan: We take a road trip, stop along the way in small towns, and listen to the stories of the people we find on our path. We planned the starting time and location and made the commitment to play it by ear and listen without judgment.

          We set off from Connecticut and touched 12 different states from Vermont to Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee. This small adventure was far more interesting and heart-warming than we ever could have imagined. We were often greeted by others, rather than vice versa. John, a history teacher on summer break in Peebles, Ohio offered to show us around the town – the inside of the beautiful building we were admiring, the new “Welcome to Peebles” mural that was recently painted on the side of a building, and more. In Danville, Kentucky, Grace, a student at the local university offered to show us around her campus. She is majoring in Environmental Studies and has been a student of Mandarin for the past 11 years. And at the incredible Berea College, the first non-segregated, coeducational college in the South, Michaela explained to us that she was able to graduate without debt because of the school’s requirement that all students work on campus to offset their tuition and room and board.

          Several of our new acquaintances gave us advice about people and places we should not miss. The men at the Water and Sewer facility in Ellenboro, West Virginia told us we should definitely stop by the red brick home of Sam Hogue, the famous “Hillbilly Marble Maker”. The wife of Jim Cantrell, the first Kentucky artist to be selected as Churchill Down’s official artist of the 2017 Kentucky Derby, suggested several spots in their beautiful town of Bardstown. Because of the help of our “strangers”, we were led to Bristol, Virginia and Bristol, Tennessee — sister cities, with the state line running right down the center of State Street; to the Metro-North station in New Hamburg, NY for a ride to the lovely town of Cold Spring; to Tater Knob Ceramics; and to Apollo Pizza in Berea where I had the best sandwich of my life. I also must mention the Fried Green Tomato Caprese Salad in Danville, KY.

          Most of those we met seemed to have fared well during the pandemic, economic downturns and societal challenges, but some suffered. The owner of Chams Lebanese Cuisine in Parkersburg, West Virginia told us they were able to stay afloat because of “the kindness of our loyal customers.” The owner of a Polish Pottery shop in Pennsylvania told us that business was good throughout the pandemic and when the governor lifted the restrictions, people were lined up down the block to get into the store. But one small town in West Virginia has lost 43% of their population in the last nine years, and another in Ohio has people traveling 50 miles to get work because of the closing of local industries. A young, talented potter told me he struggles with his former opioid use and has lost three friends to overdoses. When we asked painter and calligrapher, Bob Berger, of the Artisan Village section of Berea, KY if his business did okay through the pandemic, he smiled and said, “No, no one had money for art; they were all doing silly things like buying food for their families and paying their rent.”

          There were so many more “strangers” than I can mention in this blog. Every person we met and talked with was kind, open, and generous. I have a new love for small towns where I realized it was the two of us who were the strangers, and everyone had a unique story to tell. Conversations ranged from humorous to touching and from somewhat brief to quite involved and lengthy. I hope and believe that each of the 56 people with whom we engaged were met with the same respect that we were shown. As June Jordan once wrote, “I am a stranger learning to worship the strangers around me.”