Obviously today is voting day. Thank Goodness! I’ve never known a time when we’ve gotten so many phone calls this past month on who to vote for, and I know that we were not alone!
I took my lunch hour and headed to town to cast my vote. I really didn’t know much about some of the other’s running, but I really did want to vote for the President of my choice. When I just started walking down the hallway in the community center, I could see that the people that were working there made eye contact with me and was starting to pull my voting record. About the time that I got in front of the group at the table, I could see this one elderly lady getting very confused. Finally she leaned over to the other elderly lady and said that she couldn’t find my name anywhere. Now I thought that this was odd because I didn’t even say my name and I also knew that I’ve always voted in the past. But living in a small town, everyone knows everyone, so I didn’t think too much of it, and I knew she’d find it sooner or later. Then when the one lady said my name, I realized that she was calling me by my maiden name from 30 years ago. We all got a chuckle out of this, well almost everyone. The one lady who couldn’t find my name wasn’t really laughing and wouldn’t let it drop. When I was voting she was saying that when she moved to the area, everyone wanted to know her maiden name and just ‘who she belonged to’. She said that she grew up in another state, but it didn’t matter because she said they just kept asking her. I was listening to this whole conversation when I was voting, and when I was done these ladies said that they knew my married name, they also knew where I grew up, but just who did I belong to? If you’re from around this area, the statement ‘who you belong to’ is just a way to ask who your family is. It kind of struck me funny, and when I left I had to admit I had a smile on my face. I thought to myself, how some things never change. I remember hearing my folks talk about others when I was growing up and they knew just who belonged to who and it always amazed me.
- City Hall in town
Fast forward to later this afternoon. I had an eye appointment and after waiting what seemed forever to get waited on, I started to make conversation with the lady and her daughter waiting in line by me. We made polite conversation and then I asked ‘the’ question. Because she was working not too far where our farm is, I asked what her maiden name was. Can you believe it? Just after I got the biggest kick out of these elderly ladies carrying on this huge conversation, I did the exact same thing. If I didn’t get waited on when I did, who knows… I might just have found out who these two ladies actually belonged to.