Saturday morning in the fall is the best time to go the post office in my town.
The women’s club is selling pecans in time for Thanksgiving dinner.
There’s a new garden club that is sprucing up flower beds around town. They’ve got some information out on the concrete table, along with a donation box, of course.
The animal shelter has a litter of kittens up for adoption. If you don’t want to take one home, you can always leave a few dollars in the coffee can next to the kitty crate.
Youth league basketball has a sign up table. Later in the year, the Boy Scouts will be taking orders for North Carolina Christmas trees. And if you still need a ticket to the community theater production, you’re in luck. The Little Theatre has a card table set up, just past the spot where the church youth group is selling donuts.
There’s a dozen folks – a crowd, by our standards – stopping by the tables. I know most by name, recognize the rest, and expect I’ll soon meet anyone who is unfamiliar to me.
My town has built a place where people naturally gather to share the information and resources that help a community thrive. Most towns have something similar.
The Daily Yonder has helped build such a space for people and organizations that care about rural America. You come here for information, to feel connected, to see what’s new.
In fine rural tradition, we’ve got the donation bucket out this month. We’d like to hear from you. Because people are what make community spaces work.
Do what you can to support this effort. And then you can spend the rest of the day feeling that quiet sense of satisfaction that comes when you know you’ve done your part.
That’s how I feel after a Saturday visit to my post office. And, if it’s an especially productive day, I even remember to pick up my mail.
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And one more thing: We’ve got some great thank-you gifts, all branded with the finely crafted Daily Yonder logo. (Sorry, we don’t have kittens to give away. But we know where you can get one or two.)
Tim Marema lives in Norris, Tennessee, and is editor of the Daily Yonder.
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