I live in SmallTown America (make that Small Town East Texas), and there isn't a LOT to see between home and work. That lack of distance between home and work is part of the reason that I moved here. Traffic jams occur at 7:30 am as parents take children to school and 12 noon on Sundays. That's it!
I wanted to take a picture of the Statue of Liberty person. Every tax season, some poor soul (probably earning minimum wage) dresses as the Statue of Liberty and frantically waves at people as they pass the Tax Service Place. These people dressed as the Statue look happy. Tax season starts January 1 and ends 4/15 which corresponds to the season for most inclimate weather. I consider them Brave Souls. Not a job I would want. Unfortunately, I missed the Statue when I went out Saturday (I was feeling allergic and didn't want to wait for them to come back from their potty break). Maybe next year. Although the Statue makes me smile, she does not make me want to take my taxes there.
So, I cheated just a little. On Fun Monday, not my taxes.
The following is outside of town about 5 miles and near the liquor store (NOT that I think there is a link..... I live in a dry county, by the way). This makes me smile every time I see it. I took pictures driving into town from the Big City.
"Ahhh," you say. "Tractors. Why, that is to be expected. She lives in SmallTown East Texas, after all."
But wait.....they multiplied!
There are at least 50 if not 100 rusted tractors, all facing the same direction. (I always get nervous when I stop for pictures of this so I never get a good count. For some reason, I figure the person owning all these tractors also owns a lot of guns. OK. Chances are the guns would be rusted, too, but I am not going to risk my life counting tractors.)
You think, "well, they need to have a junkyard for tractors, this is it!." Nope. The person who owns these tractors considers this some sort of museum for tractors, and is quite proud of them (or that's the story that my realtor told me 4 years, ago. Did I mention that I am gullible? Did I mention that is is only 1/2 mile from the liquor store?). However, despite the "museum" there is no sign declaring such and really, no explanation at all. If it is a junkyard for tractors it is a very neat one.
OK. An oddity on the way to SmallTown East Texas. But there is more.
A mere 1/4 mile down the road, this:
Yup. That's a plane, about to taxi onto the highway.
Please keep in mind that you have NOT YET REACHED THE LIQUOR store. I have lived in SmallTown East Texas for almost 4 years. Interestingly (or not), there used to be two planes. When I first moved , I figured that the Smiths were about to enter into a competition with the Jones' -- if the Jone's had a tractor collection well by Dog the Smiths were going to have an airplane collection! Seemed like a good explanation to me. The Realtor who explained the tractors failed to give me an explanation of the planes so I made this one up on my own. After moving here, I learned a much juicier story.
The plane is parked in front of an abandoned gas station. Behind that is a grass landing strip. The person who owned the strip was operating a flight school for, uhhhh, drug runners (big grin!). I assume he was also running drugs, himself, but I AM gullible.
Life was good for the SmallTown Flight School until the IRS caught wind. Now, how would the IRS catch wind of a flight school giving flying lessons to would be thugs?
The way the story goes.....(And this is a story. I would check it out on Urban Legends, but I live in the country so this is a Rural Legend. I am unaware of a corresponding web site to insure veracity.) Reportedly, the IRS caught wind because the the "Flight School" owner was deducting the cost of the plane for "religious purposes". I imagine that having a guy that owns a plane that looks like the one pictured teach you how to land and take off on a grass strip might be good for inducing religion even in the most skeptical of types (Gawd, please don't let me die, NOW!!!); however, this guy claimed he was holding religious services in the plane. (The Church of the Drug Runner??) I live in the Buckle of the Bible Belt. Anyone around here can tell you a plane THAT size ain' big enough for no religious service or revival. Amen.
There are a few other things in town that make me smile -- the two way streets that become One Way without warning (except at the intersection; the traffic planners obviously imbibed at the Liquor Store before the planning meeting). However, I think I am probably way beyond my word count for this FM.
Go enjoy the others that are participating.
As an aside, do you think the owner of the Flight School used the Statue of Liberty Tax Service to do his taxes? (See how nicely I tied that all together?....everything is related in Small Town East Texas. Really everything is related.).
