A Day On The Town Just Isn't Complete Without Bluegrass

Today has become our most advantageous day of exploring the town yet. When this morning began with no immediate plans in mind, foresight declared that this would be another ordinary day but destiny had a different plan. As Katie and I sipped coffee in the living room, as civilized people often do early in the morning, we came to the realization that yards sales were being conducted all around our town. “Why don’t we go yard-saling?” said Katie “By George that’s a splendid idea my dear.” Of course our actual conversation was less stunning and without the proper English. Continuing on, we quickly made plans to set out and within two shakes of a lambs tale we were off to nowhere specific.

Our first excursion proved rather fruitless as we wound down back roads in search of a phantom yard sale. When no progress could be made towards the first location we allowed ourselves to be distracted by another path. On this second trip we followed posters to an unimpressive collection of railroad spikes, old clothes and weird gloves. I know, I know, sounds like a winner but we were able to contain our buying impulses and leave. At this point the yard sale search started to seem like a hunt for an expired piece of chewing gum underneath one of a cafeteria full of tables. Meaning, it’s hard to find and when you do it’s not much to look at. However we are persevering people and would not give up, so further down the road we went. Somewhere along the way a temporary case of A.D.D. broadsided us and we changed our minds about the yard sales in favor of a flea market and a walk downtown.

This is where the good stuff was. Imagine the scene: tables and lawn chairs lined strategically for over 400 feet, on a backdrop of pickup trucks old enough to be my mechanical grandpa and just to complete the mood: the heavenly sounds of bluegrass and 80‘s rock serenaded our walk. Overall it was enjoyable, we only bought a magazine but there is just something entertaining about looking at other peoples junk. After 45 minutes in the sun spying out Atari game systems and discount circular saws we headed downtown.

The first store we visited was Uptown Antiques and Collectibles--it also turned out to be our last. Not because we were scared away but because in that store we met one, Mr. Crous. He was a talkative man of about 63 years and very friendly. He gave us a much intriguing history lesson on downtown Beckley. Apparently downtown used to be the main attraction but in the last few years has become a business place for law offices and banks. The old coffeehouse was bought out by an attorney, the Montgomery Ward’s became the courthouse, you know how it goes. Mr. Crous also informed us of a large arts and crafts festival that was going on today. He pointed us in the right direction and off we went, not that his instructions helped us any. But, lucky for us, Beckley has a handy sign on each corner downtown pointing you in the direction of all landmarks and hot spots. In this case we were going to the armory. We gained admittance after paying $2 for parking and $8 in entrance fees but it was worth it. This craft show was monstrous, and believe me I know craft shows. We wandered, meandered and gandered until hunger over took us and we left.

In all this we didn’t buy much, but we sure did have fun seeing the town, finding new routes to drive and meeting interesting people.

Now if you would, ladies and gentlemen, clear your minds of all aforementioned imageries and mental pictures so that I may create a new verbal portrait for you. This one was set only a day ago in a mall not too far from our home. A young lady about 20 years of age had brought herself to the JC Penny location at this mall for a 11:00 interview. She had primped and prepared herself for this occasion only to find that her interview was nearly forgotten. But at her plea a manager agreed to meet with her briefly. She had her doubts that this interview would go well and after a few sentences were exchanged her doubts proved correct. This young lady was Katie and the interview didn’t work out because JC Penny could not offer her what she had specified in her application. They said they could only give about 30 hours per week, and she had to be flexible in her schedule as well as work Saturday night and Sundays. Katie, with as much politeness as she could exude, let the interviewer know that the job was not right for her so they needed to waste no more time speaking. All this came to pass in about 7 minutes.

As it may sound the job search continues, tomorrow being one full month since we left Chick-Fil-A in Baltimore. But God is certainly providing. It is nerve racking looking to start school with neither of us having a job but we trust God to make a way because he has given us no reason to doubt yet.

To the right we have added an e-mail subscription feature. If you enter your e-mail address and click subscribe you can get an e-mail notification whenever a new post is made here. At this time we are updating about every other day, so that is as often as you would get an e-mail. You won't get any junk or spam just a summary of the new post to let you know that we have updated so you can come check it out. We hope everyone will take advantage of that, because having Matt and Katie in your inbox just makes the day shine.