Why I Love Midwestern Small Towns

Today on our way to a funeral visitation, we had occasion to stop for lunch in Laurie, Missouri. The population of Laurie was 1000 in 2000. We stopped at restaurant called Val's. "Country Cooking and Sassy Servers" the sign said. It was an excellent choice and reinforced my love of Mid-America. The server in the back shouted at us to sit anywhere we wanted. Another server immediately brought us huge glasses of ice water and informed us that she was one of the nice servers---not one of the sassy ones. The place was mostly locals dressed in plaid flannel and worn denim. Shaving was not a high priority for most of the men; good eating and friendly chatter was. Servers called everyone by first names or "hon" and took good care of them. As soon as one couple sat down gigantic glasses of PepsiCola were placed in front of them. They didn't have to order---the server knew. It was afternoon, but breakfast could still be ordered and we did---a two-egg omelet was a pile of eggs and I mean a pile---we could have shared and still had leftovers. Coffee cups were filled before they were half empty. In spite of the sad reason for being in Laurie, we left the restaurant feeling full of food and full of love for small towns in the Midwest.