Clyde, population 6,600, has a rich history and is dubbed “America’s Most Famous Small Town”.
I rode my bike to the coffee shop in the old downtown. Built around the turn of the 19th century, the building was probably outlined in Sherwood Anderson’s Winesburg at some point in time. As I sip my coffee, reading what consolations Nietzsche offers for difficulties, I can’t help but notice I’m the only man in the building.
I knew this coffee shop best because during middle school I would stop there in the morning to buy two fresh-baked M&M cookies and a Coke for breakfast. Surprisingly to almost everyone I’ve only had one cavity in my life.
Yesterday was my first day back in America, and I frequently found myself overwhelmed with the shear amount of conversations I was suddenly privy to understand. Initially, understanding all these conversations was frustrating. As I rode my bike up town, I passed a young woman and briefly heard her scolding a friend, reminding him that “she is carrying your baby” in a tone that argued that he should perhaps treat this other girl better than he was planning too. I don’t miss hearing those conversations.
But, the frustration disappeared in the coffee shop. At the table to my right, two women in their late 60s or early 70s sat, having a bowl of wild mushroom and rice soup and sipping on a Sierra Mist, because there was no 7UP.
They talked to the woman working there, and asked when this coffee shop had opened. 12 years ago, she thought, but I knew it to be more than that. The older of the two women, as judged by the gray of their hair, began to reminisce. This shop, when she was young, was a dime store. To me, the fact that anything in a store could cost a dime meant she was older than either of my parents, and could probably be my grandmother. They talked about how vibrant downtown used to be, and how so many of the storefronts were now empty.
I read Nietzsche’s consolations for difficulty—that only through the difficult and the ugly can something beautiful come. My hometown may be down, with cuts in the schools, few jobs, and a less-than-vibrant downtown. Something beautiful will come from the difficulty. If we work.
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