small

so usually on a weekly basis, i am reminded how small this big world of ours is. i grew up in a very small town, and it still amazes me how many people from and around that town are a. related or b. know each other. facebook makes the world an even smaller place, still. sometimes i see people that are "friends" on there and think...how do they know each other? or where did they meet? (maybe i'm the only one that feels that way, but whatever) i mean granted, i don't know (personally) all 600 or so of my "friends" on facebook...but i don't add anyone that haven't heard of, or isn't a friend of a friend. i know who these people are...in a general sense.

anyway, back to this small world thing..i was sauntering (alright, at 8 months pregnant..it's more like waddling) around the lunch room on lunch duty today. (which is a real treat let me tell you...to have this 'duty' everyday) i breezed by a bunch of milk crates that were stacked in the corner of one wall and happened to glance over and see this:

that's right folks! good old Leiby's Dairy out of Tamaqua, PA. (population: don't blink or you'll miss it) this is a town right near the town that i grew up. (ie/ our football team played their football team) some kids caught me taking a picture of the crates and they looked puzzled. i told a group of second graders i was a "milk crate collector" and i had hundreds of different kinds stored at my house. (they laughed, but they were not sure if i was serious or not. i hope at least one of them goes home and tells their mom i am an avid milk crate collector.) anyway, as i looked at this dumb crate, i thought...how in the world did this end up here. let me give you some demographics...the town where i teach is 40% white, 40% african american, 20% hispanic. tamaqua's demographics (the town where the milk crate originated from) are a bit different: 98% white, 1% african american, 1% hispanic. (i did not make this stuff up...it's straight from wikipedia.) and so, as i was staring at this milk crate...i was thinking in terms of walt disney: it's small world after all. (but seriously, i still want to know how that milk crate ended up there.)

on this same note...butch went on a field trip today to national gallery of art in DC. as we were making dinner, he said (matter of factly), "i didn't know 'the mall' (in DC) wasn't an actual mall." i said, "excuse me?" he went on to explain that he and two of his coworkers were standing outside of the museum, and he pointed to the smithsonian building and said, "so, is that the mall?" the one guy was like, "um, no...that's the smithsonian building." butch said, "ok, so where's the mall?" (meaning an actual shopping mall, not the national mall...which includes the Capitol building and several national monuments and memorials.) i started laughing at this point...i couldn't help it. he said, "so you knew it wasn't an actual mall?" yes, butch, i knew.  he then replied, "blog away, trish! blog away!" (whoops.)

so i guess two country bumpkins ended up living and working outside of DC, just how that dumb milk crate ended up here...by chance. that walt disney was one smart son of a bitch, because it truly is a small world...after all.