A drive around the 'ville

The other morning I had dropped Big D off at a friend and taken Belvedere to the doctor.  When we were done it was 45 minutes before I needed to get D and Bel fell asleep within 30 seconds of being buckled into her car seat so I decided to let her sleep and cruise the 'ville for a while.  Here is a photo essay of my travels:

Stop 1: Dyed Hyde Tattoo parlor

Oh, there is just soooooo much to say about this.  First of all, a note of astonishment that the owner of Dyed Hyde Tattoos went to the effort and expense of making a permanent, professionally made sign to express his displeasure with Woody's Tire and Auto.  Second, this would be completely ineffective in a large city where no one would know who Woody was.  Not so here.  The half dozen car repair shops are well known by everyone.  My curiosity lies in the question of whether people will see this and think, "Wow, I'll think twice before taking my car to Woody's," which is my city girl response.  But the more I think about what the people in town will think, I'm not sure this is going to sway public opinion.  I'm fairly certain that with respect to this sign there are two groups of people.

Group 1:  Takes their car to Woody's every couple months whether there's anything wrong or not because they're old high school buddies. While there they make all sorts of rude jokes about the loonies who run the tattoo parlor.

Group 2: Wouldn't dream of taking their car to Woody's, but not because of how he fixes cars.  They just remember that he dropped the pass that lost them the game in the semi-regional Northeast Missouri football championship in 1989.  And no one is about to forgive him for that yet. 

And really, all that aside, I can not stop giggling at the quotation marks and exclamation points.  All followed by the modest, professional "inquire within."


Stop 2-Flamingo village

Then I ran across this house.  Yes, those are all plastic flamingos.  The optimistic part of me wants to think this was some equivalent of TP-ing, but that voice that's been observing small town life for the last four years just rolls it's eyes and mutters, "Sure, they'll all be gone next week.  Just drive by and check."  And you know I will.

Stop 3:
Lest you think that this town is all tackiness, I'd like to point out that there are some truely beautiful things about it.  When we moved here this house was a hollow, broken down husk of a building.  About a year ago I saw people working on it but haven't driven by it since.  I have to say they did a beautiful job.  I'd love to see the inside.  The opposite side of the house from here has a beautiful porch.  Love it.  The picture doesn't quite do it justice.