A bad thing happened to a good place

Like most towns, GroveAtopia is dotted with various small grocery stores and mini marts. Some are of the chain variety and some are just a little corner grocery store owned by a real person.

That's what Diane's Market was. A little corner grocery store owned by a real person whose real name was Diane. That's Diane in the picture over there.

Diane's used to be Rita's. And yes there was a Rita too. In fact it's been a corner grocery store owned by a real person for a very long time.

Four years ago when Rita's became Diane's it took us all awhile to get used to it. We kept calling it Rita's for awhile until we finally got it through our heads that it was now Diane's.

There were a few changes too. Diane brought in little tables and chairs. She started a free lending library. She had a very large Pez collection on the wall. And she sold paraphernalia. She kept it in a little case behind the counter.

Lots of people went to Diane's. Usually they would run in, pick up something and run out. It was that kind of place. No lines, just that stuff you need at the last minute, or that one item you need and don't want to wade through the vastness of Safeway to get.

But others, those who had no place else to go, didn't run in and pick something up and run out. They walked in and stayed. They hung out there.

Diane tried to be tolerant, but sometimes people did bad things while they were hanging out and Diane had to call the police. But Diane said the police wouldn't help her. The bad people kept coming back. She wrote letters about it to the paper.

So when a disgruntled employee accused her and her husband Dave of selling marjuana at the store and accepting the Oregon Trail card for payment, the police arrested them. They searched Dave and Diane's house and found Dave was growing marjiuana there. He had a medical permit to do that, but he might have been growing more than was allowed. Both Dave and Diane's mug shots were in the paper.

The charges were dropped, but the accusation lingered. People stopped coming to Diane's. They stopped paying their debts.

So now she has to close the store and leave GroveAtopia to move back to where she came from.

As for the rest of us, now we have to worry. Was someone we know falsely accused? Did an injustice take place? Where will the elderly people who live across the street shop now? Who will buy the store? Will it even keep being a grocery store?

But our biggest worry is this: were we too quick to judge?

My Favorite Moss

Most of the rest of the world has the usual seasons, Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter. Here in GroveAtopia, our seasons are different.

You've already learned about The Lovely Season. Well now it is The Moss Season.

You might think you've seen moss. Nearly everyone has. But you really haven't seen moss until you've been in GroveAtopia during The Moss Season.

Step outside on a gray and mild day and the moss is there. You can almost see it grow. It is hairier and bushier and leafier today than it was yesterday. It has almost devoured the birdhouse. The fence posts are barely visible and some of the tree trunks have such a lush green carpet of moss you swear they have lost their bark beneath.

Which do you like best? The moss that looks like lettuce leaves? The moss that looks like little green stars or the moss that if you look very closely looks like it would feel soft, but really doesn't?

My favorite is the slender spiky moss that has a little cup at the top that contains a small red, what is it? Well it isn't a flower, because moss does not flower. It's a little tiny dollop of something that clearly belongs to the plant. Fairies probably look at it as a special treat, it being practically the only thing that isn't some shade of green in the moss world.

When it gets cold, the moss shrinks away. We worry about it then. Is it dead? Will it come back? Without it everything looks like everywhere else does in winter. Brown.

But then the temperature gets warmer and the rain returns and so does the moss. What were you worried about? It always comes back. It is our own little miracle that shows us that even in the midst of winter things grow. It gives us hope and helps remind us there is more, much more, to come.

GroveAtopia, A-Z

GroveAtopia's favorite publication was in the mailbox yesterday. The new phone book arrived!

Our phone book is probably the most well-thumbed book we GroveAtopians own. We are always meeting new people, and since our town is small, we know we will see them again. Soon.

So when we meet them, we exchange talk, then, if it didn't come up in the conversation, we go home and look them up in the phone book to find out where they live.

Unlike big city phone books, the GroveAtopia phone book is manageable. It fits nicely in any drawer and does not require any special weightlifting training to manueuver. At 1/2 an inch thick and 150 pages it is large enough to be taken seriously, unlike the phone books of tiny towns that are not much bigger than a pamphlet. And, unlike big city phone books, when you leaf through the GroveAtopian phone book, there, on every page is at the name of at least one person you know.

But maybe you didn't know they lived out Mosby Creek way and those others live on Bennett Creek. You didn't know they lived right here in town, and just were is Valley View Drive?

Seeing so many people you know as you browse through the phone book is comforting. No, you don't know all of them. You probably don't even know half of them. But you do know enough of them that you feel good when you find your own name, because there it is, surrounded by more people you know, or will know, instead of by the tiny names of many, many, many people you don't know and never will.

Alley cats

Here in GroveAtopia we have alleys. And we have cats. So we have alley cats.

There aren't a lot of them, nor are there too many of them, but they are there.

It's the same with the alleys. There aren't a lot of them, nor are there too many of them, but they too are there.

The alleys run behind the businesses on both sides of Main Street. They are used for deliveries and storage, for garbage cans and boxes. And sometimes they are used as short cuts. That's when there can be trouble.

You see, the cats also use the alleys. Some live there. Some are just there because a kindly business owner feeds them there. The trouble comes when some people use the alleys as shortcuts they either don't know or entirely forget about the cats and that can lead to unpleasant encounters.

Of course the Bookmine has cats. One or two of them live in the shop itself, but then there are those who live in the alley. Gail feeds them there, so of course they linger, waiting.

So one day when Gail was talking about this problem with one of her customers, that customer offered to paint her a sign to hang in the alley. "Sure," said Gail. "Thanks."

Expecting a simple warning sign, imagine Gail's surprise when the customer presented her with this lovely piece of artwork. It's much more eye catching than the usual warning sign, don't you think? Plus it adds a bit of beauty to the alley, which, well let's be honest, is not the most beautiful place in town.

But with a sign like that, it almost is.

Happy New Year! Mystery Solved!

Let's start the new year off right by solving one of GroveAtopia's great mysteries of 2009 - the Mystery boxes.

I'm sure you remember back in March, when we discussed the strange case of the mystery boxes that had been inexplicably been placed behind the bars on the porch of the historic First National Bank building on the corner of 6th and Main Street downtown. In case you don't recall, here is a picture to remind you.

Now do you remember? Those two boxes sat there in that exact position for nearly 2 years. Later a few more boxes were added, then some garbage. Clearly the situation was deteriorating. Who was putting them there? Why? All we knew was that they were coming from inside the building because those bars are never, ever, ever open. Why that is the case is yet another mystery, but let's not get carried away here. Let's stay focused on those boxes.

So you can imagine my surprise when a few weeks ago I was driving by the building and gasp! The boxes and their accompanying garbage were gone. For the first time in at least two years, that entryway was clean. Suddenly. So now the mystery was not why the boxes were there, but why the boxes were gone. Face it, everything about those boxes a mystery.

So now for the mystery solved part. A week or so later a sign appeared on the building. It's for sale. So of course the porch had to be cleaned up. Funny how it did not need to be cleaned up for us, but now that guests might be coming, well, time to clean.

It turns out that I am not the only one who noticed those boxes and that they were suddenly gone. The frame shop owner, whose building is right across the alley from the bank building, knows the lawyer who owns the building. He says he kept bugging him to remove the boxes, but somehow the owner never got around to it.

Then, later a friend at a birthday party brought up the boxes. He too noticed they were gone and had wondered why they were there in the first place. He also thinks the building would make a great toy and hobby shop, but then he is in to toys and hobbies.

So if you want to buy a building that was built in 1911, is the downtown historic district, and does not, I repeat, does not have boxes in the front entry way, then here is your chance.

And if you do buy the building, please promise you will never, ever put boxes in that entry way again.