Bakers Rack = Small Alabama Towns

26.9.08 - Friday

This lovely piece of furniture is called a Baker’s Rack. And it is helping me fill the void of having no pantry in my apartment. (Seriously, what kind of apartment doesn’t have a pantry!?) I recently bought it off craigslist for like $25 (a steal!) under the assumption that it would be easily attained by myself by just driving by the previous owner’s house & picking it up. But I have yet to learn, that things aren’t always as easy as they seem.

So, I started off my little adventure to Maysville, Alabama with directions from Google Maps & $40 cash. I’m jamming to the radio in my car & cruising down Highway 72 keeping an eye out for the road sign indicating where I will turn off. Umm… this simple task turned out to be a lot harder than I thought. Why? Oh, well, maybe because I was in the middle of the Boondocks where they don’t believe in street signs bigger than the size of a ruler. Nor do they believe that they should be placed on both sides of a road, where people can read them regardless of which side of the highway they are on. This resulted in me driving a good 15 miles past my turn-off, only to realize this when I drove past a Piggly Wiggly. Yup, a Piggly Wiggly. At that point, I knew something was wrong. Piggly Wiggly’s don’t exist within 20 miles of Huntsville.

So I turn around, call the house I’m trying to get to & set on my merry way again. I finally find my turn off. Yay! It’s another 3 miles down the road until I get to their neighborhood, so I’m watching all the scenery go by. And by scenery I mean little tiny shacks that say “Feed” and “Grocer” on them. Amazing. I feel like I’ve fallen into a secret little southern Pleasantville. I get to the neighborhood, and now I know I’ve made it to Pleasantville. The neighborhood is kind of in the middle of nowhere, and all the houses are the same. The grass in their yards is all the same. It seems that all the cars in the driveways are all the same. It’s not creepy, just a little strange. Very “Wrinkle in Time.”

But I get my Bakers Rack, and return home with a little adventure in my back pocket. Good thing that thing sat in the back of my car in pieces for the better part of a week. And good thing it now provides me with my own little pantry. Good story. :)