Tourist Season!

Oh, yeah, it's tourist season here in my neck of the woods. I think that last year I was too engrossed in learning my way around town and enjoying the newness of it all to notice that some folks just didn't seem to be from around here. Now that I've been up here a year I can spot the visitors. "Just what," you might be wondering, "does Mansfield, PA have there to bring in the tourists?" Well, besides the many chicken BBQ suppers, the farmer's markets & blueberry farms, Pennsylvania's Grand Canyon and the lumber museum there is plenty to do to and see! In fact just last weekend the NRA hosted their International Youth Hunters Education Challenge in Mansfield!
With just a little over a year of small town living under my belt I can tell you that I am in no ways an expert-heck I don't even own a pair of Muck books yet! But I am assimilating. I've met folks. Made friends. I know where to get a burn barrel and I can give directions to both of the funeral homes in town. One thing that I think I've gotten pretty good at over the last few months is spotting people who are not local. Being that my job puts me front and center in the busiest place in town-The Mansfield Mall (AKA-The Walmart!) I get to see 'em all coming in! Also, being that my job lets me do one of my very favorite things, chat with people, I get to ask where they are from and what brings them to our area. I absolutely do NOT have one teeny problem being nosey!
Well the other day I was giving out samples of Odwall's Mango Limeade drink and I got to meet two people that were, for me, most excellent to chat with. The first lady commented that she grows mangos in her yard at home. "Home" being Pompano Beach, Florida! Ooh! I talked her ear off about my old stompin' ground. Told her about my dad, the lighthouse and Cap's Place. She told me stories about her kids growing up in Pompano. It was awesome talking to her. A bit later in the day a family came up and tried my drink and when they spoke, I have say that like my Aunt A used to say, "it was like a salve for the soul." They were from a small town near Winston-Salem, North Carolina. The way they spoke, the words they used...oh it made me realize how much I miss hearing a good 'ole Southern accent. In talking to them I learned where "their people" come from, heard the word "y'all" a few times and they drawled "thank you, ma'am." Such lovely people and I loved chatting with them.
Now I don't know about the rest of Mansfield...but I am not sick of our tourists! Yep, there are more folks around and we don't normally have to wait for the stop light to cycle through three times before we make it through. We don't normally see cars lined up 4 deep at the gas pumps. We never have to wait for a table at a restaurant. But I surely don't think we are about to hang up a sign over Main Street that says, "Benny Go Home"!