As Bryon and I talk on our recent road trip, I referred to Dave.
“Dave who?”
“You know, Dump Station Dave.”
“Ohhh.”
As we continued on with our conversation, it occurred to me that this is just the sort of thing that occurred in a television show I watched religiously in the early 1990s. One that seemed eerily familiar to the town I now reside in. A small town located among the rugged wilderness. A town where moose walked right down the main street.
You surely remember Northern Exposure. A comedy about a bunch of memorable characters who made their home in a small town in Alaska. Its plot centered on a born and bred New York doctor who ends up as the only doctor in this small, rural town and the various characters he gets to know.
The retired astronaut. The local bar owner. The guy who runs the general store in town. The sexy woman bush pilot. The local DJ to the one and only radio station in town.
At the time I watched the show, I lived in the middle of San Francisco and found it fascinating. Little did I know that one day, I too, would be living in a rural town set against the wilderness. That I would even have moose come walking down the driveway to my house and standing near my front porch.
And as I head into my eighth year residing in Nederland, I have become to know some of our resident characters who have their own loveable, and unique personalities. People like Dump Station Dave, who sports different color hair each week I bring my garbage to the transfer station, but always has a good story to tell about his latest adventure rafting or backpacking.
Or mild-mannered Jay the librarian, who is kind and caring and works tirelessly to improve and make the Nederland library a place that is welcomes any and all who come there.
Or Serene, leader of the Mountain Mid-life Group, who at one point this past summer, cooked breakfast for some 40 of her members. And organizes interesting outings to get people out and about and involved in all things Nederland.
Or Phil, the guy who bought yaks to get a tax break, but then kept losing them that first summer as the escaped from him and ran around all over town.
Yes, life in a small mountain town of Nederland can imitate art. I get to have my own Northern Exposure moments of wonder, laughter and outright surprise over the people and things I see on a daily basis.
Welcome to Nederland!
