A Smaller Town

After growing up in Paris, which I call "Small Town Southern Ontario," it will be only a small adjustment when my parents soon move to an even smaller town. I just came back from a week spent at our cottage on Long Point. My parents tore down the old, ugly, and pretty much structurally unsound cottage that was there; and have built a beautiful little house to move into in the next couple of years.

The closest town to the Long Point community is Port Rowen, about 7 kilometres away. Just under 1,000 people live there, which is about a tenth of Paris's population. Besides its quaint small town, harbor side village, feel; the first thing that hinted to its uniqueness was that the hair salon on a small side road off the strip offered: hair cuts, hair products, make-up application, make-up, jewelry, small gift items, and fishing rods. We popped in to see what was for sale and I remembered that I needed to get my eyebrows waxed. I asked how much and she told me $7.50, I made an appointment for that same hour. Even in tiny Paris it is at least $12 to get it done and closer to $18 here in the city.

Not even big enough for a Tim Hortons, Port Rowan has a small coffee shop attached to a fast food burger place at the edge of town, mind you hardware stores abound. They even have a decent sized LCBO and Beer Store, though it seems only one or two bars. Along the main street, Port Rowan also has a large number of boutique gift shops, I bought a part of sliver dress shoes for work in one. No matter how small the town I can always find shoes! In one of the coffee shops you could even get a single bed size handmade quilt for $40, which is a ridiculous steal.

I got some magazines to read on the beach at the pharmacy and decided to pick up a local newspaper for $2. I discovered that "The Port Rowan Good News" is only published monthly, in comparison to "The Paris Star" which comes out every week. A full article, with photograph, in "The Port Rowan Good News" was of the lady who owns the Port of Dollars Discount Store, celebrating the store's 5th anniversary. Although it seemed odd when I read it, I remembered that it was just the sort of thing that "The Paris Star" would report on as well.

The paper also yielded a brochure for Bayfest, a country fair like event which lasts only a weekend. It has a mix of contests, church breakfasts, community BBQ's, fair rides, parades, concerts, other events, and of course fireworks. The contests range from the usual Baby and Pet ones, also seen at the week long Paris Fair, to location specific events like beach volleyball, sandcastle building, kite surfing, and skim boarding. No prizes were listed for any of the events, save one. A $300 first prize in the Ugliest Truck Competition. All Ugly Truck entries join the parade, but the best takes home the $300, an amount which was in bold type with an exclamation mark in the Bayfest pamphlet. What really set the tone for the whole event and the town in general, is that at Port Rowan's Bayfest, the clown is sponsored by the funeral home.