<\/p>\n
I never wanted to live in a small town. I have a few times and I hated it. Everybody knows your Bizness \u2026. or they think they do. Now I live on a small island. Used to be I felt reasonably anonymous. I kept a low profile the first few decades, no photos in the paper OR the post office. I still try to keep that part. Folks might know my name, but usually they don\u2019t have a mug shot to go with it.<\/p>\n
Still, you live in one place long enough, you\u2019ll lose any anonymity you might once have prized. Folks come up to me all the time in town or the local grocery, saying Hi Skeeter, how ya doin\u2019? Hell if I know half of them — embarrassing, for sure, but I\u2019m getting, if not used to it, at least not losing sleep later. I just plead geriatric dementia. Pretty soon it won\u2019t be a ploy, it\u2019ll be a diagnosis. At least I\u2019ll have years of acclimation.<\/p>\n
I shouldn\u2019t mind, I suppose. Not like I\u2019m a Class 4 predator in the neighborhood. Although \u2026 that banjo I play might qualify for some community meetings with the sheriff to warn everybody. You can\u2019t be too careful these days.<\/p>\n
But let\u2019s face it — privacy is a precious commodity, not one we should relinquish easily. Sure, we can grow a thicker skin, ignore the parochial paparazzi, try to keep our heads down but focused on the Goal, whatever the goal might be. Folks can think what they want \u2026 even if we\u2019ve tried to create an Image.<\/p>\n
Comes a time, though, when public opinion starts to challenge our self image. Fame, even small fry, small town notoriety, seems corrosive. Like having a mirror on the wall you try to ignore, but \u2026 you peek. And the reflection isn\u2019t what you see when you brush your teeth.<\/p>\n
I suppose I could pull back in. Or move away. Or change my name. It\u2019s appealing some days. Except that I love it here. I\u2019ve been back in the woods this month. Logging. Planting trees. Lining the paths with bleeding hearts. It\u2019s a great escape. It might just be a start. Until the raccoons get too familiar with me.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I never wanted to live in a small town. I have a few times and I hated it. Everybody knows your Bizness \u2026. or they think they do. Now I live on a small island. Used to be I felt reasonably anonymous. I kept a low profile the first few decades, no photos in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5563","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-rantings-and-ravings"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.skeeterdaddle.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5563","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.skeeterdaddle.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.skeeterdaddle.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.skeeterdaddle.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.skeeterdaddle.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5563"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.skeeterdaddle.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5563\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5564,"href":"https:\/\/www.skeeterdaddle.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5563\/revisions\/5564"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.skeeterdaddle.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5563"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.skeeterdaddle.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5563"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.skeeterdaddle.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}