Rumors in a small town.

Oh, I'm going to miss this small East Texas town (Population 322). The chicken fried steak. The longhorn ranches. The 20 year old pickup trucks. The lazy summer days. The ability to leave my doors unlocked. But one thing I will miss the most is the RUMORS.

Rumors to a small east Texas town are like the oil industry to Houston. The town simply could not survive without them. The little restaurant here in town has a sign that says "You don't see much in a small town, but what you hear makes up for it". It is so true.

Now, the sign might be true, but the RUMORS are usually about as true as what's in the National Enquirer. And because my husband is the town minister we generally hear all the rumors. An example, you ask? (See? You want to hear the rumors, too!). Well, a few weeks ago someone called here at 10pm and told my husband that the church in the neighboring small town was on fire. He agreed to go check it out (10 miles away), even though by the time he was called we were sure someone had called the fire department already. Sure enough, he gets over there and it was just a ...RUMOR. The church was fine.

Another time someone called and said there was a rumor that one of our congregates had died. My husband quickly called the family to see what happened...(after all, he is usually the first one that people call when a family member dies). They were fine and had no idea where the rumor came from.

Some of the rumors ARE true, though. For example...we would get a lot of vegetables given to us in the spring and summer. So much so that, being it was just the two of us, we could not eat them before they spoiled. And we would tell people that. And they would still give them to us in bushels. I would freeze what I could, but our freezer only has so much room. So, one day we had to throw some green onions away. Someone FOUND them in our trash (I would like to know why they were snooping through our trash in the first place). And told someone. Who told the person who grows onions. Who came up to me and asked why we threw away their onions. Sigh.

OK, maybe I won’t miss the rumors.

Question: Were you ever the victim of a rumor that wasn’t true?