Goldfish crackers

Carrboro, North Carolina is quickly becoming one of my favorite places. It could be the weekly outdoor music concerts on the lawn of a a food co-op , or the ice cream parlor with rocking chairs out front, or that on the particular day we first went, there were dozens of children hula-hooping to live music, most wearing no shoes. Each Sunday the entire town gathers on the lawn of “Weaver St. Market” a wonderful co-op store in the center of town. Children, adults, grandparents, college kids, all congregate and share Sunday brunch together. Blankets line the lawn, dogs play catch, Moms nurse their babies. It’s something out of a book, a really good book. In the midst of all that was going on that particular Sunday a little girl wandered from blanket to blanket, greeting the people who sat on them and asking them if they had an goldfish crackers. She finally found the magic picnic basket that contained them, and was encouraged to help herself to them. Imagine that, a place in this country where a child can wander through strangers in search of goldfish crackers, all to be greeted with smiles and a handful of crackers. I wonder what makes a town become that way. How a town of people can collectively be kind and loving and caring, enough so that a 3 year old little girl feels safe and secure enough to travel through a field of blankets and people asking for what she wants most.