by small town, i actually mean

-no bank. of any sort.
-no grocery store.
-no mail carrier. everyone has a p.o. box, and has to go to the post office to pick up/drop off mail. not like it's out of your way.
-no police force. worst crime i've heard about: people siphoning gas from Dell Arte's vans.
-oh, but don't worry, there is a fire station. you can hear the alarms from anywhere in town. it occasionally wakes me up early in the morning.
-people "drive into town" for groceries, new clothes, to deposit a paycheck. the "town" being Arcata (population, about 17,000). and yes, people will actually say: I'm driving into town, does anyone need anything?
-my walk to work through "downtown Blue Lake" is approximately the distance from the Mime Troupe to....mmmm....the corner store at 22nd and Folsom.
-you can get ice from the bar if you run out, and Brenda (the bartender) is probably playing playstation, and you know everyone in the bar and stop to talk for a bit, maybe invite them over for the dinner you're about to eat.
-friday night, i was having dinner at a friends, and my sound tech for our big summer show was walking by on the street. he came in and had some ribs and explained that he was supposed to help someone move. of course, the people i was eating with knew who was moving, and the reason. later, someone else stopped in on her way to the bar, and said she was watching the kids of the person that was supposed to be moving later that night.


this "town" literally consists of:
-2 gas stations
-fire station (very small)
-post office
-the logger (a bar)
-a cafe (good burgers, as i remember, not so good veggie burgers)
-Mad River Grange (kind of a community space...sometimes there are yoga classes, we're having our big Festival kick off/prize of hope dinner there, they have a 3rd sunday breakfast, city council meetings, etc.)
-Blue Lake Museum (open I think 3 half days a week...I really want to go)
-Mad River Brewing Company (this is outside of Blue Lake...down by the river)
-Dell Arte

Latest population estimates: 1,110. Wait wait, as of Friday, 1,113. Size of the town: .6 square miles.

check out the wikipedia page: Blue Lake, CA