On Wed, 28 Nov 2012 07:35:17 -0600, dpb wrote:

On 11/28/2012 1:14 AM, micky wrote:
On Sun, 25 Nov 2012 08:34:57 -0600, wrote:
...

This was a fairly small (15K) SW KS farm community w/ newly
arriving oil/natural gas exploration and some small manufacturing
for Cessna and Beech aircraft. It had more retail and services by
far than the local population alone would suggest being the largest
(by far) town for an area of roughly 80 mile radius to the east,
south and west and 30-40 mi to the north. The estimated retail
service population was probably about 50-60k at the time if
included that service area...

Today the population of the town has almost doubled and it still
serves as a regional center but the demographics and work other
than farm has shifted radically. Amazingly there were crowds at
the W-M supercenter to the extent the fire marshall locked them
down to letting others in only as a group left...can't imagine what
could _possibly_ be worth the hassle.

Great story.

Another W-M story of the regional shopping ilk--shortly after returned
to the family farm (been over 10 yr now; seems amazing) I went to the
W-M which is something I try to avoid at almost all costs on a Saturday
afternoon, particularly, but---

Was following a young woman w/ her daughter of roughly 9-10 I'd guess.
When got into the store and passing the electronics section on the left
and the general merchandise including a bunch of kids toys like bikes,
etc., on the right, the little girl twirled around on her toes w/ her
arms spread, looked around and said "Mom, I don't think we're in [small
TX panhandle town] anymore!!!"



(+) Part of what makes it a cute story to me is that one of the local
attractions is "Dorothy's House" which is a Wizard of Oz touristy thing.
So the play off it was undoubtedly deliberate; it is an annual
destination for school and other young groups field trips all over the area.

A clever little girl.