Features and Problems of a Small Town

We live in a smallish, rather conservative town.  
In one way, this can be a real asset to being accepted as we are, which one might not expect.

Myst and H. were over today visiting, and about mid afternoon Master told me I should go buy some steaks so he could cook on the grill.  Myst went with me, and right next to the store was an estate sale, so of course we stopped to look.  I had no money at all, not even a dollar, so no real chance of buying anything, without asking Master first, but it doesn't hurt to look.   

There was an extremely pretty antique dressing table (I love old furniture) that seemed reasonable (but was definitely more than I'd be allowed to spend without asking), and the seller approached me and said if I liked it I should make an offer.   

I was about to make some kind of hedging statement,  my eyes betraying me by shining with that "Oooooh, I want!" look,  when Myst stepped in and said "She'll have to ask her husband first".    The seller, a woman, just nodded as if that were the most ordinary thing in the world.   I can't imagine that being met with that nod in some of the larger, more progressive cities in which we have lived.

One of the downsides, of course, also hit me today.  The front page of our local paper ran a story about a woman who was assaulted and murdered.    She looked very familiar, and as I read the story I knew I had met her.  Myst knew her fairly well from a former job.  
When something bad happens here, it is made more alarming when it is almost always someone you know at least slightly.   They do have a suspect in custody at least, hopefully the right one.