Somewhere I once heard that the average small town in Montana had the same number of bars as churches. If that was the case, I think our small town might have fallen short in the bar department. We have the Grand, which was the hangout for cattle ranchers and cattle buyers. The Court was the hangout of sheep ranchers and wool buyers. The Timber was . . . You can guess who hung out around there. There were a few other places that served alcohol. Fries Cafe had a bar, the Legion Club had a bar, the Moose Lodge had a bar. There were probably a few others. But when it came to churches we had Catholic, Lutheran, Episcopal, Congregational, Brethren, Church of God, and quite a few others.

Then, when our children were in high school, we observed another measure of community life. When we went to Seattle on vacation one time we decided that Seattle must have some kind of a city ordinance that required each Starbucks to be built within sight of another Starbucks coffee shop. I don’t think there are quite as many espresso shops in Seattle these days, but there are still a lot. And all of the towns in the area have multiple espresso shops. In addition to the ones that have seating areas, there are countless kiosks that sell beverages through drive-up windows. In Blaine we have one that is shaped like a tugboat on dry land. A chain that is prominent in our area has shops that are constructed as hexagons with cupolas at the top of their high roofs.

Visiting the South, we have found another measure of culture around here and it isn’t the existence of Waffle House restaurants, which are definitely a sign of southern living. There is no such establishment anywhere up north. We are wondering, as we travel around the area whether there is a requirement that there be the same number of Dollar General stores as there are Baptist Churches.

I’m not including Methodist, Lutheran, AME, Episcopal, and Catholic Churches in my count, although those are pretty abundant around here as well. But this is definitely an area where there are a lot of Baptist Churches. From their names, I’m pretty sure that there are a lot of different brands of Baptists around here, but they all are pretty bold at including Baptist on their signs.

Some of the Baptist churches have their address as part of their name like Alice Drive Baptist Church and Wise Drive Baptist Church. There are several that claim to be first, like First Baptist Church and First Missionary Baptist Church. New Baptist churches seem to be popular, including New Baptist Church, New Fellowship Baptist Church, New Calvary Baptist Church, and New Salem Baptist Church. There is a Salem Baptist Church, but we didn’t find an Old Fellowship or Old Calvary Baptist Church. Mount Zion Baptist Church does not appear to be on a Mountain or even a hill for that matter. There are Northside and an Eastside churches, but we haven’t found a Westside church. There is a New Southern Baptist Church, however. I don’t know if it is a new South, a new Baptist, or a new church. A few are temples rather than churches.

Google “Sumpter SC Baptist Churches and you’ll get six pages of listings with plenty of entertaining names for churches.

OK, I’m pretty sure that Dollar General stores aren’t quite as prolific as Baptist churches in this region. Nonetheless, there are a lot of Dollar General stores around here. There are two of them right across the street from two different entrances to Shaw Air Force Base, and at least another three within a couple of miles. Go into the village of Sumpter, and you’ll see a lot more on the way and quite a few in the town.

Dollar General seems to be the most popular brand of Dollar Stores around here, but they aren’t the only ones. There are Family Dollar and Dollar Tree. I haven’t gone into any of the dollar stores around here, but I suspect that their inventory and prices are very similar to the many dollar stores around communities in Washington. Having shopped in a couple of them near our home I keep wondering how long they can keep their name now that they have so many items that cost more than a dollar. “Buck and a Half Stores” doesn’t have the same ring and there are plenty of things that cost $3 of $5 as well. Maybe they will go the way of dime stores. You don’t see any more dime stores these days and you have to be talking with someone my age or older to find anyone who even remembers dime stores. And the store in our town was a 5 and dime store. They had a few things that could be purchased for a nickel. Montana, where I grew up doesn’t hav sales tax, so the price of an item is the actual amount needed to take it home. I can remember when a nickel would buy 5 pieces of bubble gum. But that is just an expression of my age.

Another piece of southern culture is that I have to remember to say Washington State when answering the question, “Where are you from?” Most clerks in all stores ask me that question. I guess my southern accent isn’t convincing to natives. At any rate, when i just answer, “Washington,” they usually say, “Oh! Big city!” Since I am not from a big city, it took me a minute to realize that around here Washington means Washington DC. Our state is so far away that they don’t meet folks from there very often. And since we do have one big city in Washington, I originally thought that they might think I was from Seattle and I’d say, we live north of there, which confused them even more.

I live as far northwest of here as you can go in the lower 48 states. To get any farther northwest in the US, you have to drive through Canada. And if you did, you would go by a lot of Dollar General Stores, but you’d also notice that Baptist churches become fewer and farther apart as you traveled.