Smalltown Boy

Tooling around Airdrie tonight with Drew looking for retail space to house the possible GameNow West, I was struck by how comfortable I felt. Don't get me wrong - the last two years have forever imprinted on me the value and convenience of downtown, big-city living - but there's something about climbing out of a car and onto the tarmac of a strip-mall parking lot, something primal and cellular, that says I am home.

Even the older, more run-down sections of town were still more appealing to me than similarly aged and worn neighborhoods in the nearby metropolis I inhabit. These kids on their skateboards; these families with a prebuilt nestled in a suburb just over there - these folk are familiar to me. I know where they come from.

Or at least, I know where I come from. Take the boy outta the small town, but you can't take the small town outta the boy.