Clean laundry

Little old Hazen, North Dakota was our existence for about forty years. It was a great little town with a lot of good friends. Now we live in Payson, Arizona. Somehow it feels like we did the laundry. Sure we still communicate and sometimes visit with the old gang, but we have met so many new people and friends it is like the laundry has been done. Trying to keep all the new names in the head is a problem. Kadizzle is very bad with names so he has to do it with association. Yesterday it was a conversation with the plot hound guy. There is the Jesus guy, and all the other people. 

Everyone in Hazen has heard Kadizzle's stories ten times. Great to be able to recycle stories to a new crowd. One problem persist, a lot of new friends are conservatives.  That is forgivable, a Trumper is intolerable. Hazen was sewn up tight Republican. Here there is a good sprinkling of Democrats. Strangely for the conservative nature of Payson there are a lot of gay people. Stranger yet is the acceptance by the cowboy crowd. 

Here the gun culture is insane, as is the flag waving patriotism. It seems no one works here. Everyone is retired and either golfs or rides around in the wilderness. There are a bunch of poor people who cook the hamburgers. 

The best thing about Payson is it has a pulse. Hazen was like living at a funeral home. Duke used to say " On a Saturday night you could shoot down mainstreet and not hit anyone".  Sadly that was true most days of the week.  Payson has a good sprinkling of bums, and recovering addicts. Hazen had one guy who was a combo bum, street person, and he was used so kids knew what one was. 

Without hunting and sailing we would have died of boredom in Hazen. Fortunately Payson always has something going on. The park down below us is a tremendous blessing. We have met so many people there, and you can reliably see your friends on a regular basis. One group of friends meets almost every evening under the willow tree for a chat. 

Payson is a culture of people who like the outdoors and are generally active. This is blended with an abundance of western redneck macho crap. It all works out. The Hoopleheads are more or less a subculture. Yes the Hooples are here, but they don't seem to mix with the normal people. The Hooples listen to the right wing radio and meet at church. The Hooples are against everything and fear anyone who is not extremely straight sexually. The Hooples are obsessed with the flag, God, sexual orientation, and absolutely against taxes and progress. The Hooples love fear, and are always seeing the Devil at work somewhere. Strangely the Hooples cannot see the Devil working with Trump.