RVers, Come Back! Quartzsite Needs Your Smiles!

Anyone who’s spent any time at all with the “winter visitor” population in Quartzsite knows that by-and-large, this is a group with a ready smile, a quick joke, and generally, a sense of happiness. Ever wonder what happens when the snowbirds leave town?

Well–maybe it’s the lonliness. Maybe it’s the heat. Maybe it’s just the streets are empty. But in any event, some tell us that things get just a wee bit on the testy side. A friend of ours works at the “Ag Station” on the California-Arizona state line on Interstate 10. She says that having a motorist smile and tell them, “Have a great day!” is a red-letter event. “Most of the drivers we see are just plain cranky,” reports our green-suited informant.

Maybe an experience we had today at the local transfer station is indicative. Winter visitors are familiar with a friendly gal who “tends the store” during the snowbird season, pointing you to the proper dump bin, and taking your money on those rare occasions when the county requires cash for your dumped items. During the off-season, it’s a different, skinny, blonde haired woman. Some local wag has dubbed her, “Matilda the Hun.” We rolled in this morning with a few bags of trash and an old, beat up, metal table–the kind many RVers have stuck away in their basement storage area–they fold in half.

Well, this particular beat-up table no longer folds in half. It’s fold-up legs have long had to be supplemented by some strong, steel pipe. After serving for some years, it was time to retire the old thing to the landfill. When we rolled in, Matilda rushed over, pointed at the happless table and growled, “Fold that thing up and dump it in the red bin over there.”

“Well, I’m afraid it doesn’t fold up,” replied the equally happless RVer.

“That’s ridiculous,” she slammed back, “of course it folds up.”

We pointed out that the table had been modified, and it’s little legs stuck out, as much as those of an armadillo might, which lies beside the hot Texas highway.

“Then take it back and cut it up or something, because it ain’t coming here!” she roared.

It didn’t take us long to reason that LaPaz County must have low standards for public relations. It was on the same level as the fellow down at the RV Pit Stop said.  Left on board as the only employee to pump propane and sell ice, he tells us that just getting a customer to crack a smile requires an Act of Congress.

Hurry back, we need the levity.

photo: sublime_79 on flickr.com