How I Married a Mushroom....in Small-Town America

Gotcha!  I didn't marry a mushroom.  I married a fungi.  Get it?  A "fun guy?"

Yeah, I know it's bad, deal with it.

I open with that gosh-awful joke because Jay and I recently went on an adventure.  What was only supposed to be a date to a new place downtown turn into a fantastic journey into an unknown world.  It's like someone said we were going to the park, and then later finding out "the park" was Disneyland.  Or, more applicable, thinking we're on our way to the Easter candy aisle at Macey's, only to find out we were headed to the Wonka Factory.

There is a little area in downtown Provo that never seems to have the same businesses for longer than a year.  Seriously, you'd think a pod of restaurants would be quite comfortable in a college town where everything is within walking distance of the dorms, but no.  One of the suites in this area seemed, to us, to be cursed.  The newest installment of the unlucky suite is a little store called Pop'nSweets.  The idea of the store is described in the name: soda pop and candy.  That's it.

I personally thought it was a lame idea for a college town.  "It'll never last."  "I give it three months."  And so on.  Day after day, we would drive by, only to see the cashier starting forlornly at the big screen TV mounted on the wall, nary a soul in the store.  We began to feel sorry for the employees, bored out of their minds.  And then, we realized that if little businesses like that can't succeed, then the American Dream is essentially dead.  The values of small-town America are threatened enough as it is.  So we decided that we should take a date night to go and explore Pop'nSweets.  It's within walking distance, there should be something there worth buying, and what could it hurt?

But when Jay and I walked in the store....let's just say we were picking our jaws up off the floor. According to their Facebook page, there are "way too many" kinds of soda pop and candies from Switzerland, Mexico, Germany, Japan, and many other countries.  Every variety of root beer, all sorts of fruit colas, and even more flavors I've never even heard of.  It was a sight to behold.

Pop'nSweets isn't just a candy shop/soda bar full of possibilities in its merchandise.  Every aspect of it screams "a modernized malt shop, for hipsters."  I adventurously picked out a birch beer from the shelves, a slightly sweeter cousin to root beer.  Jay chose "Leninade" (A Party in Every Bottle! Get Hammered, and Sickled!).  We also each got a candy (he from Germany, me from the UK).  We purchased our goodies, then sat at the bar for some floats.  Jay got a concoction called "The Prohibition" with a mix of root beer, birch beer, and sarsaparilla with vanilla ice cream.  I had my eye on "Blue Magic," featuring blueberry and white birch beers topped with vanilla ice cream.  We thoroughly enjoyed our treats, proceeding to shoot the breeze with the cashier and discussing the Jurassic Park film on the big screen.

For a small moment, Jay and I felt like we were living the small-town America life.  Conversing with a friendly stranger, supporting a small business...call it the Romantic in me, but it was wonderful.

The next day, Jay and I pulled our soft drinks out of the fridge and listened to Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong while we toasted to our future.  I lucked out with finding a guy who not only has strong values, is smart and a "fun guy," but he's pretty cute, too!  (He's probably going to give me the stink eye for putting that.)

I encourage everyone to go out into the world and live some good, clean, America living.  Support a small business.  Find a friendly stranger and chat for a while.  Brighten someone's day.  Whether it's going to a place like Pop'nSweets (which I highly recommend), or just cracking jokes at the grocery store, you'll feel this great big world getting smaller when you make another human smile.