It's a small small world

Rev Zombie’s Voodoo Shop sits on St. Peter Street across from The Old Coffeepot, making it our ideal second stop. 

I wanted Wendy to be able to look around as well and I has hoped something interesting would catch my eye.  I ended up settling on only a very colorful t-shirt advertising their sister store, Marie LeVeau’s.

As I waited in line, I heard the woman in front of me say she was from Naperville, Illinois. Naperville is a suburb of Chicago and about an hour and a half from me.

When the clerk responded she was from Woodstock (20 minutes from me) I was more surprised. I told her I lived right by McHenry. (Ringwood is so small, many locals have never even heard of it, so we seldom bother leading with “I’m from Ringwood.”)  Then she told me she was really from Greenwood – one of the few local towns that are actually smaller even than Ringwood, and only 5 minutes from me. She described for me the house she had grown up in, and I was able to picture it in my mind, knowing exactly which house it was. She said her sister-in-law lived in Greenwood and had a goat farm.

I was caught off guard even more.

“You mean Cheryl?” I asked her.

She looked surprised now too. She asked me if I knew Cheryl and I told her I met her a few years earlier at Fairy Fest and bought some earrings from her.

While she told me a lot of people from the Chicagoland area make t down to the shop, it was the first time she had run into someone that not only lived so close, but also knew some of her family as well. We talked for a couple more minutes and she signed my shirt for me. We were ready to hit out next stop which took us over to Bourbon Street and the oldest bar in America – Lafitte’s Blacksmith Shop.

I decided on a voodoo slushie and the girls treated us. When the bartender leaned over the bar to sign my shirt, he told me to make sure I hung onto it as it would be worth millions one day. While he was referring to his own autograph, he had no idea that for me, my shirt was already priceless.