Last Saturday, we all woke up early to a crisp, cool day.
As I made my cup of tea and folded the laundry I had left drying overnight, I got thinking about the Tedx Dayton Talk by London Coe. She talked about Dating Your City – getting out there and finding all the amazing people and amazing things happening at any time in any town. She said she went from thinking her town was grey and dying (all the news stories said so) to being madly in love with Dayton, Ohio.
So, after we were all dressed and had eaten a little something, we took off for a little local adventure.
I had been hearing about a fabulous pretzel kitchen for years and years, but had never been able to figure out where it was. These pretzels were supposed to be world class – the kind that people ship to their kids when they move away from home. It was supposed to just be some third generation pretzel guy making them in his garage and you had to drive through an alley and know a code to get in. But no one could tell me an exact address or hours or even a real name (“It’s like Schmales or Smalls or Smaylees… or something like that.”).
For whatever reason, everything fell into place this time. I Googled Dayton + pretzel + awesome + downtown. And there – where there had never been any information before, I swear – was the name “Smales” with an address and hours and everything. It was only open from 8:00am to 1:00pm and there was always a big line, so get there early.
We drove straight there and everything I had heard was true. We turned into a narrow alley and parked in a three-car dirt lot. We walked back along the alley to a small door under a decrepit metal awning and walked right into pretzel heaven. There was a giant mixer kneading a big ball of dough, there was a layer of flour over everything, and an otherworldly smell in the air.
We bought a dozen hand-twisted pretzels, still warm and liberally sprinkled with chunks of salt and walked back out into the crisp, cool air with our treasure.
Thanks, Smales!
Still in the mood for adventure, we hopped on down to the 2nd Street Market. This is a Dayton institution and always good for people watching and local shopping. We picked up sweet potatoes the size of Hani’s head, fresh eggs, local raw honey for my morning tea, Brussels Sprouts on the stalk, and Amish butter, and Dave found a beautiful leather bracelet made by VintageLiz.
This beautiful day was right there, just waiting for us to notice it… like a brilliant jewel under a leaf.
What jewels are waiting right there for you to notice them? What seems grey and dying that actually just needs some attention and love to come to brilliant life?
love.
Editors Note:
We found this great post on facebook, clicked through and found the Fierce Mothering blog. Written by two dynamic and passionate women, April Fine and Robyn Moore, who are both moms and friends. The post above written by Arpil just screamed with the mission of MostMetro (sharing the love we have for our town) we asked for and were granted permission to reprint this here. We hope you enjoy as much as we did!
And thanks to London Coe for inspiring so many Daytonians to “date their city.” If you’ve got a story about a date you’ve had with Dayton and would like to share it with us, please contact us.
