Space Travel

I know there is no such thing as time travel, but what I just did comes as close to it as anything I can imagine. Last week I moved from Los Angeles to a town of 5,000 in the hot Northern California valley. And let me tell you--it's a different world. In one day I went from the diverse, smog drenched vibrance of L.A. to the dry, simple, yellowed fields of nowhereville. Of course, I welcome the simplicity of huge and plentiful parking spots with no meters and a grocery store with short lines and baggers that sweetly ask if you'd like "help out" to your car, regardless of the items or weight of what you've bought. But in those same grocery stores I've had to eat my words.
It was just several days ago that I was reassuring my dad during a serious discussion of the state of the earth that MY generation of young mothers and fathers was having a revolution. "We are growing our own food, bringing our own bags to the store and avoiding plastic toys as much as possible," I said brightly, proud of 'my people.' He didn't seem so sure. Now, having grocery shopped in this very small town, in which I grew up, I know why. Because it's not true. Because in small towns like this all over the country there are just as many processed foods and plastic bottled water buyers as ever. And they aren't bringing their own bags to the store. Far from it.

I had been excited to think that my friends and I were the majority, the happy future of living wisely on this planet. Disappointingly, it only took seven minutes in the supermarket line (this one was long because someone's food stamp card wasn't working. Embarrassing.) to realize my friends and I are among the "green elite." It ain't the real world.
This backwards experience at the grocery store is only part of the time warp of small town life. I'm the only Prius in town, nothing is organic, and though we are surrounded by farms and orchards, strike me down if you can find locally sourced food for sale. I haven't seen any.
Sigh...
Is it worth easy parking and going to a bank where all the tellers know your whole family lineage to deal with the otherwise archaic ways of living in a small town? Don't think I will be here for long.