In Anytown USA, a man over on Maple Street works his seventh straight day so he can help pay for his wife’s Lincoln Navigator, his son’s private tutoring and his daughter’s tennis lessons.

At the playground on Pine, a woman pushes two of her six foster children on the swings while her husband is at home with the other four, one whom they are going to adopt.

In the bi-level on Fern Road, a father shouts at his 12-year-old son to go for his one mile run for what dad believes is necessary to help the kid earn a scholarship to play football at Notre Dame. Across the street sits a retired husband and wife who stare at themselves over cups of coffee knowing not what to do with the rest of their lives after the last of their four children moved out of the house.

All that happens in Anytown and this happens, too.

Around the corner on Mountain Laurel Drive, the phone rings. Calling is 35-year-old woman to speak to her 68-year-old mother. The two have had no contact with each other for 17 years and forgiveness is about to be requested and given.

Inside the Dollar Store on Route 27, a man just released from prison cries after he buys his 4-year-old daughter a candy bar and she says, “I love you, Daddy.”

In the municipal building on South Avenue, three teenaged boys are presented plaques for saving an elderly man from his burning vehicle. On Park Place, a father and mother leave the room after their son had told them he’s gay.

In Anytown, a father had spent 30 grand on a spectacular wedding for his daughter who then divorced her husband three years later while down the road apiece, a couple married 47 years celebrate their anniversary by eating slices from a six dollar apple pie.

On Wild Cherry Way at two o’clock in the morning, a family packs their car to leave their house after not paying the mortgage for two years. At the gas station store on the west end of Anytown, a man who just lost his job is about to win $100,000 on a scratch off lottery ticket.

On Walnut Drive, a recovered drug addict plans his next motivational speech he’s to give to a classroom full of high school girls and boys. On Lilac Boulevard, a 21-year-old girl takes her first hit of heroin.

At the local hospital in Anytown, a car accident victim squeezes the hand of her husband after being unconscious for three hours. Across the hall, a man weeps over his wife after she took her last breath. Two floors down, at the exact same moment, a young couple embraces the joy of the birth of their first child.

In the cardiac care unit, a man who has minutes to live apologizes to his children because he was a workaholic and never spent much time with them. In the next room, a man dying of cancer smiles with his children who feel blessed that he had always come home to spend quality time with them.

Down the road a piece from the hospital, a firefighter arrives at a house engulfed in flames. He enters the building and saves three people and a dog.

Walking along Hill Top Road, a man feels sad while pondering his future after retiring from a job he loved for 43 years. Passing him on the left is another man about the same age whistling a happy tune after he retired from a career he tolerated for 44 years.

In Anytown, a man accidentally bumps his grocery cart into one being pushed by a woman. There eyes catch for a lingering moment. They meet again at the checkout and she accepts his offer for a date. In the food store four blocks away, a man accidentally bumps his cart into one pushed by a woman. She shouts at him to watch where he’s going. The man yells back that her cart was blocking the aisle. Her husband gets involved and a loud argument ensues that continues at the checkout. The store manager calls the police when he sees the man swing his fist at the woman’s husband in the parking lot.

On Baker Street, a 40-year-old man who’s lived with his parents for the past 14 years enjoys a home cooked meal made by his mother. One block away, another 40-year-old man comes home from work holding a pizza to feed his wife and three children.

In the cemetery lies a man who had lived in the town 90 years and had played Santa Claus for the last 59 years of his life. Two rows down lies a 88-year-old woman whose wealth had paid for a traveling carnival to delight the children every July for 25 years in a row. On each of their headstones are the words, “The idea of life is to die young as late as possible.”

These are the stories of you and me and everyone else who lives and dies in Anytown USA.

Rich Strack can be reached at richiesadie11@gmail.com