Newcomers help locals see what they’re taking for grantedI wrote in my last column that I moved here from Redwood Falls after living there for 15 years. The funny thing about that is after all those years, the lifetime locals still consider me from somewhere else. My kids, however, are considered to be from Redwood Falls, but not me; I was still a transplant. Now, once again, I am the local newcomer. Actually, it’s a role I kind of enjoy. I see things that long-time locals take for granted.First, the amount of traffic on Main Street is unbelievable. I know of an awful lot of towns our size that would trade Main Street traffic counts with us in a heartbeat. Another thing about Main Street is that the parallel parking spaces on Main Street are very generous in length, which makes the dreaded parallel parking much easier. In March we had one of those basketball-tournament-time snowstorms. I was impressed by how quickly the streets were plowed. I did notice the wind blows a lot here.I have kids living in Sioux Falls, Brookings and Redwood Falls, and its been my experience that the local gas prices are the last to go up, and they are the last to come down. It’s interesting that the Sunrise Motel is on the west side of town. The local parks are a kid’s dream. Truth is, if I wasn’t looking at the parks through my "grandpa eyes," I may have overlooked them myself. Having a boulder on your front yard with your family name carved in it is very popular around here. Did I mention it seems to be a bit windy in this part of the state? In Redwood Falls the chamber organized a local growers farmers market and the local grocery store threatened to boycott the chamber. Here we have Glen’s, the local grocery store, actually hosting a weekly farmers market in his parking lot. On the subject of grocery stores, I’ve had a number of conversations with long-time residents of Luverne and they have me totally confused as to which building housed what former grocery store. I have come to the conclusion that about half the buildings in town at one time or another housed a grocery store. Have you ever noticed how windy it is here? The flowers that hang from downtown businesses and the flower planters that line Highway 75 are a very nice touch, and a lot of work is needed to keep them looking as beautiful as they do. But of all the visual niceties that Luverne has to offer, it’s the things you can’t see that really make Luverne the community that it is. Before I came here, the people I talked to about moving to Luverne that had lived here before or had family that lived here never mentioned the things I wrote about above. What they all told me was that Luverne is a friendly town. That isn’t something you see driving up and down the streets. But as a newcomer to the town, it doesn’t take long before you experience Luverne Nice. As a of matter of fact, on those hot, humid days even the wind is nice.