“I told her way up yonder past the caution light
There’s a little country store with an old Coke sign
You gotta stop in and ask Miss Bell for some of her sweet tea”
“Good Directions” — Billy Currington

Written by Luke Bryan when he was working around Nashville as a songwriter before making it as a performer, “Good Directions” ended up as a No. 1 song in the Billboard country charts for three weeks in the spring of 2007 after taking some time to catch on for radio airplay after its release in September 2006.

The song would end up as the No. 2 song in airplay on country charts for the entire year of 2007.

The narrator in the lyrics is woking at a roadside stand (selling turnip greens) when a woman gets lost attempting to find the interstate. He gives her directions, which include the quoted line, and finishes with “a left will take you to the interstate/but a right will bring you right back here to me.”

He’s then kicking himself for allowing her to get away when he sees her vehicle returning, indicating that she had made the decision to return to him. According to the song, she was swayed after a big glass of sweet tea from Miss Bell, later revealed to be the narrator’s mother.

In a small town, we don’t necessarily need it to be family for a small business to impact our daily life, though it’s quite common to run into someone who is family to someone involved in a small business in your day-to-day activities just making it through life!

Today is Small Business Saturday, a day to encourage holiday shoppers during Thanksgiving weekend to do business with the small businesses that keep our towns running.

In the state of South Dakota, there are more than 90,000 businesses that are considered “small businesses,” according to a recent interview with Small Business Association South Dakota director Jaime Wood.

With a state that has a population of less than 900,000 people, that means that there is a small business for every 10 South Dakota residents!

Yet, if you read social media threads regarding businesses in town, one would think that a lack of national chain businesses is dooming Huron to subpar quality.

As the former Ground Round building sat vacant for some time, the wishes were not for a local entrepreneur to open a restaurant that would serve Huron in a new and unique way…the constant requests were for someone to step up to bring in a Perkins, an Applebees, an Outback Steakhouse, or any other from a long list of national restaurant chains.

Instead, a local restaurant has entered the building, and while the primary food served may not fit all palates, there is absolutely something on the menu for any eater, and - not to disparage any other great business in town - the service is absolutely phenomenal when eating in person!

Today, the James Valley Christian School holds its 64th annual fundraising auction. When you look online at the list of business donors that contributed to the auction, the list is more than 100 businesses long - and the businesses come from throughout the area, not just Huron.

While perhaps the business may not have a direct tie to JVCS, many businesses benefit from business from parents and family of students, so sponsoring the auction makes complete sense.

Of course, our family had the benefit of receiving direct support for causes that we were fundraising for in the last month from local businesses.

As Destination Imagination sold Krispy Kreme doughnuts as a fundraiser, multiple businesses offered the opportunity to sell additional boxes at the location, including the one my daughters and wife worked at - 281 Travel Center in Wolsey.

On top of encouraging the Krispy Kreme sales on site, they allowed one daughter who was selling candy bars as a fundraiser for Madison 2-3 Center to sell candy bars as well.

Those candy bars came into play as Jay and Doris Mutchelknaus at Fair City Foods allowed that same daughter to hold the exit door for shoppers and offer up the candy bars multiple nights. Fair City also purchased a corporate sponsorship for Destination Imagination cookie fundraising.

Part of that came from a long-term connection that my girls were more than happy to exploit that I’ve had with the Mutchelknaus family, dating back to attending school with two of their children and covering the annual Big Bo Classic basketball tournament each winter.

However, I don’t begin to believe that Doris said yes to my daughter because of me. No, that was something that Fair City does as a member of the community.

You simply aren’t going to find that sort of community support and personal touch from a large, chain business. The great part is that I could go on and on about clothing stores, shoe stores, furniture stores, and so many more in town and the personal service received that is priceless.

The old phrase goes, “If you want to know where to spend money during the holiday season, look at your child’s Little League jersey.”

It is so incredibly true!

Your youth sports, music, and even schools in general rely on the generosity of small businesses that are throughout the Huron community and the Heartland region.

While not all of them will send a lost driver your way with potential romantic future as in the song, their support is vital to the future of the community, and today is a day to return that support and ensure that our small businesses in the Heartland thrive!