A Chance Encounter
She was on her way out. He was on his way back.
He was on his way back. Just the day before, Joni had graduated from Chowan University. Mike had just rolled into Murfreesboro, a Chowan grad from a few years back, visiting friends and looking for a place to buy. Joni was ready to hit the road. She'd grown up in Edenton, and was looking for big city life. She'd head to Atlanta, most likely. It was time for a change.
Mike was ready to put down roots.
They met at a graduation party, and the sparks flew. Now they've been married for 16 years. And they've never left Murfreesboro.
"I dodged a bullet with him," Joni laughs. "I almost left town. But staying was the best decision I ever made."
Quarters Well Spent
Mike and Joni Saner own and operate Insert Coin, an arcade bar in downtown Murfreesboro that has become a bit of a small-town sensation. It's a hangout and landing place for young and young-at-heart. For anyone old enough to have once lost a pocketful of quarters at a Frogger game, or anyone young enough to think that retro Skee ball is the coolest thing ever. Insert Coin is the thumping, dinging, clanging heart of downtown Murfreesboro.
There's fresh-squeezed citrus juices and craft cocktails. A knock-your-socks-off bourbon selection. More than 50 craft beers and edible flowers and flavored smoke for unforgettable drinks. There are Friday night family-friendly hours and Lego nights and trivia nights that have a cult following.
"We wanted to set the bar high," Joni says, with no pun intended. That last thing a small town like Murfreesboro needed was another failed Main Street business. The couple took two years to work through the details—buy a run-down building and fix it up, scour half the country in their Winnebago, searching for vintage arcade games, figuring out a business plan. This was no pipe dream. This was building a life.
Insert Coin opened in February of 2022. Joni and Mike weren't sure who might show up. College kids from Chowan University? Faculty and staff?
The answer: All the above, and more. Murfreesboro showed up. Because the Saners showed up for Murfreesboro.
What Small Towns Teach You
As it turned out, all those things you hear, knocking small towns—their quiet streets, their long-time residents, their lack of things to do—have turned out to be pluses for Mike and Joni. And opportunities.
"When I moved here in 2010, I was in my early 30s, and I was the youngest person on my block," Mike says. That's changed. Murfreesboro has kept hold of many of its young people and attracted more. "What I learned was this: If you get out there and invest in a small town like Murfreesboro, the whole community invests back in you. It's not as quiet as it used to be, but I wouldn't have it any other way."
There's something special about small-town life, Joni says. Sure, there's always the old adage that everybody knows your business. "But in Murfreesboro," she says, "if people know your business, it's because they're looking out for you. And I just love that."
"People stay here for generations," Mike says. "Everywhere you look, it seems like there's a street or a bridge named after somebody whose family has been here for 100 years. But you know what? Whatever made them stay is what makes us stay."
A Kind of Paradise
Mike and Joni's son is 13 years old. He can roam the neighborhood. He can ride his bike to his friends' houses. "It's like the old days when you had to be home when the street lights came on," Joni says. "He's living with the kind of freedom that I grew up with. People think of that as a bygone era, but in Murfreesboro, that's just real life."
So it's not just the college or work that brought the Saners to Murfreesboro, and that is keeping them there. It's the chance to help other people reach their own big potential in a small town. It's serving on the local historical society board of directors. It's singing in the church choir. It's Minecraft nights at the Insert Coin arcade bar, and the chance to concoct top-shelf cocktails at stay-on-budget prices.
Honestly, Joni says, "This place is a kind of paradise."You said: will you do a new title for the first section
