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"Are you lost?"
Those are the first words Bill Hart, a Three Points old-timer, asked a visitor who walked through Maxine's, the major business in Three Points. In fact, Maxine's is the only business in Three Points-a combination bar, restaurant, social club and video rental store that is the center of all activity in this mountain town.
Lost tourists in search of California poppy fields were a common sight this spring, so the locals gear up to give directions when an unfamiliar face walks in. "Poppy people" and "poppy commandos," they are derisively called.
Recently, a young woman in jogging shorts and T-shirt wandered in, warily eyeing a decor that includes a jukebox, animal traps, rattlesnake skins, guns, old photographs, dollar bills pinned to the wall, a bottle of pickled pig feet and a sign that says "All tabs must be paid by the end of the month."
She asked to be directed to an address on Pine Canyon Road.
Hart smiled as he took his cue. "You lost?" The bar erupted in voices, each offering different directions. After the joke, she was shown the correct route.
A roadside welcome sign says the Three Points population is 150, but no one really knows what it...