Posted on 12/07/2016 9:09:55 AM PST by Mad Dawgg
If you live or have lived in small town America would you be so kind and tell us about it. (For our purposes towns of less that 10 thousand in population but still have city services like Police and Fire Depts. etc.)
But if you would be so kind post your experiences BEFORE you read any others on here. The reason being is I am interested to know if there are trends in small town America that manifest nationwide and to see if they are something that most of us notice without being pointed out by others.
What I am looking for is the experiences of how your town was when you were a kid, and how the town is now and the differences you notice in day to day life there. Please give approximate dates and for purposes of not revealing too much personal info on the net narrowing it down to a decade should suffice. Also if you do not wish to name your town just note the State and or region.
Thanks in advance for any and all responses and the more you have to tell us the better it will be.
MERRY CHRISTMAS !!
(taken in 2014)
Grew up in a town of 900 where my father was the local doctor. In looking back it was an unbelievable experience.
...not too busy at 4:30am in the snow!
There is a big difference in living in one with a Walmart and one with just a Dollar Store or even a just a convenience store with a gas pump.
And then there are towns with decent internet access and some that have none other than satellite.
Salida, CO is the classic American small town. Only 5000 here and its an arts and crafts town. Most Front Range mountain communities have ski resorts and this doesn’t. Most notable feature of life? Zero violent crime. A murder hasn’t happened for over a century. No one locks their door and theft is unheard of. Life here is relaxed and slow-paced which is what comes from not living in the big city.
I grew up in a small town (3000) in the Texas Panhandle. The thing I remember most was that everyone was in your business. I probably had 5 moms, and at least 3 dads. You couldn’t pull any crap because your parents would know about it before you got home.
I also remember, even as a small boy, 8 or 9, having the rule “be home before the street lights come on”. I may go a full weekend without seeing my parents. Somebody’s mom would feed us, and someone would let us sleep over.
We also roamed the county. I used to hike down the railroad tracks for miles. No cell phone, no contact. If I would have been snakebit or kidnapped, no one would have known about it for days.
But I always seemed to make it home before the streetlights came on.
In small towns you can get help from complete strangers. And people do business on the “honor” system so all you need is your word.
I don’t live in a small town, but I do make the trip to town about once a week. Grew up doing the same. No traffic - ever. I just knew every part of town in detail, side streets and all. Learned to be self reliant, have an imagination, and be content.
My town. Twelve hundred people more or less, a gas station/food mart (small), a post office, a restaurant and a tavern. Two real estate offices. A community church. Anything larger is forty miles away.
I’m disqualified. 1 store, 2 churches, volunteer fire department, no post office,no PDC. Couldn’t and wouldn’t live anywhere else.
I moved from Seattle to a small town in south central KY in 2011. I had to get my vehicle inspected to get KY plates. I went to our sheriffs office for the inspection and the very nice lady behind the counter (the other lady behind the counter was working on something with one of her kids. We were the only ones there) went with me to my car and got the vin number. That was the inspection.
But the cool part:
We came back into their office and they said it would be five bucks. I don’t carry cash but they would not take a credit card. They said, no problem and to just bring the money in next week. My wife went in the next week to give them five dollars and they said, “That’s ok. We took care of it.”
DMV in Seattle would have been a bit more hard nosed about it.
PDC = PD
We bought our home on a handshake. We had to wait over a year to close because of the two year rule regarding taxes. When the time came to consummate the deal, everything went as expected.
The town I live in is around 7,000 people. It was a rural farming community until the farmers started selling their land to developers and they built houses and then the yuppies invaded. We bought our house there in 1996 and all this happened since then.
People tend to leave me alone because they don’t know what to make of me. I drive very nice cars and wear ripped up jeans and concert t-shirts. I like being left alone.
The town itself is run by jackasses. I can’t go into detail because it will be going to court.
North Carolina I assume, not Japan!!! LOL
I moved to an exurban small town in North Carolina when I bought my first house in late 1993, moved in, in February 1994. One thing I immediately noticed, and it’s still true but not quite so exaggerated, is that people’s personal “space” is huge compared to urban dwellers. It’s hard to tell in the local convenience store, if they’re standing in line or just gathered around shooting the breeze and catching up on local news or gossip.
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