Bump for later.
I live in Duvall, WA, I believe we have about 7,600 people living in our town now. We are consistently rated number 1 or 2 on the list of safest cities in the state and in the top 10 best places to live.
Duvall is located on the Snoqualmie River at the base of the Cascade foothills. Main Street aka highway 203 runs through Duvall and links it to all the little towns that run along side the river. Starting at North Bend and working you way north into Monroe, there is a group of little towns that are all exactly 8 miles apart because that’s about how far you could get on horseback before you had to stop and rest. These rest stops eventually became the towns that are there now.
Duvall was incorporated a little over 100 years ago for the soul purpose of opening a saloon. The original church still stands on Main Street as do several very old buildings. It’s a wonderful place to raise children and everyone who lives there looks out for their neighbor. Nothing happens in that town that isn’t immediately known by everyone. LOL!
I grew up in eastern Washington and then lived near Newport Beach, CA for almost 20 years. When I moved to Duvall to house sit for a friend, it took me only a couple of months to decide I would never live anywhere else.
Ping for later
I was born in a small town, lived in a couple over the years.
The Louisiana town I was born in, in December 1955, a few miles south of Arkansas and 45 minutes west of Mississippi, was probably under 10,000 when I was born, I don’t really remember. They still had “whites only” signs on public restrooms, restaurants and water fountains, Burma Shave signs on the sides of a number of roads, a cotton gin in town that was always busy, an old clock on one street corner where a bank was located that is still there today.
A typical town square, with the courthouse in the middle, the drug store across the street made a mean coke float. The theater, still there, showed movies, but today it’s only used for plays by a local acting group. I saw “Mary Poppins” and “Evel Knevil” there. Seems like if I remember correctly that was also where I saw a short film featuring Eric Burdon and the Animals.
The park a few blocks up the street had a swimming poll that was run by one of my future in laws, but I learned to swim at a state park up the road about 10 miles. Since we moved a lot I didn’t actually grow up there, I grew up all over Louisiana. Most of the smaller towns were very similar though, everyone knew everyone, all of them grew up there and outsiders were not very welcome. Boy did I know that...
I did live there for a couple of years about 1964 and 65, 4th and 5th grades in different schools. Milkman delivered milk a couple of times a week, still in glass bottles (you can find those in flea markets and antique stores these days, if I had only known). We also got milk with school lunches in half pint glass bottles, cardboard cap stuck inside the top.
Easter egg hunts were usually a family thing, but Halloween was always a community affair, and you could dress up as anything from Superman to the Lone Ranger or an Indian to a ghost and go anywhere in town without adults tagging along, come home with a grocery bag full of candy and be delightfully sick all week...
Christmas was partially a community affair, I was dragged around to sing Christmas Carols, which I hated, but watching for lit up houses was cool on road trips to grandma’s house.
I never got into skateboards, no hills worth bothering with, so a bicycle was the going thing, you could ride around all over town with no worries, and a Daisy BB gun was always close by.
The grocery store was a much different place, almost never crowded except Friday when everyone got paid so we’d go a different time. Most places it was common for the meat department to cut whatever you wanted on the spot, nowhere close to the myriad brands we see today, maybe 8 or so cereals, often oatmeal would come with a drinking glass in the can or a coupon for a plate or whatever, (it wouldn’t fit inside) and Quaker was the only brand I remember. Coffee was still an honest pound, not the 11 ounces you see today, first time I remember milk was less than 50¢ a gallon.
Gas was 19.9¢ a gallon. Unleaded barely existed, only available at Amoco, and was called “white gas”, we’d get it for our Coleman lantern and stove. It had a filter on the hose. Esso, Shell, Texaco and Gulf were the gas stations I remember, and they all had some kid who worked there (my second job) who would come out and fill the tank for you. Check the oil and clean the windshield too. Check air in the tires if you asked.
My grandmother would get me to walk to the store a couple of blocks up the street, with a quarter, still made of silver. Get her a pack of Camels, me a Baby Ruth, and I Damn well better bring her that penny change...the Baby Ruth was a nickel, same as a coke, which I rarely got.
Bonnie and Clyde’s bullet riddled Ford was displayed at the courthouse square for a couple of days, but that was a few years before I was born. They were ambushed about an hour away toward Shreveport.
The town had a paper mill run by International Paper, most everyone in town worked there. That was because IP pretty much ran the town, and every time any other business tried to set up shop there, IP would buy the property. The only way to make enough money to fund a campaign for mayor was to work your way up to top dog at the IP mill...or own a bank...IP ended up owning a lot of property in the area. Georgia Pacific owned a lot too, which they eventually turned into a game preserve...we hunted deer there in the 60’s.
Other small towns I’ve lived in were very similar. Courthouse square, everybody knew everybody (and their business)...One in central Texas near Bryan, where Texas A&M is, was a cool little town. One block each direction from the courthouse in two directions had a few businesses,
a convenience store and a grocery store, a Dairy Queen, that was town. I worked for the Western Auto, busiest store in town, where I fixed chainsaws and ran the auto/repair shop. Mid 80’s but not much had changed, kids could still go out to trick or treat without worries, ride bikes all over town and people would watch for them, but mostly away from the courthouse square area. If your porch light was on, you had candy for the trick or treaters.
Often the local school was everything all in one building, not enough people to warrant different schools for elementary, jr high and high school, or sometimes two, one through 8th grade and one high school.
Churches all over the place, almost everybody was in one of them every sunday. BBQ with neighbors was common, and almost everywhere we moved to a group called the welcome wagon would show up. Being a small town, they knew when someone would move in, and 3 or 4 ladies would show up while you unloaded a truck full of boxes and bring sandwiches, cookies, tea and kool aid. Everyone would visit for an hour or so and off they went, sometimes they would show up again with drinks if it was a hot summer day.
Air conditioning was uncommon, often the houses had 10 or 12 foot ceilings. That gave the heat more room to rise, open the windows and turn on the attic fan and it didn’t seem anywhere near as hot as it does now, or maybe we were more acclimated to it...Windows always had screens to keep bugs out.
Men were men and the sheep were scared...lol...ok not really but I had to throw that one in...
I’m sure there’s more, but that’s all I can remember. A different time for sure, much less stressful than today’s world where kids can’t run loose in town without an adult in sight, parents can’t spank their kids without getting sued and their kids taken by child welfare, even letting your 10 year old kid walk to the playground a block away can get you in trouble.
A much better world I think...I’d trade milk on the doorstep and fun trick or treating for terrorist threats and LGBT lawsuits any day...
I spent my summers in an Oklahoma town so small they had one flashing yellow traffic light. One doctor. One grocery store, drug store. You walked to the post office to get your mail. The church where my parents were married was two blocks away and seated about 50-75 people.
This link works with your thread.
http://city-journal.org/html/lost-structures-civility-14794.html
I live in a town of 3k and work next town over with about 5K population. Best understanding of my town?
When the ice storm of 98 came through and we had two solid days of ice and snow, my plowman came through each day with his chainsaw and cut through the twenty or so trees that fell each of those two nights on my quarter mile long drive way.
Then neighbors hiked in with fresh water for baby formula, Had 4 children under 9 and one was four months old. Twice a day the fire department guys would show up in big trucks with big tires to check in, bring water, and offer to take the children and me to the town supper or shelter.
We were watched. The town knew that there was a woman alone with four young kids and they just made sure we were fine until my husband was able to get back. We have a big woodstove and propane stove top and plenty of food. I wrapped the two 25 foot chest freezers in sleeping bags and when the spousal unit returned from his work cross the country with a generator and other things we needed we fired that up and saved the freezer food.
I enjoyed the silence. Even with a quiet road one does not realize the background noise of a house until the electricity goes out.
I was cared for, by men I didn’t know in the big that I finally understood. Some of these men take care of me even today, working my driveway, plowing my snow, and generally watching out.
I had never had that before.
All liberals should beware and stay far away. Stay in the city where it is safe.
I grew up there in the 40's and 50's. As I recall, the 1940 census credited Medford with 1,121 residents. By 1960, we had grown to a peak of 1,350. By 2010, it was down to 996.
Wheat farming and running cattle were the two primary pursuits of the entire county.
In a small town, I grew up surrounded by family, friends of the family and childhood friends of my own. Everyboy new everybody. And all the kids under almost constant surveillance.
The school was Grades 1-12 in one building, about 25 kids per class. Half of them bussed in from the surrounding farms. We got a superb education from our teachers, most of who had grown up in Medford and gone to school there themselves.
High school football provided a focus for the entire town. The home side of the field usually amounted to 1,000 folks and almost as many would show up for road games (never more than a 40 mile trip).
The Cardinals were expected to win. And we did. There were four state championships in the trophy case, as I recall.
I graduated from Okie State in 1961 and moved away. But even in our seventies, we show up for homecoming -- though in dwindling numbers.
Changes:
When I go back to Medford, the starkest change in the town is on Saturday. Used to be that the town was packed with shoppers as the folks who live on the farms made their weekly shopping trip into town. Nowadays, downtown is virtually empty on Saturdays -- for two reasons. First, the population of the entire county is now about 4500, about half what it was when I was growing up. Second, it's not that much further to Enid (pop. 50,000) with far better shopping.
The high school now plays 6-man football. And it's the band that brings home the trophies. Most of the schools we used to play have either been absorbed in a consolidation or ceased to exist.
Many of my childhood friends still live in the county, so I assume Medford is still a good place to grow up. Nonetheless, I fear the small town culture I grew up in -- a healthy hybrid of independence and interdependence -- is dying a slow death. And when we lose this, America will be a lesser place.
Yes.