“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.”
I grew up in the small town of LaFayette NY (’70s onward). (Was actually elsewhere earlier, but remember little of it.) Had it pretty darned good ... wasn’t until decades later I realized that describing the characteristics make it sound downright poverty-stricken, even though we were pretty well off: grew half our food, burned wood for heat, rarely watched TV (and upgraded that to a VCR+monitor), made & repaired clothes, made apple cider & maple syrup from our & neighbors’ trees, almost never ate out, brown-bagged school lunch, often rode bikes miles to activities, skied out the back door, camped every month (snow or not). Culture/ethnicity was absolutely “American rural” from seriously poor to humble-but-well-off, with a good percentage of Native Americans (bordered a reservation).
Now live in Cumming GA, suburban life. Small forest in backyard. All the above points are much more “modern” (though I’d rather go back). Hard to find a modern home without an HOA. Culture/ethnicity is dominantly well-off (middle to rich) white, good contingent of other ethnicities, with strong poor Hispanic presence. Population is exploding here, very soon area will be off your list (if not already, depending on how you define “town” which I’m technically just outside the border of). County has been dubbed “sixth most redneck in GA”.
Now to read other descriptions, and see how the thread coalesces for a better answer.
Love those Dutch Monkey donuts in Cumming. The finest donuts in all of Georgia.