Only in a small town......

[2squared]

Your dh drives his snowmobile to work in the winter when the snowplows haven't gone through. Your neighbor drives his full-size tractor.

 

The police call to report a sighting of your missing free-range guinea hens. You never told anyone they were missing, but everyone in town knows that they are gone and who they belong to.

 

In the process of patronizing a small business for the first time, the owners ask you to make a delivery for them on your way home.

 

Hours after purchasing something at an auction, your neighbor already knows where you were, when you were there, and what you bought.

 

You grocery shop while leaving the dc in the running van outside. They pass the time by making faces at the kids in the vehicle next to them. The police chief laughs at the kids on his way out of the store.

 

 

* I live in rural Mayberry circa 1950. Our tiny town is pop 1500 and is on the way to nowhere. No one comes here by accident. *

 

Anyone else?

[clarkacademy]

We don't have a grocery store lol. I wanna move where you are sounds bigger!

[RoughCollie]

I live in a township of 2700 people. Stores? The only one I've seen is a general store that sells no-name brands that I think fell off a truck. I have not seen an actual town. There is what looks like an aluminum outbuilding surrounded by fields. I'm told this is where we vote and can get recycling bins.

 

Despite having more cows and corn than people, the people around here knew we had gotten a puppy within 12 hours of his arriving home after dark on a Sunday night.

 

I saw firetrucks go by once -- including 2 tankers that held the water they would need.

 

At night sometimes, I sit on the porch and listen to cows in labor. They make a lot of noise. First time I heard it, I nearly jumped out of my skin with anxiety because I thought the cow was sick and in pain and the farmer was sleeping through it.

 

The dog chases fireflies at night.

 

Teens like to have parties at houses in this area because it takes the state police so long to get out here.

Edited June 9, 2011 by RoughCollie

[TheAutumnOak]

Your dh drives his snowmobile to work in the winter when the snowplows haven't gone through. Your neighbor drives his full-size tractor.

 

The police call to report a sighting of your missing free-range guinea hens. You never told anyone they were missing, but everyone in town knows that they are gone and who they belong to.

 

In the process of patronizing a small business for the first time, the owners ask you to make a delivery for them on your way home.

 

Hours after purchasing something at an auction, your neighbor already knows where you were, when you were there, and what you bought.

 

You grocery shop while leaving the dc in the running van outside. They pass the time by making faces at the kids in the vehicle next to them. The police chief laughs at the kids on his way out of the store.

 

 

* I live in rural Mayberry circa 1950. Our tiny town is pop 1500 and is on the way to nowhere. No one comes here by accident. *

 

Anyone else?

 

:lol: I love it!...I wish I lived in a small town...

[TheAutumnOak]

At night sometimes, I sit on the porch and listen to cows in labor.

 

:smilielol5:

[mytwomonkeys]

my current town is 2500. everyone drives golf carts (seriously). i've also seen tractors, horses, etc. on the main roads. we do have a grocery store, but that's about it. my town looks exactly like mayberry.

[TheReader]

no longer in a small town, but the biggest shock of my (new to) small town life was after our youngest son was born. He was 9 wks early, in NICU for 7 wks (1.5 hrs each way from our town).

 

About a year later, at the neighborhood pool, some woman came up to me who I'd never seen before, let alone met, and started asking me how my son was now, did he have any lingering medical issues from being early, etc. She knew a LOT about it.

 

Turns out, she lived in a house down the road/around the corner, and I guess the neighbors had filled her in. It was crazy.

 

Oh, another was when I found out *after the fact* that one of the delivery room nurses when he was born was a lady who went to our church. YIKES!!! I was so embarrassed. Dh assured me she was on the "tend to baby" side of things not the "tend to momma" side of things.

[KAR120C]

I saw firetrucks go by once -- including 2 tankers that held the water they would need.

The fire trucks had some method of "scooping" water from a pond (I never saw it in action - just a description with a lot of gestures and pointing to the tank). And they knew where all the farm ponds were.

 

It was an all-volunteer fire department which made me nervous at first, not having a staffed office or anything, but when DH wrecked his truck and had to call 911, they were FAST. And then they all had to stand around chatting (about work - half of them worked for the same company DH did...) while we waited for the state trooper, who had to be retrieved from two counties away.

[KAR120C]

Oh, another was when I found out *after the fact* that one of the delivery room nurses when he was born was a lady who went to our church. YIKES!!! I was so embarrassed. Dh assured me she was on the "tend to baby" side of things not the "tend to momma" side of things.

Our next-door neighbor was a NICU nurse... I was so glad, when I had DS, that she wasn't in L&D! On the other hand I worked at the hospital too, so there weren't too many people I didn't know there...

[sparrow]

Our town is the county seat (pop. about 6,500), and big enough to have a radio station, but small enough to have the radio station say things like, "Mary, we just got a call in, your horses are out on Spring St.".:D

 

I'm a member of a FB page titled, "I come from a town where a traffic jam is 4 cars behind a tractor".

[sassyscrapperinid]

I absolutely LOVE these stories!!! Keep'em comin'!!! :001_smile:

[wy_kid_wrangler04]

Wow! Everybody is making us seem huge! We have 3,000 ppl :001_smile: Oh yes, Snowmobiles are common winter transportation here, as are ATV's in the summer! We do have a grossly over priced grocery store but everybody I know drives the hour and a half to Walmart!

 

 

When we first move here (from Michigan, the COUNTY I lived in had a larger population that the whole state of Wyoming :lol: :001_huh:) Everybody waves at you. EVERYBODY. When we first moved here from Michigan it freaked me out so bad, because people didn't just wave to you from Michigan. When they did, you grabbed onto your kids and went home and locked the doors. Now we are used to it though :001_smile: I love our little Maybury USA. We know all the sheriffs, all the police (except the 1 new one, and yes, everybody notices that there is a new one ;))

[sparrow]

Teens like to have parties at houses in this area because it takes the state police so long to get out here.

 

We used to have parties in a State Game Area! It was black as pitch back in there and we could see their headlights coming from miles away ;).

 

Thankfully, that practice has pretty much come to an end. One of the guys who used to be there there every weekend became a big deal in the sheriff's department and clued them in to all the secret hiding places. I won't have to worry about my kids going in there!

[wy_kid_wrangler04]

 

Despite having more cows and corn than people, the people around here knew we had gotten a puppy within 12 hours of his arriving home after dark on a Sunday night.

 

I saw firetrucks go by once -- including 2 tankers that held the water they would need.

 

 

 

Do we live in the same town? :lol:

[wy_kid_wrangler04]

Our town is the county seat (pop. about 6,500), and big enough to have a radio station, but small enough to have the radio station say things like, "Mary, we just got a call in, your horses are out on Spring St.".:D

 

I'm a member of a FB page titled, "I come from a town where a traffic jam is 4 cars behind a tractor".

 

 

I am a member of that FB page also :smilielol5:

 

 

We have an AM radio station and I have heard that also!! So many times. That still makes me :smilielol5: Just the other day during Tradio (trading post type deal thing) they DJ said "Neela, somebody called looking for a __________ you had one for sale the other day, call me and let me know if this is still for sale :smilielol5:"

[SweetBean]

I was speeding to get to work early in the morning, and was pulled over by a police officer. He asked me where I was going so early in the morning. I explained that I had to open up the same day surgery unit at the hospital at 6:00AM. He let me go with a smile, and no ticket. The following week, that same

police officer walked onto my unit. He was there for a hemorrhoidectomy. I smiled and said, "Now aren't you glad you were so nice to me." We both laughed.

 

Ahhh. Gotta love small town life.

[FaithManor]

Our township has less than 2000 people. We do have a post office which may be closed in 2012,a party store/gas station, two churches, a state game reserve plus lots of other state land, one cemetary, one mechanics shop, and a gun club which also serves as our township hall and polling station.

 

On the rare occasion that one or more of my ducks get out, my neighbors always chase them down and return them with a grin and a chuckle. I can't complain.

 

We had a storm last night that knocked out power until 30 minutes ago. Dh, my dad, my brother, and a whole bunch of other men have been running around the neighborhood with their generators powering up people's houses for an hour at a time so they won't lose the foods in their freezers and refrigerators. (The good news is no power, no computer, so dh had an impromptu day off. It's the first day off in 10.)

 

Everyone knows your business, but on the other hand people really chip in to help when the need arises.

 

Faith

[TeacherZee]

When I was a teenager I was unexpectedly called up to play with the older girls soccer team (think varsity and I was JV). I didn't have my gear with me to school because I wasn't supposed to play. Neither of my parents could leave work to drive me home and then back to the field. I took the school bus home got my stuff and called a taxi. Taxi took me to the field and I told them that my dad would come in the next day and pay. They said okay.

 

Another time my sister and I were allowed to bring our little brother home on the school bus with us (he was in early elementary I was in junior high and my sister in middle school, I was in charge). My brother ran out in the road in an unsafe way. The bus driver called and told my parents. I got told off. Same bus driver let me ride on a junior ticket long after I shouldn't have been (the school bus was also the public transport bus).

 

Oh my home town has about 2000 in the main village, and 5000 in the municipality.

[mom4him]

We live in a town of about 6000. We do have 2 grocery stores and 1 hardware store but not much more.

 

The down side of our town is in Aug. we have anywhere 500,000 to 1,000,000 bikers(the motor type) come in and stay way to long. It is pretty crazy. The rest of the year it is a nice quiet little town. The area where we live our neighbors all love our kids and look out for them. I go around and get sign. for our exemption form for hs. It is nice. The one area of time I become a nervous, emotional mess though.

[mazakaal]

We don't have a grocery store lol. I wanna move where you are sounds bigger!

 

LOL We don't either. In fact we don't even have a town. We don't live in a hamlet. When people ask where we live, I tell them the name of the parish we live in. They ask do we live in village A or village B? Hamlet C or Hamlet D? No, we just live in a house in the middle of nowhere. :lol:

 

2squared, I think your town sounds great! I'd move there. :D

[mazakaal]

At night sometimes, I sit on the porch and listen to cows in labor. They make a lot of noise.

 

I guess I should be glad that the farmer with lands surrounding our house only has bullocks, no cows. :001_smile:

[mazakaal]

Oh, another was when I found out *after the fact* that one of the delivery room nurses when he was born was a lady who went to our church. YIKES!!! I was so embarrassed. Dh assured me she was on the "tend to baby" side of things not the "tend to momma" side of things.

 

:lol:

 

One day we had a new family start coming to church. I didn't even recognize the wife, but she recognized me. She was a nurse at the medical centre and had done my pap smear. :ohmy:

[DarlaS]

Wow! Everybody is making us seem huge! We have 3,000 ppl :001_smile: Oh yes, Snowmobiles are common winter transportation here, as are ATV's in the summer! We do have a grossly over priced grocery store but everybody I know drives the hour and a half to Walmart!

 

 

When we first move here (from Michigan, the COUNTY I lived in had a larger population that the whole state of Wyoming :lol: :001_huh:) Everybody waves at you. EVERYBODY. When we first moved here from Michigan it freaked me out so bad, because people didn't just wave to you from Michigan. When they did, you grabbed onto your kids and went home and locked the doors. Now we are used to it though :001_smile: I love our little Maybury USA. We know all the sheriffs, all the police (except the 1 new one, and yes, everybody notices that there is a new one ;))

 

There are small towns where people wave at you in Michigan too. ;)

[2squared]

My 9yo & 7yo ride the "city" bus, and when I cancel their rides, I say, "Anna won't need a ride today." No last name needed. Same bus keeps the kids' ride tickets and calls me when the tickets are expired.

 

The hospital called me yesterday to schedule my baby's well child check-up. I'm glad they're keeping track for me, because I would have missed it.

 

We have a radio station with the rummage report. Everything and everyone advertises on there.

 

Our Mayberry is very small and rural, but we have a lot going on. It's actually a vibrant, yet dying, community. Our population is heavily senior citizens, so we were celebrities when we moved here two years ago. We received a standing ovation when our priest announced the birth of #5.

[TheReader]

:lol:

 

One day we had a new family start coming to church. I didn't even recognize the wife, but she recognized me. She was a nurse at the medical centre and had done my pap smear. :ohmy:

 

It's freaky, isn't it?! That's how I found out, too; she told me at church that she'd been in the delivery room, and was he okay? I was mortified! but dh to this day swears she did NOT get up close & personal with my nether regions. I hope he was telling the truth!!

[wy_kid_wrangler04]

There are small towns where people wave at you in Michigan too. ;)

 

 

 

Let me re-phrase that, where WE came from in Michigan, people did not do that :lol:

[TheReader]

Our township has less than 2000 people. We do have a post office which may be closed in 2012,a party store/gas station, two churches, a state game reserve plus lots of other state land, one cemetary, one mechanics shop, and a gun club which also serves as our township hall and polling station.

 

On the rare occasion that one or more of my ducks get out, my neighbors always chase them down and return them with a grin and a chuckle. I can't complain.

 

We had a storm last night that knocked out power until 30 minutes ago. Dh, my dad, my brother, and a whole bunch of other men have been running around the neighborhood with their generators powering up people's houses for an hour at a time so they won't lose the foods in their freezers and refrigerators. (The good news is no power, no computer, so dh had an impromptu day off. It's the first day off in 10.)

 

Everyone knows your business, but on the other hand people really chip in to help when the need arises.

 

Faith

 

This is great! Reminds me of another one....

 

We had to evacuate for a hurricane, but our next door neighbor & his wife are both in jobs where they have to stay put (she's an ER nurse, he drives the truck that fills up gas stations) so they were staying. They said they'd keep an eye on our place for us.

 

Well, they meant it!

 

DH's sister was evacuating, and our house was on her route out from where she was. Traffic was INSANE (this was hurricane Rita, the September after Katrina....) and she, her dh, their days' old baby, and 2 dogs got stuck in traffic for HOURS. Normally we were a 1.5 hr drive from their house; the evacuation traffic took them close to 8 hrs to get to our place.

 

Anyway, we'd told them they could stop and get a road atlas, fresh water, water containers, etc. from our house. We left all the stuff for them, told them where a key would be, etc. We forgot to tell our neighbor they'd be stopping, though......

 

So, she finally showed up at our house and the neighbor came out, made her call us and let him talk to us to be sure it was okay she went in the house. SIL was a bit freaked out, but we thought it was great. :lol:

[MrsBasil]

 

Our Mayberry is very small and rural, but we have a lot going on. It's actually a vibrant, yet dying, community. Our population is heavily senior citizens, so we were celebrities when we moved here two years ago. We received a standing ovation when our priest announced the birth of #5.

 

That's really sweet.

 

My DH grew up in towns like that, he wants to move back to one someday. I'm afraid I'd find out I'm not cut out for that.

[TheReader]

My 9yo & 7yo ride the "city" bus, and when I cancel their rides, I say, "Anna won't need a ride today." No last name needed. Same bus keeps the kids' ride tickets and calls me when the tickets are expired.

 

The hospital called me yesterday to schedule my baby's well child check-up. I'm glad they're keeping track for me, because I would have missed it.

 

We have a radio station with the rummage report. Everything and everyone advertises on there.

 

Our Mayberry is very small and rural, but we have a lot going on. It's actually a vibrant, yet dying, community. Our population is heavily senior citizens, so we were celebrities when we moved here two years ago. We received a standing ovation when our priest announced the birth of #5.

 

LOL, where my dad lives, the kids have to drive (an ATV) down the mountain to the bus stop. The bus driver will not drop kids off if it's bad weather, unless a parent is down there waiting for them. If the parents aren't there, he'll call them at home and wait until the parent gets down to the stop before letting the kid off. Dad says it's odd getting called by the bus driver and hearing, "Hey, it's pretty windy, you gonna come down and get your kid? I don't think he can handle the ATV in this wind by himself......"

[Miss Marple]

Only in a small town can I walk into the bank and request a withdrawal without showing any ID and not knowing my account number. And I get the money!

 

Only in a small town can you swap recipes with the checker at the grocery store as she comments, "Oh, it looks like you're making something good tonight!" And no one behind you is angry...in fact, they are contributing to the conversation.

[GWOB]

:lol:

 

One day we had a new family start coming to church. I didn't even recognize the wife, but she recognized me. She was a nurse at the medical centre and had done my pap smear. :ohmy:

 

:lol: I go to the next town for "those" appointments because our GP has been my dd's soccer coach and my ds's wrestling coach. Another dr. at the clinic owned the one-screen movie theatre we frequent. My pharmacist coached my dd's soccer team one year. Her daughter is now on my dd's softball team.

 

You know you live in a small town when:

 

-you find zucchini in you car, which you leave unlocked.

 

- a "quick" trip to the grocery store takes forever because you meet half the town in there and have to stop for a conversation.

 

- everybody knows your business.

 

- your dh comes home from work at the biggest employer in town and knows what you did that day because someone called their dh at work and told them.

 

- your ds falls on the bleachers (after you told him at least 100 times to get off) and everybody runs to get your other kid at the far field so you can rush ds to the ER.

 

- every fire truck in a 30mi radius shows up for the annual summer fair parade.

[Audrey]

Your dh drives his snowmobile to work in the winter when the snowplows haven't gone through. Your neighbor drives his full-size tractor.

 

The police call to report a sighting of your missing free-range guinea hens. You never told anyone they were missing, but everyone in town knows that they are gone and who they belong to.

 

In the process of patronizing a small business for the first time, the owners ask you to make a delivery for them on your way home.

 

Hours after purchasing something at an auction, your neighbor already knows where you were, when you were there, and what you bought.

 

You grocery shop while leaving the dc in the running van outside. They pass the time by making faces at the kids in the vehicle next to them. The police chief laughs at the kids on his way out of the store.

 

 

* I live in rural Mayberry circa 1950. Our tiny town is pop 1500 and is on the way to nowhere. No one comes here by accident. *

 

Anyone else?

 

 

I'm 10 miles from the town of 450. No police chief. We share the local RCMP with other tiny towns in a 50 mile radius.

 

Other indicators of small town life:

You can't cheat on your spouse without someone calling him/her to tell them about it before you even get a chance to pull your pants back up.

 

Gossip is the most popular sport.

 

Even though your area hasn't been on party lines for over 15 years, you can still get a message to anyone by calling anyone else in town.

 

People stop you in the grocery store to get the recipe for what you made for supper last night. They weren't there. They just heard about it. This could be true even if you were the only one at your supper last night and you know you didn't tell anyone what you made.

 

Forgetting to wave at a passing vehicle will have you marked as rude for life. Neglecting to wave back at a passing vehicle is cause for generational warfare. Just wave. It saves your great-great-great-great-great grandchildren from having to go spit on your grave.

Edited June 9, 2011 by Audrey

[SweetMissMagnolia]

someone posted this as a joke the other day on something I was reading and in our rural communities it can be like this...

 

if you forget what you're doing ask your neighbors they know! :D

[Remudamom]

Our little town (down the way) has 500. One local man sells tomatoes out of his backyard under a shade tree. If he's not home you pick the tomatoes, weight them yourself and leave him the money.

[Miss Marple]

:lol:

 

One day we had a new family start coming to church. I didn't even recognize the wife, but she recognized me. She was a nurse at the medical centre and had done my pap smear. :ohmy:

 

After going to a church out of town for a while, we decided to try a local church. We had trouble getting out the door because the majority of the church had been my dh's patients and came to introduce themselves to me! I cannot count how many ladies told me "your husband removed my breast". I'm glad they still like him :D

[Susan in KY]

We received a standing ovation when our priest announced the birth of #5.

:lol::lol: Love it!

[scubamama]

I grew up in a small PA town and moved to another small PA town before we moved here to LA.

I hate it here. I miss Rural PA.

I miss the farm traffic jams of a tractor and 4 cars, shopping and everyone knowing what i bought, mowing my lawn out front and then stopping to chat with folks going by..one man saw me at 8months pregnant and promptly drove to our scuba shop and told my dh off! :tongue_smilie:

I don't miss being afraid my kids will walk into the corn fields that surrounded our house and get lost in the corn. Our dog was once lost that way for hours...and then brought back by the farmer down the road.

I belonged to his corn club - buy 12 dozen dozen ears of sweet white corn and get the 13th dozen free! Nothing is better than sweet corn you preserved in July on a cold February night.

I miss explaing "which people" I'm from..you know, the "are you from the town x Smiths or the town y Smiths?"

I miss the PA Dutch ways and cooking. I am PA Dutch and no one here in So CAl gets me and my fabulous Dutchy ways! :tongue_smilie: If you ain't Dutch you ain't much doesn't seem to make an impact here :lol:

Oh well! I'll always be a country girl.

 

Michele

[Liz CA]

In our small town, I had to go to the counter once for a larger package because it did not fit the box (no mail delivery to homes) and the Postmaster leaned over the desk and said: "What is it?"

(It was an unusual shape) :D

Dh runs into the only store on the way home and mentions me and is told that I just left because my car was seen going downhill to the "big" town.

[Amy in NH]

These are fun!

 

This one happened in the next town over has about 4500:

 

Last month, a Ford Ranger pickup truck owned by the county farm caught fire in a field that had been cut off from the road by flood waters from the Connecticut River. County house of corrections inmates, helping with planting potatoes, were driving the truck when an automatic transmission line ruptured and sprayed fluid on the hot exhaust igniting the fire that consumed the truck.

 

Although a fire extinguisher was in the truck, and it may have stopped the fire at the incipient stage, the inmates driving the truck panicked and fled across the field to get away from it. County house of correction guards overseeing the farm operations were obliged to pursue the inmates, for fear of escape, rather than staying and battling the fire.

 

The Assistant Fire Chief, who was next door at his family's dairy farm, got the tone and saw the fire. Immediately realizing the location, and that fire apparatus was not going to reach the truck fire, he held the engine in quarters and, instead, summoned his own apparatus from his abutting farm – a huge 300-hp John Deere tractor pulling a 9,600-gallon tanker of liquid manure, ready to spread on the fields.

 

A couple of extinguishers did little to snuff the full-involved truck, but 1,500-gallon of cow poop did the trick.

 

"It was about a foot and half, two feet deep in the cab and in the bed when we got done," he said. "We just backed up and hit the switch, filling it up."

 

The truck, which was totaled, was removed from the field by a large farm forklift and summarily dumped near the county buildings up the riverbanks from the field.

 

Most people I spoke with about this story wanted to know why they wasted the good fertilizer. They should have just let that truck burn itself out!

[Amy in NH]

In our town of less than 1000, a brick house burned down next to the volunteer fire department.

[DarlaS]

I grew up in a small PA town and moved to another small PA town before we moved here to LA.

I hate it here. I miss Rural PA.

I miss the farm traffic jams of a tractor and 4 cars, shopping and everyone knowing what i bought, mowing my lawn out front and then stopping to chat with folks going by..one man saw me at 8months pregnant and promptly drove to our scuba shop and told my dh off! :tongue_smilie:

I don't miss being afraid my kids will walk into the corn fields that surrounded our house and get lost in the corn. Our dog was once lost that way for hours...and then brought back by the farmer down the road.

I belonged to his corn club - buy 12 dozen dozen ears of sweet white corn and get the 13th dozen free! Nothing is better than sweet corn you preserved in July on a cold February night.

I miss explaing "which people" I'm from..you know, the "are you from the town x Smiths or the town y Smiths?"

I miss the PA Dutch ways and cooking. I am PA Dutch and no one here in So CAl gets me and my fabulous Dutchy ways! :tongue_smilie: If you ain't Dutch you ain't much doesn't seem to make an impact here :lol:

Oh well! I'll always be a country girl.

 

Michele

 

I'm half PA Dutch! I'm not from PA though, but my father's ancestors were. My maiden name even has the ie combination and rsma ending. :D

[Amy in NH]

When you're a little short on cash, the gas-station attendants just tell you to come back and pay on Friday, cuz they know that's payday...

[actuary]

My mom grew up in a small town and still hasn't really lost her small town ways.

 

Growing up my brothers and I were always mortified in the grocery store because my mom was so used to chatting with literally.everyone. in the grocery store that she couldn't really adjust to the fact that around here, people look at you funny if you try to talk to them and you don't know them already! She likes to talk to the cashiers and whenever they would say something like "how are you" she would take that as a sign that they wanted to talk about recipes and food and etc. And usually the cashiers would be looking at her like :confused:. And my brothers and I would be just cringing:lol: Sometimes though she would come across a cashier who was a fellow small town transplant - then they didn't look at my mom like she was strangely overly friendly.:tongue_smilie:

 

She still loves going back down to where she's from where at the doctor's office people will ask each other "What are you in for?" and according to her you can't go to the store without seeing several people you know.

 

Small town life sounds appealing but I still kind of like the anonymity of a larger area. My mom teases the rest of our family though and says we're just a bunch of unfriendly people:tongue_smilie:

[LibraryLover]

Our town paper once did a story on a duck with a broken leg. Awesome.

[NancyNellen]

I grew up in a town like that...I miss it.

 

My elementary school bus driver was Charlie. He drove one of two town buses for 30 plus years. He gave everyone on the bus a silver dollar on the last day of school. Most everyone LOVED him.

 

BUT... if you misbehaved on the bus he would stop the bus in front of your house and walk you to the door. He was very happy to share your misdemeanors with your parents.

 

Also, 90% of the town's population had a police scanner. So, if you got a speeding/parking ticket the whole town knew within minutes :-)

 

Population: 2500

[NancyNellen]

 

- every fire truck in a 30mi radius shows up for the annual summer fair parade.

 

Haha...yes. I remember when we had a squirrel BBQ itself on the transformer box in front of my house, which in turn knocked the electricity out for our whole road. Three fire trucks came...and the town only had four! There must have been 20 people there! It was the most exciting thing that had happened in months.

[mazakaal]

Our newspaper actually covers a large region, but it once covered a boy who lost his teddy bear when he was at the park. The next week, on the FRONT page, was a huge picture of the boy with his teddy. They had been reunited!

[Audrey]

We know it's a slow news week when the front page has a picture of a moose sighted in town. Umm.... yeah... that's the news -- even though you have to drive around a moose in the road at least 3 or 4 times a week. Most of them have names, they're so common. Usually the name is unprintable.

[bairnmama]

I grew up in a small town and truly it is a totally different way of life.

 

I sent a teenaged friend to the bank for me with a written note to withdraw money from my account... and they actually gave him the money.

 

There were 2 stop lights downtown that got turned off every night at 5 pm and were not even turned on at all on Sundays.

 

The ENTIRE police blotter was printed in the newspaper every Tues & Thurs.... with stories like a horse in a house on Pecan St. and goats loose on Guadeloupe.

 

Someone asks what special thing you had to do earlier in the week because they noticed you didn't make your usual turn onto their street at your usual time that day.

 

You lock your house, but keep the key hanging on a nail right beside the door in case anyone needs to get in for something and you're not home.

 

And my personal favorite was when a classmate of mine in high school got called to the principal's office. He never got in trouble so we all asked what the deal was when he got back to class. He had forgotten to take his gun out of the back of the truck before coming to school that morning and was told to go take it home and leave it there at lunch!

[Audrey]

Small town life sounds appealing but I still kind of like the anonymity of a larger area.

 

 

I do know what you mean. I grew up in large urban areas my whole life, but always secretly dreamed of a small town.

 

There are times when I miss the relative anonymity of city life. Gossip in a small town can be truly brutal sometimes. There are people for whom it is a sport -- and people for whom it is a blood sport. There are people who, if they don't have any juicy gossip to share, will make it up. Woe is he who is their chosen target for that, too. There are people who absolutely. must. have. the. gossip. first. So, they will "inquire" about your day, your life, your past, etc. etc. with no intention of friendship and every intention of using this as leverage in the morning (or afternoon or evening) gossip clatch. Because everyone knows everyone, when heartbreak happens to you, it is laid bare to the rest of the town in no time. Sometimes, this means that people will be there for you when you need them. Sometimes, it means you will have no room to grieve privately. Sometimes, it becomes speculative gossip fodder which comes back to you eventually and tears open your wounds again.

 

There was a rumour that went around after my father came up to visit for the first time. The rumour was that my parents were divorced, that their marriage endly "badly" and I was estranged from my mother. The truth is that my mother and father were married only to each other and were married 26 years. My mother was dead. That's how their marriage ended. When I heard that rumour (because they ALWAYS come back to you), I was so furious I couldn't see straight. And then, I was so sad I cried my eyes out. I felt so violated that a rumour about MY mother, whom I loved fiercely, and who I would have given anything to have back again alive and well, was dragged through the gossip mill like that. I found out who started the rumour. I did confront her. I was told to "bury the hatchet." I have. In a very, shallow well marked grave. :glare:

 

But, that's not even the tip of the iceberg. I have seen people truly destroyed by gossip in this town. I have seen people run out of town because of gossip. I hate it. Hate. It. And, I am thankful for the fact that I didn't always live here, that no one except my husband knows my family, or my background, or anything but a few superficial highlights of my past. Because I know I would become grist for the gossip mill if I didn't maintain my personal privacy.

 

I once told a particularly nosey, particularly nasty gossip a bit of untrue information about myself (in the strictest of confidence of course, wink, wink) just to see how fast it would make the rounds. I was at the post office/grocery store/hardware store when I told her. When I got home an hour later, there was a message on my answering machine from my FILs wife asking me to call her. Yep. She'd heard the "news" and wanted to verify it with me. She is one of the bad gossips herself, and I told her exactly what I did and why. I know it embarrassed her, but I also know that she spread that around and since then, the worst of the gossip biddies don't bother me anymore. Unfortunately, they seem to have no trouble picking other innocent targets for their "sport."

 

When I first came here, everyone wanted to know who I "belonged to." I was shocked to learn that many of them had trouble recollecting who my dh was! He is a very private person, and because he always lived on the farm and not in town, he was able to maintain quite a bit of his personal privacy as well. He also has a handful and then some of brothers, so it is easy to get them all confused if you don't really know them well, or forget one if you know them less. My dh likes being someone who is somewhat anonymous or not "memorable." In the beginning, I didn't understand why he shied away from townies and town social activities so much, but now I understand the value in keeping to oneself in certain regards. This is not to say that I don't socialize or have a good heart to heart with my friends. I do, but I choose my friends very, very carefully. I have many friendly acquaintances, but those who "know" me are a very select, very few people.

 

Whew! I didn't mean to go on such a rant there! :auto:

Edited June 10, 2011 by Audrey