Mom-ninja. Posted June 10, 2011 Share Posted June 10, 2011 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. Awesome. 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. Ok, I read that to say you were having a squirrel BBQ. :lol: I had to go back and read again carefully. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeannie in NJ Posted June 10, 2011 Share Posted June 10, 2011 my mom and little brother had moved to a small town in Texas after I had left for college so i never lived there . One time I was coming there to visit and on my way into town was stopped at the only red light. A guy in a truck yelled out "Are you Betty's daughter, welcome to town" Many years later after I ws living in NJ, dh and I went back for my mom's funeral. After we got into town, we were taking a walk and a man stopped his car and said "Are you Betty's daughter and son in law?" I said "How do you know" and he said cause he didn't know us and he was the preacher and kniew everyone in town. When we got back from the funeral, the dining room table was covered with food, desserts, a brisket of beef, beans, ect. We never did find out who all had brought it but it sure helped us out as my mom's brother from Calif, and other brothre and sister from other parts of Texas asd their families were there. Oh, I forgot, the first time I had brought dh to town, the paper put a big picture of us in color on the front page labeled VISITING FROM NEW JERSEY Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FaithManor Posted June 10, 2011 Share Posted June 10, 2011 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. When dh and I wanted a car loan this past April in order to buy our used Honda, he called our bank manager at noon. The bank manager asked him five questions and told us to show up at 3:00 with proof of insurance. We had the money by 3:15. They never even looked up our credit report. They just know us. When I go into the lobby to make a deposit, all of the tellers stop and ask how dd's paramedic training and college classes are going. She is so busy she rarely gets in to do any banking and they miss her. They made me promise to have her stop buy so she had to go in this past Tuesday afternoon to chat. I love my little small town bank. (If I didn't have to drive six miles to get to it, that would be just perfect!) When we needed the proof of insurance on the car, it was ready in 15 minutes. When we went to the Secretary of State's Office to get the title transferred and a plate, this is what the manager said, "So, you settled on the CRV instead of the Outback. Good choice. I'm just so glad that you purchased a 4WD for R. We worry about her driving to ______during blizzards in your Saturn." I don't know who mentioned to him we were in the hunt for an all wheel drive for her. But, apparently the word got out and there were state employees concerned for her safety!:D Cracks me up! The other thing about the Secretary of State was that they were fascinated that we taught dd how to drive after she turned 18 instead of paying $350.00 for driver's training during high school. She aced her written test and only missed one point on her driving test with the instructor. They wanted to know all about how one homeschools a child for driver's training. So, now I occasionally get phone calls from homeschooling parents, "We learned at the SOS that you didn't pay for driver's training and R did unbelievably well on her tests. How did you do that?" Small town living....no anonymity, not much privacy, but it's extremely laid back compared to suburban and urban living (which we've done as well.) Faith Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FaithManor Posted June 10, 2011 Share Posted June 10, 2011 Awesome. Ok, I read that to say you were having a squirrel BBQ. :lol: I had to go back and read again carefully. I hate to say this but where we live now, a squirrel BBQ, as in, "Come join us for squirrel", would not be odd. One of the biggest events of the year is the annual wild game dinner at the Church of Christ four miles down the road. Bear, elk, deer, pheasant, quail, squirrel, possum, turkey, salmon, trout, bluegill, perch, bass, catfish, pike, walleye, and groundhog. On some small table in the corner, there will be a few salads or vegetables. :lol: Faith - for the record, pressure cooked bear roast popped into the crock pot with barbecue sauce is very tasty and I'VE NOT YET TASTE POSSUM THAT WASN'T GROSS! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miss Marple Posted June 10, 2011 Share Posted June 10, 2011 One of the biggest events of the year is the annual wild game dinner at the Church of Christ four miles down the road. Bear, elk, deer, pheasant, quail, squirrel, possum, turkey, salmon, trout, bluegill, perch, bass, catfish, pike, walleye, and groundhog. On some small table in the corner, there will be a few salads or vegetables. :lol: LOL! We have one of these events as well. When ds#3 just turned 13 he got a nice pellet gun with a scope. He hunted squirrel on our property. When my freezer was filling up with squirrel, I made him remove the scope in order to give the squirrels a better chance :D. One day I found him outside making a brick "structure". I asked what it was and he said, "It's my new Squirrel 2000 roaster". LOL! I didn't ask about the Squirrel 1000 - was there a previous edition? So, yes, I've eaten my share of squirrel. It tastes good, but it just isn't worth the time to cook based on the quantity of meat one gets - IMO of course :D I don't think I could ever try possum - I've had too many of them hiss and act threatening to me when I discovered them in the chicken coop. They are NASTY creatures! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CalicoKat Posted June 10, 2011 Share Posted June 10, 2011 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? This is where we're headed. Only it my mom's scrappy donkey that always gets out and takes a stroll on his own. Everyone knows Willy and he enjoys his celebrity. :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FlyingMOm Posted June 10, 2011 Share Posted June 10, 2011 I have to say- this is one of my favorite threads yet. Love it!:001_wub: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LaxMom Posted June 10, 2011 Share Posted June 10, 2011 I once went to the post office to mail something and the counter clerk (who was our carrier when we first moved here) asked me if I'd done anything with the gigantic box of packing peanuts on the porch because they'll take them for recycling. She'd filled in for deliveries a couple weeks before and knocked to mention it to us but knew we must have been away because "Mia didn't bark". A couple years ago, my boys dressed up as our UPS driver for Halloween. He was on vacation but his fill-in sent him a picture. All through trick or treating we heard "look! Two little Charlies!" He's also been known to drive back into town to deliver friends' signature items to me because they weren't home (and he figured if they weren't here, I'd at least take it for them). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scubamama Posted June 10, 2011 Share Posted June 10, 2011 Maybe we are long lost PA Dutch cousins! Do you like your shoo fly pie wet or dry bottom? I almost forgot my college scholarship program story. In small towns it seems like most folks have a "role" - town drunk, gossip, whatever. My mom was severly handicapped from MS and she was the town cripple. So, my sister and I were "Poor Janet's girls". It bothered me to no end, but it did help in odd ways. We both won the (what we called) "most pathetic person scholarship" upon graduating HS. It was $3,000 a year for 4 years! That's big money! This was back when state school was about $8,000 a year. I had worked and saved the rest so being "poor Janet's girl" paid off in a bizarre way. The year I won the other recipients were a kid whose trailer burned down and a girl whose father had passed away. I still don't know where the town got all that money! In Dutch we'd say, "It wondered me where the money came from." Michele Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Amy in NH Posted June 10, 2011 Share Posted June 10, 2011 One of the favorite annual events here is Donkey Ball. I had never seen it before I moved here, but they play basketball in a gym from the backs of donkeys as a fundraiser. How silly is that?! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeannie in NJ Posted June 10, 2011 Share Posted June 10, 2011 oh, I def remember donkey baseball, so funny Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bairnmama Posted June 10, 2011 Share Posted June 10, 2011 One of the favorite annual events here is Donkey Ball. I had never seen it before I moved here, but they play basketball in a gym from the backs of donkeys as a fundraiser. How silly is that?! This reminded me of a footbll fundraiser in my home town! It's called the Cow Patty Classic. You "buy" a portion or two of the football field and then, at halftime, they let a cow loose and wait for it to relieve itself. The person who "owns" that portion of the field wins a prize and the rest of the money goes to the football team! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Denisemomof4 Posted June 10, 2011 Share Posted June 10, 2011 I *LOVE* this!!! I am fortunate to appear to live VERY rural but still close to EVERYTHING. You know you live in a small town when you live on a ONE LANE dirt road, and if you see a neighbor, one of you has to back up to the nearest driveway OR squeeze to the side of the road so that you can carefully squeeze by them!!! You know you live in a small town when the HUNTERS find your potbellies roaming on the busy road a mile away and bring them back home. :lol: I was scared to have a strange man drive down my driveway with GUNS on the rack in the back of his truck! I ran upstairs and opened my window to see what he wanted. NO WAY was I going to open my door to him! I asked, "May I help you?" "Yes," he said, " Do you have potbellies?" "Yes, I do." I feared he had accidentally shot one. "Oh good, I thought they were yours. I put them back in the barn. They were running around on the road about a mile from here and I didn't want them to get hurt." :001_smile: How nice was that? I didn't even know how HE knew these pigs are mine as everyone has a barn around here, and nobody was home during the day at the time!!! You know you live in a small town when you call the police to report a missing llama and ask if anyone has reported a black llama running around town. :lol::lol::lol: He got a REAL kick out of that and alerted the surrounding towns! I wouldn't trade this lifestyle for ANYTHING. I just came back from PA and spent a few days in NJ. Living in NJ would be too much for me to handle. SO conjested, SO MUCH TRAFFIC!!! Too many people!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BatmansWife Posted June 10, 2011 Share Posted June 10, 2011 Your dh drives his snowmobile to work in the winter when the snowplows haven't gone through. I haven't had time to read through all the pages. I just wanted to say that we also live in a small town and it's the first place I had ever lived where you'll see snowmobiles parked outside the highschool. Kinda funny. Kinda cool too that you can drive your snowmobile to school. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2squared Posted June 11, 2011 Author Share Posted June 11, 2011 Our town has a Miss Lutefisk contest at our annual town celebration. A lutefisk is our town mascot which is funny all by itself. Anyway, the contestants are men dressing in drag. I was quite surprised the first time when I saw the pictures in the paper. I had to look about five times before I really believed these "women" were men. It's particularly funny since our community is a farming community. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2squared Posted June 11, 2011 Author Share Posted June 11, 2011 (edited) 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. Just happened to me yesterday! Last month a recipe for muffins was going around town, and someone had made copies of it and put them on the shelf next to the muffin mixes. Looks like someone introduced a new punch recipe at graduation since I saw a punch recipe in the soda isle yesterday. Last year before we had our tractor and snowblower, various people blew out our lane after every snow. They just showed up because they knew we were in need. Dh told one of the store owners that he was interested in having some animals to graze our pasture. The next day when dh was dropping off ds at the public school, the principal met dh at the door and offered to bring out some of his cattle. News spreads quickly. Edited June 11, 2011 by 2squared Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2squared Posted June 11, 2011 Author Share Posted June 11, 2011 There are times when I miss the relative anonymity of city life. Gossip in a small town can be truly brutal sometimes. ... but now I understand the value in keeping to oneself in certain regards. This is quite true. I am *very* fortunate to live in a lovely small town that I moved to as a mature (mature as in older, not wiser) adult. No one knows my background. I carry no baggage with me. We bought a house a mile out of town so that we could have a measure of privacy. Homeschooling our dc gives us another measure of privacy. We are in the public eye since dh is an attorney - an attorney in a small town has an automatic social position:tongue_smilie: - but we are trying to maintain some degree of separation while yet assimilating. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mytwomonkeys Posted June 11, 2011 Share Posted June 11, 2011 i was at the corner market yesterday & in the candy aisle there was a sign (hand written) that said, "Whoever has been stealing candy from here, Jesus is watching you and knows who you are". I thought, ONLY in a small town would you see that! lol. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JessReplanted Posted June 11, 2011 Share Posted June 11, 2011 One of the signs of spring is when the Amish buggies start passing by your house on a daily basis again. When you meet people for the first time they already 'know' who you are. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
********* Posted June 11, 2011 Share Posted June 11, 2011 i was at the corner market yesterday & in the candy aisle there was a sign (hand written) that said, "Whoever has been stealing candy from here, Jesus is watching you and knows who you are". I thought, ONLY in a small town would you see that! lol. That is just fantastic. LOVE it. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SquirrellyMama Posted June 11, 2011 Share Posted June 11, 2011 When we first moved to our town (pop 3500) my friend sent me a letter. She had my name, town and state on the envelope. No address and no zip code. It got to me. We had lived there for 1 week. It was crazy. Kelly Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sparrow Posted June 11, 2011 Share Posted June 11, 2011 When we first moved to our town (pop 3500) my friend sent me a letter. She had my name, town and state on the envelope. No address and no zip code. It got to me. We had lived there for 1 week. It was crazy. Kelly Oh, yes! The post office knows everything. We have a seasonal business that closes in December. If we forget to have the business mail forwarded to our home address, it would show up there anyway, or at my parent's house, since they were the original owners. Another thing I love about our small town, doctors and dentists around here will actually give you their home number. Thankfully, I've never had to call either at home, but it's a comforting option. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miss Marple Posted June 11, 2011 Share Posted June 11, 2011 The local police/sheriff hang out at the emergency room of the hospital in which dh works. Sooo...anytime he is pulled over for a traffic infraction, the officer comes to the window, notices it is Dr. X, and says, "oh, doc, did you know you rolled through that stop sign? Well, don't worry, we're looking for drunks. Go home and get some sleep." They always assume he has been up late! My sons think that they should be able to capitalize on the relationship. I would like to see him actually get a ticket so he wouldn't be so inattentive and the boys would see some justice in action :glare: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Meriwether Posted June 11, 2011 Share Posted June 11, 2011 Maybe we are long lost PA Dutch cousins! Do you like your shoo fly pie wet or dry bottom? I almost forgot my college scholarship program story. In small towns it seems like most folks have a "role" - town drunk, gossip, whatever. My mom was severly handicapped from MS and she was the town cripple. So, my sister and I were "Poor Janet's girls". It bothered me to no end, but it did help in odd ways. We both won the (what we called) "most pathetic person scholarship" upon graduating HS. It was $3,000 a year for 4 years! That's big money! This was back when state school was about $8,000 a year. I had worked and saved the rest so being "poor Janet's girl" paid off in a bizarre way. The year I won the other recipients were a kid whose trailer burned down and a girl whose father had passed away. I still don't know where the town got all that money! In Dutch we'd say, "It wondered me where the money came from." Michele Not Darla, but another Pa Dutch. I prefer funny cake, but my kids like Shoo Fly Pie. I love my heritage most of the time but we were raised as transplants. I learned a very important lesson in 4th grade when I refered to the hopper. Apparantly that was a Dutch word and my parents never told me.:glare: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mommaduck Posted June 11, 2011 Share Posted June 11, 2011 (edited) I will never understand the love of shoo-fly pie...or whoopie pies... Edited June 11, 2011 by mommaduck Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nono Posted June 11, 2011 Share Posted June 11, 2011 Let's see, we're a big town (in excess of 100,000 people) in the summer, but less than 1/10 of that the rest of the year. My dh was shocked, SHOCKED, that everywhere he patronized asked him if he wanted to "put it on his account." He was fascinated that everywhere extended credit. I said, yeah, and no middleman. The businessperson simply writes it in the copybook next to the register. :) Restaurants call us to let us know when they've put our favorite specials on the menu for the night. The police chief hunts down a chronic backwards parallel parker with the aid of our next door neighbor so that the car can be reparked and not issued a ticket. He had to find her at work 2 blocks away, after he'd been noticing her parking that way for several days. During a gynecological exam having the doc converse with you like you are at a cocktail party...."Oh do you know so-and-so? She's a great gal. Her daughter was adopted from China too... And did you hear, the Jones boys are back from college for the summer. I just saw them last night." That's off the top of my head... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarlaS Posted June 11, 2011 Share Posted June 11, 2011 Maybe we are long lost PA Dutch cousins! Do you like your shoo fly pie wet or dry bottom? I almost forgot my college scholarship program story. In small towns it seems like most folks have a "role" - town drunk, gossip, whatever. My mom was severly handicapped from MS and she was the town cripple. So, my sister and I were "Poor Janet's girls". It bothered me to no end, but it did help in odd ways. We both won the (what we called) "most pathetic person scholarship" upon graduating HS. It was $3,000 a year for 4 years! That's big money! This was back when state school was about $8,000 a year. I had worked and saved the rest so being "poor Janet's girl" paid off in a bizarre way. The year I won the other recipients were a kid whose trailer burned down and a girl whose father had passed away. I still don't know where the town got all that money! In Dutch we'd say, "It wondered me where the money came from." Michele I don't think I've ever had shoo fly pie. My dad was the Dutch one, and my mom did the cooking. :001_smile: Sure looks tasty though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EmilyinND Posted June 11, 2011 Share Posted June 11, 2011 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? This sounds like my town of 500 we are upper midwest, also.:001_smile: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarlaS Posted June 11, 2011 Share Posted June 11, 2011 Not Darla, but another Pa Dutch. I prefer funny cake, but my kids like Shoo Fly Pie. I love my heritage most of the time but we were raised as transplants. I learned a very important lesson in 4th grade when I refered to the hopper. Apparantly that was a Dutch word and my parents never told me.:glare: Okay, what's a hopper? :001_huh: I guess I'm not that Dutch (I've heard though that the PA Dutch are Germans so likely none of us are. :tongue_smilie:). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
angela in ohio Posted June 11, 2011 Share Posted June 11, 2011 Some jerk ran me off the road and into a snow bank this winter. I was about to call AAA when two men with shovels came running out of the VFW hall (from a baby shower) and a man with a plow on his truck stopped. They had me out in fifteen minutes. :001_smile: We live on the main road that runs through town, though miles south of it. Everyone drives by, so people make comments about when we were and weren't home and what we were doing in our yard all the time. I grew up in a bigger town, and it was nice. When we did anything good at school, we made the front page of the paper. :D I called a few months ago, and my mom said she was at lunch at the bowling alley. She said hi to someone, and I asked who it was. It was the mayor :lol:, having his lunch at the blowing alley (they do make an incredible Frisco Melt.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ottakee Posted June 11, 2011 Share Posted June 11, 2011 We are out in a township so not really a small town but it feels like it. My friends were once pictured on a flyer complete with MANURE scratch and sniff sticker---seems like too many city people were moving out to the country and then complaining about country smells so the local extension agency put this out to "warn" city folks what country life is like. Traffic jams are usually blue berry pickers, hay wagons, or other tractors on the road causing a back up. We don't have a traffic light in the entire 36 square mile township. My son takes his quad 2 miles down the road to the local gas station/mini mart and the DNR officer just tells him he should be careful heading home. Our neighboring community has an anual dandelion festival complete with parade--with "officials" riding in a green and yellow manure spreader leading the way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OnTheBrink Posted June 11, 2011 Share Posted June 11, 2011 Small town life sounds appealing but I still kind of like the anonymity of a larger area. I went from living in cities my whole life to living in a small town (1,400) for 2 years and I HATED IT. I had all these notions of the idyllic small town life and was completely unprepared for how "in-yo-bidness" everyone is. And, if you're 1/1000 th bit different from everyone else, forget it. It was a nightmare. As a wise woman once said, "Darling, I love you, but give me Park Avenue!" :lol: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scubamama Posted June 11, 2011 Share Posted June 11, 2011 The hopper is the toilet. I don't know where they get thet one from, but it was always called that. PA Dutch people are a mix of German, Swiss, and French Huegenot ancestry, don'tcha know now! Michele Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarlaS Posted June 11, 2011 Share Posted June 11, 2011 The hopper is the toilet.I don't know where they get thet one from, but it was always called that. PA Dutch people are a mix of German, Swiss, and French Huegenot ancestry, don'tcha know now! Michele Yeah, that's a weird one. :confused: My PA Dutch dad married a woman of French-Canadian descent. I'm a little bit of everything. Might as well throw some Swiss in there too. :tongue_smilie: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aggie Posted June 11, 2011 Share Posted June 11, 2011 We moved here in '74. Although I moved away for college and just recently came back, my parents and a sibling are still here. We are still the new folks in town and live on the "Old Smith place." Last month I was in the grocery store and was chatting with the cashier and a woman behind me. Since I've been gone so long, I didn't know her, but we got to talking and she mentioned her dh, James. I asked her if she was Mrs. Lastname. Sure enough, she's the wife of my high school boyfriend. We spent an hour in the parking lot talking! And his mom delivers our mail. Our town still has brick roads. My dad loved raising us here because, in his words, "If you kids tooted in school, I knew about it before you got home." Kept us on the straight and narrow, I tell ya. Like a pp, I can get money out of our local bank without ID or an account number. I can also cash a check for my mom without ID. Our store is a grocery AND plumbing supply store. Our weekly paper is mostly news from the school and local rodeos. We don't have much gossip in our little town, thankfully. But news does travel quickly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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