# How small a town did you grow up in? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [September 19, 2015, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-small-a-town-did-you-grow-up-in/731778 "2015-09-19T15:58:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2015, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-small-a-town-did-you-grow-up-in/731778/81 "2015-09-26T15:40:28Z")
My town was so small, the Mayor had to leave the City Limits, to have enough room to change his mind. ---
**Author:** ![dougie\_monty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2015, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-small-a-town-did-you-grow-up-in/731778/82 "2015-09-26T17:31:21Z")
> [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](#): > > My town was so small, the Mayor had to leave the City Limits, to have enough room to change his mind. Homer & Jethro must have known about this. (“Hart Brake Hotel”) ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2015, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-small-a-town-did-you-grow-up-in/731778/83 "2015-09-26T18:13:21Z")
> [@MareIt](#): > > I only lived there a couple of years, but in the 1980s the Hartland 4 Corners Post Office was located in the post mistress’ living room. Every night she rolled the wall of PO boxes and postal window to the side of her LR and put it back every day. They got PO in its own building sometime in the early 90s. Are you talking about the one in Vermont? If so, I lived there too in the 90’s. The general store had a few of everything - several movies to rent, snowboots in a few random sizes, a couple of rifles for sale and they made really good sandwiches on demand. The Skunk Hollow Tavern was the main attraction and is still going strong. I didn’t even have a street address, mailing address, phone of any sort or internet connection when I lived there. It was awesome. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2015, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-small-a-town-did-you-grow-up-in/731778/84 "2015-09-26T22:10:32Z")
My goodness, some of you folks lived in major metropolises. Another datum from my town: The graduating HS class could be counted on one hand. (The lower classes would be bigger, but finishing HS wasn’t a priority in a place like that.) The grade school classes were doubled up: one teacher for 7-8th grade, etc. and still had a better student-teach ratio than most places. 7 man football. _All_ the HS boys played _all_ sports except the kid with the bad leg who was team manager. But still went undefeated all the way to the state semis one year. Oh, and given the remoteness and small population, that meant the USAF had a bombing range nearby. Mock dogfights, sonic booms, etc. Once in a while there was an accident. Came across an article about the third dummy bomb in a few months landing in a the next town over. Hit somebody’s well. Once, a missile went off course. Lot’s of trucks, sirens, etc. A cloud of smoke outside of town. No one allowed near the site until it was all cleaned up. Try living in a place where the government doesn’t care if they blow you up because, hey, who’s going to notice? ---
**Author:** ![MareIt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ea666f/32.png) [@MareIt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MareIt)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2015, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-small-a-town-did-you-grow-up-in/731778/85 "2015-09-27T00:01:16Z")
> [@Shagnasty](#): > > Are you talking about the one in Vermont? If so, I lived there too in the 90’s. The general store had a few of everything - several movies to rent, snowboots in a few random sizes, a couple of rifles for sale and they made really good sandwiches on demand. The Skunk Hollow Tavern was the main attraction and is still going strong. I didn’t even have a street address, mailing address, phone of any sort or internet connection when I lived there. It was awesome. Yep, in VT. But the general store is in Hartland, not Hartland 4C. To this day, Hartland 4C hasn’t gotten any bigger than when I lived there other than having an actual post office building. Skunk Hollow still the only thing to do without leaving there. I lived on the Hartland-Brownsville Rd. And the big scandal of my time was they converted from RR to street names and MISNAMED one of the local roads. Ogden’s Mill got named Jennyville and Jennyville got named some other name… The HORRORS! ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2015, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-small-a-town-did-you-grow-up-in/731778/86 "2015-09-27T02:10:35Z")
> [@MareIt](#): > > Yep, in VT. But the general store is in Hartland, not Hartland 4C. To this day, Hartland 4C hasn’t gotten any bigger than when I lived there other than having an actual post office building. Skunk Hollow still the only thing to do without leaving there. > > I lived on the Hartland-Brownsville Rd. And the big scandal of my time was they converted from RR to street names and MISNAMED one of the local roads. Ogden’s Mill got named Jennyville and Jennyville got named some other name… The HORRORS! Oh boy, you are bringing up pleasant memories. I loved that place and was only forced to leave through extreme coercion. That is an odd part of the world that really isn’t that far from several big cities but is a world away from the typical U.S. I moved there intentionally because of graduate school but the real reason was that I loved the Newhart Show as a kid and promised myself that I would live in Vermont as soon as possible. I did that and they were not kidding. It is almost exactly like that to this day and bless them for it. Vermont and New Hampshire are still my favorite states. As soon as global warming kicks in a little more, I may move back there. ---
**Author:** ![Tinkertoy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f19dbf/32.png) [@Tinkertoy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tinkertoy)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2015, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-small-a-town-did-you-grow-up-in/731778/87 "2015-09-27T03:52:22Z")
> [@ftg](#): > > Try living in a place where the government doesn’t care if they blow you up because, hey, who’s going to notice? Tell me about it, I lived very close to this [“Fatal Idaho reactor meltdown”](http://www.earthmagazine.org/article/benchmarks-three-men-die-nuclear-reactor-meltdown). Sitting in school watching the “turtle duck and cover” video, while seeing the reactor out the window was always a bit unnerving. ---
**Author:** ![MareIt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ea666f/32.png) [@MareIt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MareIt)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2015, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-small-a-town-did-you-grow-up-in/731778/88 "2015-09-27T23:06:30Z")
> [@Shagnasty](#): > > Oh boy, you are bringing up pleasant memories. I loved that place and was only forced to leave through extreme coercion. That is an odd part of the world that really isn’t that far from several big cities but is a world away from the typical U.S. I moved there intentionally because of graduate school but the real reason was that I loved the Newhart Show as a kid and promised myself that I would live in Vermont as soon as possible. I did that and they were not kidding. It is almost exactly like that to this day and bless them for it. Vermont and New Hampshire are still my favorite states. As soon as global warming kicks in a little more, I may move back there. I HATED living in Vermont as a kid. Even now, I am happy enough that my visits are typically less than 4 days. Pretty. But only in small doses. ---
**Author:** ![Bam\_Boo\_Gut](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8c91f0/32.png) [@Bam\_Boo\_Gut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bam_Boo_Gut)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2015, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-small-a-town-did-you-grow-up-in/731778/89 "2015-09-28T00:04:40Z")
Someone would be muttering about Mr So and So driving his cattle up Temple Street during wet weather. He wanted to dry off their hooves a bit on the tarmac but of course there would be cow pats everywhere. ---
**Author:** ![dougie\_monty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2015, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-small-a-town-did-you-grow-up-in/731778/90 "2015-09-28T03:30:00Z")
> [@MareIt](#): > > I HATED living in Vermont as a kid. Even now, I am happy enough that my visits are typically less than 4 days. Pretty. But only in small doses. Where do you live now? ---
**Author:** ![Leonard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a6a055/32.png) [@Leonard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leonard)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2015, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-small-a-town-did-you-grow-up-in/731778/91 "2015-09-28T04:10:40Z")
**Shagnasty** , Starks? Merryville? If so I grew up just across the line. Anyway… > [@Mangosteen](#): > > My home town was so small that… When I was in college the grocery store got new ice cream coolers and it made the front page of the paper. ---
**Author:** ![lel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8797f3/32.png) [@lel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lel)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2015, 5:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-small-a-town-did-you-grow-up-in/731778/92 "2015-09-28T05:25:05Z")
> [@Spud](#): > > This reminds me of a good friend from college. He insisted he was from a “suburb” of Chicago. It was a town with less than 2,000 but they got the Chicago TV stations and were covered by their weather radar so he was convinced that counted as a “suburb.” > > I just checked and it is 87 miles away according to Google Maps. > > I in no means am saying **Pai325** wasn’t in an actual suburb… just reminded me of another small town “suburb” of Chicago I had heard of. I’m trying to guess what’s about that distance, less than 2000 people, and still in the Chicagoland TV market. Gardner or Mazon might fit the bill but both are closer to Chicago than 87 miles. But it’s easier to say Chicago suburbs than Illinois cornfields. The first town I grew up in was a “suburb” of Chicago that had a population of 1500-2000 when I was growing up, now it’s about 7500. The next town was a small town in the rural west that had a town population of about 3500 when I was growing up and now it’s about 3600. It had one stoplight when I was there, now there are either five or six (can’t remember). ---
**Author:** ![Barkis\_is\_Willin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a183cd/32.png) [@Barkis\_is\_Willin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barkis_is_Willin)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2015, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-small-a-town-did-you-grow-up-in/731778/93 "2015-09-28T14:18:00Z")
My graduating class was considered huge with 70 kids. The class after mine had 38. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2015, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-small-a-town-did-you-grow-up-in/731778/94 "2015-09-28T14:41:19Z")
The first house I lived in was in in [Rimpton](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rimpton) (population 212) but I’ve spent most of my life in or near big cities. ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2015, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-small-a-town-did-you-grow-up-in/731778/95 "2015-09-28T14:53:19Z")
> [@Leonard](#): > > **Shagnasty** , Starks? Merryville? If so I grew up just across the line. Anyway… A little further north than that but I know those towns as well. Mine is [Logansport, LA](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logansport,_Louisiana). It was founded as a neutral territory back when Texas was an independent country. Outlaws escaped just across the border whenever they got into too much trouble on the Texas side of the border. It has the only known international boundary mark within the U.S. on my family’s land and the only survivor of the Alamo, Moses Rose, is buried there. The fact that it was a haven for ne’er-do-wells explains explains a lot of people that I grew up with. They were the direct descendants of people on the run. ---
**Author:** ![G0sp3l](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c68b51/32.png) [@G0sp3l](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/G0sp3l)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2015, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-small-a-town-did-you-grow-up-in/731778/96 "2015-09-28T17:01:44Z")
Once again the dope shows how unique I’m not. I expected to be one of the FEW people to have spent any significant time in a town of less than a thousand people. The town I spent the last few years of my childhood in has never broken a thousand people. The max was ~900 in the 1920’s. It’s dying a slow death, down to about 250 now, and I won’t miss it at all. ---
**Author:** ![Master\_Wang-Ka](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/master_wang-ka/32/3325_2.png) [@Master\_Wang-Ka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Master_Wang-Ka)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2015, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-small-a-town-did-you-grow-up-in/731778/97 "2015-09-28T19:38:41Z")
My hometown was so small it had a “You are now entering” and “You are now leaving…” sign. The kicker? They were the same sign! My hometown was so small, the local power plant was a Sears Die Hard! My hometown was so small, if you called a wrong number, they’d give you the right one. My hometown was so small, they had to annex property so we could eat foot long hot dogs. My hometown was so small, you gave directions using “the stop sign” as a reference… (Wocka wocka!) ---
**Author:** ![control-z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eada6e/32.png) [@control-z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/control-z)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2015, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-small-a-town-did-you-grow-up-in/731778/98 "2015-09-30T19:19:39Z")
I didn’t live in a town at all. Where we lived when I was born was on a farm nothing but hills and woods and fields and my uncle’s trailer in sight. It was about 10 miles to the nearest small town. It has/had a population of a few hundred and no red lights. When I was 5 or so we moved into a new house about 10 miles away, no close neighbors and nothing but woods and hills in sight. That was about 15 miles to the nearest small town. That town had a population of a few thousand and one red light. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2015, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-small-a-town-did-you-grow-up-in/731778/99 "2015-10-12T01:30:27Z")
> [@Bill\_Door](#): > > I still remember in 1968 when we got our second stop light. The mayor made a speech and everything. We used to tell our college friends “Now, don’t think all there is to do back home is sit around and watch the stop lights change… because we don’t have any.” Now there are two. And a couple of parking meters. Place has really gotten gentrified. ---
**Author:** ![dougie\_monty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2015, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-small-a-town-did-you-grow-up-in/731778/100 "2015-10-12T14:44:13Z")
> [@control-z](#): > > I didn’t live in a town at all. > > Where we lived when I was born was on a farm nothing but hills and woods and fields and my uncle’s trailer in sight. It was about 10 miles to the nearest small town. It has/had a population of a few hundred and no red lights. > > When I was 5 or so we moved into a new house about 10 miles away, no close neighbors and nothing but woods and hills in sight. That was about 15 miles to the nearest small town. That town had a population of a few thousand and one red light. Was there a GREEN light? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-small-a-town-did-you-grow-up-in/731778.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-small-a-town-did-you-grow-up-in/731778.md?page=6)