heh
Your description, with a couple exceptions, pretty much fits my former small town.
Certainly there was diversity, but people, whether black or gay or from another country or whatever, were not there to rock the boat.
There was one Mexican food place, and it was by far the most popular restaurant (in a town that had, literally, maybe ten restaurants, tops–certainly no Thai).
One of the more important things you mentioned was “unlimited career opportunities.” Employment potential was crucial in our first small town, and continues to be here in our second. People there and here, in order to make a living, might possibly have to telecommute, commute, or be innovative.
However, another thing you mention is that you work with “educated, interesting people.” There were plenty of those in our former town, as well as our current one.
Many educated, interesting people actually do choose to live their lives in a small town.
Every boy on my son’s high school soccer team went on to college (several of them fine, out of state schools); it would be interesting to see how many of these kids return to that town for good. Maybe none, but maybe some.
Currently living in (actually just outside of) a small town of about 2,000 people and I have never been busier. I think a lot of that comes from participation. When I lived in a large city I observed more, but out here, I am expected to take part.
What I mean is I used to go to concerts, museums, pro sports and the like. Here every kid who can walk is on a school sports team, in the band, on the debate squad and (not “or”) in the school play. When I moved to town, it took about 12 hours before I was drafted to announce many of the school sporting activities. Those games are packed with townspeople. Community theater is done here about three times a year. Former school muscians make up the orchestra for the musicals. I play town league sports. I just finished three different hunting seasons and my neighbor is teaching me how to tie flies for fly fishing. I don’t have a boat which I think most of the townspeople have because during the spring and summer they hit the lakes.
Another neighbor wants me to help him work on his stock car that every third person in town seems to have and race at the dirt track just outside town. Of course there is skiing.
The next time you are sitting home watching a movie or television program about some poor small town person doing nothing, remember who is sitting watching and who is out and doing.
Cow tipping. Ok not really. I’m sure some have tried, plenty of cows around here to try on.
I live in a large rural county, there is no Wal-Mart, no malls, no movie theatres, only about 6 red lights in the whole county. But what we do have is quite a bit of nature. Swimming, fishing, hunting, biking, boating. There is a county Parks & Rec with many different classes. Sports like soccer, basketball, and football are played by young and old.
Now more realistically many younger people cruise around, drink, smoke, do drugs, and hang out in parking lots. Or leave the county to go see a movie or bowling. The older crowd will go to cities in surrounding counties to go out to nightclubs, especially on Friday or Saturday nights.
There are also special events throughout the year, the county fair, various parades, a Historical Festival, Relay for Life, things like that.
I hope you don’t really think this is a good thing, that every kid is expected to want to spend lots of time with classmates who, in many, many cases, probably torment them and make their lives miserable. It’s an absolute travesty that kids would have to feel pressured to do those things or just have nothing to do, and it should make you sad, unless you have a really rosy false image of what being in school is like for a lot of people.
I do see this as a good thing. They are needed on the team so the torment is at best minimal. Do they feel pressured to be there? I don’t notice any major pressure other than the thanks I have seen them receive from their team mates. They seem to know that the next night the good power forward will be standing next to them in the vocal music concert trying to negotiate their alto part or trying to figure out the affirmative’s case in the debate tournament.
Rather than my having a “rosy false image”, these kids really seem to feel a sense of belonging and seem of enjoy participating in the things they participate in. I think it is a sence of community that many in large city schools never really grasp.
I find it hard to believe that every single kid is involved in sports and other extra ciricular activities unless your school is incredibly small. I only had about 250 people in my high school graduating class and we still had outcasts and misfits and people who just weren’t involved in anything.
What I suspect is that you only see the students who are involved and that ones who aren’t are simply written off and ignored.
Well, I’m really glad I didn’t have to experience such a “sense of community.” I can only think of about three people in my high school (student body of about 1,100) who I would have really wanted to spend more time around than I was forced to. Everyone else either had nothing in common with me or was actively cruel and mean to me, and I was better off not being around them more than I had to be, and the time I was forced to spend near them hurt me deeply in ways that took a long time to get over. I can only imagine how bad it would have been if I was exposed to community pressure to be hyper-involved in school activities because the town was such a stagnant backwater that there was literally nothing else to do in town.
No. I think my point is more that when you have a small community, you have limited choices. There are fewer groups to be a part of. You either go along with the way everyone does things or you find yourself alone. In a larger community, you have more options.
The flip side of that is in a larger community, you can easily become anonymous if you aren’t good at seeking out activities to be a part of. A small community forces you to join the community. A large community may let you drift aimlessly.