does anyone else live a small town? what do you think are the good points and bad points?
to me the good points: less crime
a nice hometowness going on.
I see ppl and I know their faces and they say hello.
it’s a nice feeling.
pretty area.
far away from everyone.
bad points
it’s so fricking small
no book stores
no place to go
everybody is related (except me)
everybody knows everyone
can’t keep anything secret
2 video stores
3 grocery stores
1 mexican resteraunt
2 chineese resterauts
and ONE high school in this whole town
oh yeah and if you’re not christian you’d better not let that be known.
I grew up in a small town, but it was such a rural area it wasn’t really a town. Dehesa Valley? Anyone heard of it? Anyway, I haven’t been back in a long time but I loved it. I had a menagerie of animals and the run of the hills. I went to a boarding school for high school though, and when I came home my parents had separated, so I didn’t really get to experience life as a teenager. Perhaps it’s just nostalgia, but I’d love to live in a similar situation some day, i.e. 8+ acres, horses, chickens, a big vegatable garden, an orchard, and a lot of hounds. I don’t know what Dehesa’s like now, I haven’t been back in ten years, but back then we just had Hasty’s–a general store with tack and feed and jerky and fresh eggs and some sleazy convenience store type stuff, plus an auction every Sunday.
I guess I feel this way sometimes because we moved here from a bigger city (atlanta) and i feel like a fish out of water. Sometimes I get SO mad and I wanna pack up my stuff and leave and then a customer from the store I work at will say, “hello, Heather. You are such a nice girl.” and will feel happy and want to stay.
and then I secretly feel guilty because I’m not really nice lol
Is this for new posters only? I noticed the counts are single digits (I think). Well, I really enjoy those little villages in Europe. The ones with the very narrow streets. But I think I do best in large cities. I especially love Paris, London, New York and Madrid. It seems that you can find a small portion of a large city and it has that small town feel. Like the Montmarte section of Paris.
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I moved from Dallas, Texas to a town with less than 50,000 people. Granted this doesn’t qualify as a small town but when you’re used to the D/FW area it sure feels like that. Whether you like living in a small town is going to depend on a lot of personal variables.
I’m learning to live without large bookstores, a variety of restaurants, a distinct lack of tex-mex food, a decent movie theater, choices in grocery stores, a night life consisting of more then shit kicker bars and hip hop joints, and a lack of fresh seafood available at stores.
On the other hand I’m closer to hiking trails, there’s a great meat market in town, the cost of living is lower, and I don’t have to deal with traffic. And if I really need to go get anything Little Rock is only an hour away.
Yep, because we all know that small town really means small mind. :rolleyes:
Marc
I’m actually not a new poster, well not really. I just figured new face for the board, new name for me… My bio info’s the same and since I was never a controversial figure, well, I forget that post count seems to matter. Perhaps I will e-mail a mod and ask for a transfer of the count. Bother.
If there isn’t a 7-11 every 2 blocks, it’s just not civilized.
I live in a small town, and there’s nothing to do here. The only movie theatre closed a while ago, and now there’s no entertainment whatsoever in this miniature hellhole. Why do you think I signed up for the boards?
small town is bad.
i grew up in one, pop 4000, but moved to a much bigger city when i was 12.
all the people are stupid, conservative and prejudiced, because small town means small mind. you can’t see new movies. there are no decent video stores. while it wasn’t a problem at the time, there is nowhere to go out to. there was nothing to do anyway. want to buy anything? forget it. books, cds, decent clothes, whatever, there was nowhere in town to get them. what you could buy was hideously expensive. only one school. the girls were/are ugly. no access to the arts. not an art gallery in sight. no theatre. want to see a band - too bad, no bands come here, they can get more people in one venue than the entire population of your town. too many farmers. couldn’t get a decent radio station, and only poor reception on half the tv stations. nowhere decent cafes or restaurants. a town obsession with its one industry (in this case, horses). there was no beach. no mall. it was hot, dusty, and completely, utterly sans oppurtunity. the small town is a town that has stopped. it has ceased evolving and is just a sore on the landscape.
i would never, ever live in one again. cities for me.
For various reasons, the administration specifically disallows members from having two different accounts. So, yes, you should e-mail a mod, not because post count matters, but because you need to have one of your accounts locked.
I grew up in a small town, and when I hit about 16 I wanted OUT! I have an odd appearance, much more so back in the day.(punk/gothic/freak:whatever you want to call it. I got picked on a lot. But that is a whooole other can of worms that I should open in another post.)
When I hit 18 I moved to the city. It was great for excitement, boys, and parties, but now that I’m older the novelty has worn off. Now I notice the crime and filth and general unfriendliness of a lot of people.
I don’t think I’d move back to a small town, though. An acreage about a half-hour drive from the city sounds perfect. I would get away from the city life, but still have access to plenty of entertainment and shopping if I felt like it!
Pros of a small town: My town has about 4500 people
I’m only 15 minutes away from the next biggest town so we can go shopping or go to the movies etc., whenever we want
My family is close by
Know most people in town
Lower crime
Smaller schools
Don’t feel the need to lock my car doors at night
Neighbors are friendly and look out for you
The park is never too crowded
So many more but I don’t have time to list them…
Cons:
Everyone knows everyone and is always privy to your business
Family is close by (it’s a pro at times and a con at times)
Still have to worry about your kids and who they’re hanging out with
My ex husband still lives there
I used to live in a small town (less than 2,000 people!) and now I’m in a “city” of about 65,000+ people. While it’s only for college I don’t know if I can handle it for a couple of more years. I like the convience of everything but I miss that small town feeling. I hate having shootouts in front of my apartment and someone robbing the pawn shop across the street. Not to mention that there is an accident damn near every other day just outside of my door. Give me back the good life where I didn’t have any neighbors for a mile in either direction and if I want to go fishing I just have to go in my back yard. Ugh I never realized how much I don’t like city life.
I think I like small towns. I lived in a suburb of a middling major city all my life, then went to a small town for college. People complain that there’s nothing to do, but I made some really great friends and had some great times I never would have if I went to school in a big town. I just transferred to a bigger-town university, and there’s more to do, but it just isn’t as fun for me.
However, I just moved to the boondocks (note, not a small town, just the outskirts of a small town) recently, and it really really sucks. Few people are out there, so there really isn’t anybody to socialize with. The kids all seem to have started drinking at age 12, and I hate it hate it when it snows because our road barely qualifies as important enough to get plowed frequently.
Oops, sorry for slipping into a rant. :rolleyes:
Gex Gex, to me this sounds a little small minded. Am I the only person who noticed that?
I live in a town with about 17,000 when the college in my town isn’t in session. I really consider this to be a small town. It’s a big farming community, LOTS of farmers all over the place. There are so many pro’s I won’t even list. The only thing that really bothers me about living here is that the town isn’t very diverse. It’s mainly populated by caucasions… Oh well. There are worse things it could be.
Just my two cents.
:):)
I guess I grew up in a small town. It was a middle class suburb in NJ with a couple of commercial nodes but no real downtown to speak of.
I liked it in the sense that it was hilly and woodsy and I got to go out and explore streams and tramp around the woods and make neat little discoveries alone or with my friends.
There was a larger town close by that had a theater where mid-level acts would come through so I got to see concerts from time to time without having to go int to NYC.
It was safe from stuff like mugging, b&e, and those sorts of crimes but man there were a lot of drugs and a lot of teenage drinking and driving. The drinking age was 18 back then and we took full advantage of it. The people that I know who grew up in NYC seem to not have this particular bit of history as frequently as the people I know who grew up in the 'burbs.
By the time I got out of HS I wanted to be anywhere but there (which I suppose is pretty normal wherever you grow up), and soon after anywhere but the east coast. In general it wasn’t a bad place to grow up.
I lived in a really small town in Colorado and didn’t particularly like having everyone know my biz.
I live in NYC now and I like being anonymous.
Yeah, I’ve got to take exception to this. In my experience living in a small town leads to more acceptance of difference because you become familiar with the difference.
I live just outside of Hillsboro, VA (pop 96)(many people have heard this little story before, I’d wager). The nearest real ‘town’ is Purcellville, VA (pop 3500…about 10-12 miles away).
And last summer I can recall walking down the street there and seeing:
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The Asian guys at the dry cleaners sitting outside playing go and yelling at each other in Japanese.
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The folks who run the Italian restaurant (they moved here from Naples…don’t get them started on it…trust me) painting the new place.
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The democrats, republicans and greens having a get together near the police station.
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The guy who runs the local printer (Mr Print) driving a horse drawn buggy to work. Nolan must have just felt like it. He’s not Amish or anything, he’s mormon.
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The local high school football team holding a carwash. And the guys were wearing bikinis and doing the soliciting.
And I haven’t even gotten into the greek community or the interdenominational sports leagues.
As I said, it’s more than tolerated, it’s accepted. Because we know each other. We’re familiar with it and it’s a normal part of life.
Small town life. As in so many things…you get out of it what you put in.
I live in a very small town, population 921 last count. There’s nothing to do here. There’s a school (grades k-12 all in the same building) about 6 churches and a car wash. Not even a nice car wash. I just moved here from San Diego so it’s a huge change for me. I am not used to having to drive 40 miles to get a movie. If I sit outside the only thing I see are junky cars driving by really fast because Main Street is 30mph. I am related to almost everyone here and people are constantly saying my name though I haven’t a clue as to who they are. There is alot of drug usage in the area (mostly by people related to me once again) so I don’t really feel safe after dark though there is little actual crime. Mostly breaking and entering trying to find stuff to pawn or sell for drug money. So to make a long boring story short, I hate living in a small town even if my rent is only $250 a month
I pretty much grew up in the small farming community of Bonfield, Illinois (population 200, up to 300 as of the 1990 census). Small towns are a great place to be a kid. If I wanted to play with one of my friends I could ride my bike around town and see who was outside. Or go swimming in the quarry. Or spend my allowance on candy and a coke from the gas station. My dad was transferred between subsidiaries when I was 11 so we had to move away, so I didn’t get to experience life there as a teenager myself but I was somewhat aware of how my nine older siblings coped. A car was needed for any sort of social life. The only movie theaters and department stores were in the Kankakee/Bradley/Bourbannais metro area, a good 15 minute drive from home.
Heh, my mom describes me as a “city boy.”
Grew up in a town of about 1200. Beautiful, scenic, and quiet. DEAD quiet. Whenever I go back, I hike, and that’s about it. Nothing else to do except hunt and break into moonshine stills. During high school, me and my friends drove 30 miles down to Gainesville for entertainment, a town of about 30,000, but at least they had malls, movie theatres, and BEER.
Got together with a couple of old buddies last year. One of them was married and living in Atlanta, and we were at his place, talking about Sam Willoughby, a DJ for a gospel station (pretty much the ONLY station) in our area, and we imitated his voice (this has been Sayam WILL-OWE-BEEE) like we did when we were kids. The wife, an Atlanta native, was just appalled.
I thought I had it bad until I became friends with some guys who grew up on tobacco farms in Eastern NC. There’s this little town within spittin’ distance of the main highway called Cayton. EVERYBODY knows EVERYTHING about each other. I was hanging around with my friends in a tobacco barn when we heard somebody pull up outside. Keul says “That’s Ira Clifton.” I said “How do you know?” He replied “I know the sound of his engine.”