Small Town Tuesday: 22 ways you might be a small-towner...

This is my weekly installment of Small Town Tuesday. If you have a small-town story (with pictures is even better! ) please send me a message at vash_ii@yahoo.com or on Facebook.

Small town life is unique. It's a close style of living with others that was foreign in the big cities I once called home. 

There are things I experience here I had never experienced before in my life. Some good, some not so good. Below is a list of 22 things I think just might make you a small-towner...

• You have at least four distinct from-the-car waves. Here are mine: 

1. Full-bodied back-and-forth enthusiastic for people I know really well.
2. Open hand, lifted up but not waving back and forth for people I know only fairly well.
3. Hand on the steering wheel with four fingers raised for acquaintances or strangers.
4. Hand on steering wheel and one finger raised if it's somebody I'm not feeling particularly motivated to wave at. I need to work on that one. 

• You have ever wondered why someone didn't wave at YOU. Are they mad? Did they not see me? Were they just distracted? Did they not recognize me? Oy. Anymore I just wave and don't look to see if they wave back so I don't have to worry about it, ha! 

• You're about 2 degrees from being connected to anyone in town, maybe several times over. For example, our next door neighbor is also my son's PE teacher and her father was my husband's coach. Her brother also substitutes for my kid's class. Her son is one grade above Brady and her daughter will be in kindergarten soon too.

• On a related note, you are cautious when mentioning someone because you don't know who the person you're talking to is related to, works with or is close friends with. Not that I go around talking bad about people, but you just don't want something you say misconstrued and repeated! 

• You've ever gone on Facebook and learned some horrifying thing going on in town and immediately reacted to it. In my case it was THERE'S A PRISON ESCAPEE IN TOWN! Which turned out to be false. And also a lost kindergartner on a freezing cold night. My husband joined the town-wide search. Sadly it was true due to neglect but he turned out to be fine and at a neighbor's house. 

• Festivals, potlucks, hog roasts and similar events are big time excitement! Anything different to do in town is a treat.

• You have ever raced up town because the grocery store, liquor store, post office, restaurant or other businesses was JUST ABOUT TO CLOSE! Missing it means waiting until tomorrow or driving a long way.  

• Going to your dentist, eye doctor, physician, karate lesson, swim lesson, the Wal-mart and many other things requires a drive down a long highway. You won't find these things in town.  

• You've ever looked at the night sky and been blown away by stars you didn't know existed when you lived in the big city.  

• Any trip up town means taking care with your appearance because you WILL see someone you know. 

• You say "up town" like it's a big deal but it's only a block away from your house. 

• You know way more than you ever wanted to about everyone in town and you wonder what they know about you. 

• You have ever felt like an outsider :( 

• The town mayor is your cousin. Your kiddo also plays at recess with his grand-daughter who is 2 grades below him. 

• You sometimes forget the world outside the borders of your little haven exist. 

• You sometimes miss the world outside the borders of your little haven, ha! 

• You have seen a deer, fox, coyote, armadillo, raccoon, skunk, bunny or other wild creature wandering around town without a care in the world.

• Or you've woken up at 3 a.m. to hear a pack of coyotes yipping VERY close to your house and you fear for your cat who once came home really torn up, probably from a coyote. He doesn't wander far anymore. 

• Sometimes, it is so quiet you wonder if you're the only person in the world! 

• You never utter, "I don't even know my neighbors!" Everyone in town is so close by we're all neighbors. If I had a problem, there are at least a dozen people I could go to for help within walking distance. Hubby once enlisted, within 30 minutes of calling around, half a dozen guys to move a historic heavy wooden bar from the senior center to the old hotel in snowy weather.

• You know the name of the owner of every single business in town and the name of your postmaster, grocer, firemen, policeman and highway patrol, newspaper publisher, pastors of all three churches, etc.

•  You have donated money to help someone you know well and probably more than once.