Tuesday, November 5, 2013

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.

43 comments:

  1. Perfect! We moved from the Chicago 'burbs to small town southern WI. Lovin' it!

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  2. This is too funny. I am from a small-ish town, but I think it's probably a lot bigger than yours :)

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    1. Small-ish towns have their quirks too :) Mine is less than a 1000 so one of the smallest!

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  3. LOL I know I am a small towner and proud of it. I like the way you wave, I need to work on mine too.

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    1. Me too! I love this life, with its ups and downs and in betweens.

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  4. haha this is too funny. I live in a small neighborhood and I don't really know my neighbors either. We live like we're still in NYC, isolated and only go out to shop for food or clothing. :)

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    1. It's so easy to do that! I didn't meet many neighbors in my travels in larger cities. Here I know everybody!

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  5. That's nice. I've always lived in big towns or now a city so I can't say I relate. But it sounds nice to know people.

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    1. There is a lot of rewarding and fulfilling interactions here. It has its down side, but the good more than makes up for it.

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  6. I used to live in a small town and definitely miss it! I love the friendliness of waving neighbors!

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    1. I love the waving even if it drives me crazy sometimes!

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  7. I'm not afraid to drive through your town since everyone's busy waving and no one must have their fingers on the steering wheel! Ha.

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    1. Hahahaha! Now that's funny, Katy. I wonder if there have ever been any waving related crashes?

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  8. Lol! I'm totally from a small town, and can relate to a lot of this!

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  9. I've lived in a big place most of my life and the last 6 years or so we've lived in a small town. It's rural though, so interaction isn't often, but it's always pleasant!

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    1. It really is a totally different way of living. I hated it when I was young but I love it now.

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  10. As a New Yorker I am loving this post! I think that I will have to revisit it if we ever move to the burbs for some tips!

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    1. Wow, New York! That's the ultimate big city. I'd love to go there some day.

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  11. Oh my gosh those are spot on for my small town! Our town Strawberry Festival is like the biggest event of the year.

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    1. LOL! I'm so glad you could relate. It is a unique way of living. Festivals are the best!

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  12. Ha! This is just like the town I'm from. Spot on :)

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    1. Glad it seems universal among small towns. Gosh, I love living this way.

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  13. I am a true NYer so a small town sounds so nice sometimes to live without the craziness.

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    1. Well, sometimes NY and all its craziness seems exciting :)

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  14. I would actually like to live in a small town. I love the sense of community that a small town has. I know there are also drawbacks but I have lived in my house for over 4 years and don't know anything about my neighbors. I would like to have some local friends.

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    1. I was the same way in big cities! I might know one or two, but that was it. I didn't have many people to turn to nearby if I needed help. And I feel a deeper safeness here than I did there. Still hard to make really good friends though when you're not from here!

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  15. I love small towns. I think you described them very well! I like this list a lot!

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  16. I have never lived in a small town, but my grandma lives in a town of 300 people,and we go see her twice a year. When my grandpa died, my mom sent me to go stay with her for a summer. We were working on fixing a barbed wire fence, and someone drove by and both he and my grandma waved. I said, "Who was he?" My grandma answered that she didn't know; they just always waved. My mom and I then tried that in our city, and everyone was looking at us so strangely!

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    1. Oh boy, that's even smaller than here! How cool you got to stay with her for a summer. Yup, everyone waves, whether you know them or not, well most of the time anyway, ha! In big cities, they wonder what your problem is!

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  17. These are so true. We have panthers in the back of our house!

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    1. Oh my gosh, panthers! there are always rumors of us having them around here but I'm not really sure we do.

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  18. Some of these I really had to laugh at! Now that I run a moms group in town, my husband calls me a local celebrity! I ALWAYS see people I know or that know me!

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    1. Oh my gosh, if you head up anything, you meet half the town.

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  19. I don't live in a small town, but in a city that thinks it's a small town and I can really relate!

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    1. Now that's the best of both worlds when you have a city that acts like a small town! Cool!

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  20. This is SO true LOL I never knew what a gift it was to be raised in a small town until I got older!

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    1. I lived here in my early 20s and HATED it. My attitude has changed so much.

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  21. I found your list is very interesting. My hometown was a small town and indeed it meets the characteristics you mention when I live there. Very interesting.

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    1. Very interesting that your small town, which is a LONG ways from mine, has some of the same things :)

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  22. This made me laugh - especially the distinct hand waves. Loved the part about the night sky. We had the most amazing view from our back porch!

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    1. I have never seen sky like this, well except out in the middle of the Utah dessert. That might actually have been darker :)

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