You know you live in a small town when...

I've not been able to slip out yet today, because business has been very steady, and I was starting to get quite hungry. Anyhow, I asked Mr. Schrader, the local undertaker and a regular customer, if he would watch the shop for a few minutes while I went up the block to the diner and ordered some lunch, and he said "Sure". I left, and when I got back about 15 minutes later, he'd made 3 sales and was in the process of making a fourth.

I thanked him for the kindness he did me, and tried to refuse his money for the WSJ he originally came in to buy, but he insisted on paying, saying "You'd have done the same for me, wouldn't you, Pat?".

Yes, Gus, I would have!

:)

Or maybe just answer phones.

I worked in a funeral home for 3 years back in HS, and although I could probably embalm an uncomplicated cadaver, most likely I'd limit myself to answering the phone. :)

I hated growing up in a small town--nothing to do, and everybody's all up in everybody else's business. And then I grew up and bought a house in a small town. But this one is way better than the one I'm from.

And when I say small, the town I grew up in had about 1,500 people. We moved away for a year and a half and I went to a school that had more students than my hometown had people.

... as the local wits like to say. :)

is bigger than yours by 2,000 but it's still a little town. Up until 2.5 years ago I had always lived in the big city.

There are some things I miss about big city life but not many. At times I miss going to the local mall and being able to be immediately gratified as in when I'm shopping for jeans or brands I know fit me. I do the majority of my clothes, fragrance and makeup shopping online. I usually wait til they offer free shipping so I get what I want alot cheaper than if I buy it at the mall. The downside is I don't get to touch and feel things like I could at the mall.

I miss having access to some of the more 'exotic' ingredients that can be used in cooking. I didn't have any champagne for New Year's because the champagne at the local liquor store topped out at 14.95 a bottle and that was the big bottle.

Where else though would I have been able to raise my own pig and calf? Last year we raised the pig and had it slaughtered at the local meat market. My little piggy had her own large pen to roam around in and was fed corn the last 6 months of her life. I know for a fact she was wormed because I did it. This year we're raising a calf so we should have some excellent beef in the summer with no threat of mad cow disease. The wonderful thing about it was I don't have to live on acreage as I have friends who have about 20 acres and they let me use one of their pens.

The only bad incident I've had was I recently decided to open a local checking account here in town. Two days after I opened the account I had the local police at my door. I receive small royalty checks for oil and gas every month. Before I 'opened' my local checking account, I'd accrue several months worth of checks, have my ex-sister-in-law endorse them and then I'd cash them. The checks are in my prior married name which was the name I had when I inherited my small interest in the wells. Anyway, I went in to open the account with several months of small royalty checks. The new account person became suspicous because to her it appeared as if I had several aliases. She called the police after Ihad left the bank and they came aknocking at my door. Thank goodness my ex-sister-in-law is on the president of the local Chamber of Commerce and has been Woman of the Year here because I used her as my reference with the police. They checked with her after they left my house and I checked out fine.

Ok, I didn't mean to write a book! I just wanted to say I love rural living!

but I've lived in two communities where most know each other. Sometimes it bothers me to know I will encounter someone I know everytime I go out. Mostly I like it.

It's an interesting mixture of cultures: German and Irish Catholic descendants, Amish and Mennonites, and the newest immigrants to the area, Mexicans. All in all, it's a nice little place. :)

Does that count???;-)

:)

My town had 30,000 people in the early 1930's. And it's the largest city in the state. Now it's over 100,000 with our twin city across the river having over 35,000. There's also several suburbs. But it still has a small-townish atmosphere.

answer? HANK'S GOT IT RIGHT NOW. :o

WAS a community. I grew up in a city but the older I get the more I yearn for the small town.

I may be romanticizing small towns though.

My wife grew up in a town of 900 and she'd never go back to that kind of life.

He got tired of comments like this at the local liquor store--"Hey Mr. X, isn't that you third bottle of wine this week?" He said everyone in town knew what you're up to all the time.

in Washington, NC, a town of 10,000 in the tobacco-growing part of the eastern tidewater area. Boy, was that a change from suburban NJ.

I'm dating myself, but in the mid-60's my school was basically segregated -- it had one token black student. And in spite of the racial climate, there were definitely some attractions of the size.

My town is a little more than 500, and that kind of wonderfulness seems to happen to me every day. I get so smug it borders on hubris sometimes, but man... I love my little town! :)

I truly love it here, depite its being full of Republicans. ;)

We had 40 kids in my high school class. You knew every one in high school and they knew you. Also the whole town knew who you were so you had to really watch what you did as they were also watching what you did.This gives you the feeling. We had a very bad storm and no power for days on end. I watched the part time fire men walking up my drive so yelled out whats up? And they said 'your son called to see if you were OK so we came over early, At 65 you were not on the list to check out until 3 more days.' Now where did the part time fire dept. get my age and know I lived alone and would be OK until they came? Ill people they had moved I found out later.

during my adult life. Years back I felt so isolated in the small town. Fax machines, cell phones and the net changed all that. My father in law and I ran a five million dollar international company from a little (20,000) town in the Midwest. I prefer the smaller communities.

We needed some lumber for a house project. I went down to the local hardware store and placed my order and told them I needed the paneling that day. The were short-handed so they loaded up their huge delivery van, asked me if I could drive a standard, and would I mind delivering the lumber myself. For the inconvenience they would give me 10 percent off of the price. Saw everyone I knew driving thru town driving that rig, really cracked me up.

aka Foley, Alabama.
I love it here in spite of the politics.
People are generally nice and helpful.
You can tell when there's a death in the neighborhood because of all the folks bringing in food.

.

You borrow your own tools from your neighbor...and return them when done.

of her high school class. She was determined to find out who was #11 so she could "get" him/her. It was my dad. She feels she has had her revenge.

They describe their childhoods as just like Mayberry, for good AND ill.

There are 80 people in your High School

15 in Graduating class. So if you hear me bragging about nailling 75 percent of the girls, well it really isn`t that many. lol

(mid 1980s, second smallest HS in IL) now consolidated

...the valley that the town was located in had, at most 100 year- round residents.....maybe 200 in the summer plus a lot of visitors in July and August.

It was a great place to live. If you were stopped on the road changing a flat tire no one would drive by without making sure you were ok and had everything you needed. Everyone knew everyone else and in spite of the fact that the politics of the place was 50-50 everyone still managed to stay on reasonable terms with each other.