You might you live in a small town if... Yesterdays experience and more.

April 11, 2018, 07:48 PM

icom706

You might live in a small town, when you stop at one place, ask for a person, get told where they are, and when you arrive, 5 minutes later, that person is already waiting for you. Interesting experience 25 years ago in Maine.

Of course I was born/came from a large metro area, so anything under 500K in population is a small town to me.

-.-. --.- -.-. --.- -.-. --.- -.-. --.-
It only stands to reason that where there's sacrifice, there's someone collecting the sacrificial offerings. Where there's service, there is someone being served. The man who speaks to you of sacrifice is speaking of slaves and masters, and intends to be the master.

Ayn Rand

"He gains votes ever and anew by taking money from everybody and giving it to a few, while explaining that every penny was extracted from the few to be giving to the many."

Ogden Nash from his poem - The Politician

April 11, 2018, 09:13 PM

OKCGene

quote:
Originally posted by LS1 GTO:
Town in Oklahoma where I hunt had two stop signs. While playing poker and drinking 3.2 beer, the mayor wanted my opinion, as an outsider, if I felt a stoplight was warranted.

They did. The lights are Mosey and Don't Mosey.

And the yellow flashing light reads Amble On.

April 11, 2018, 09:47 PM

kkina

My friend grew up in a small town on the Japan Sea side of the main island of Honshu. He remembers when the very first traffic light went up. It was a major city event. I believe people brought chairs and spent the better part of the first day watching the light change colors.

April 11, 2018, 09:55 PM

davevand

Raised in a small town in upstate NY, there were 520 kids in my school when I graduated (K-12), my class was 29, my younger brother graduated with the biggest class ever at 54, the class after my youngest brother was the smallest at 14

April 11, 2018, 10:36 PM

4x5

Growing up in a small town in North Dakota, when taking my driving test, the instructor couldn't find two cars for me to parallel park between. His solution? Just pretend there's a car *there* and *there*.

April 11, 2018, 10:41 PM

lkdr1989

That's awesome

quote:
Originally posted by 4x5:
Growing up in a small town in North Dakota, when taking my driving test, the instructor couldn't find two cars for me to parallel park between. His solution? Just pretend there's a car *there* and *there*.

April 11, 2018, 10:46 PM

signewt

...story from the last 'small town' I moved near: One day I was calling someone at their private number.

Informed I had misdialed after asking by first name for him; the party asked if I were trying to call 'first+last name' of the party.....

I said 'yes'; they said they knew him & gave me the RIGHT private number!!!!

April 11, 2018, 11:51 PM

reflex/deflex 64

While visiting the BIL his boys mentioned they were heading to the store and did I need anything. I didn't, but was surprised about the store.

BIL tells me the jokers referred to the pop machine at the grain elevator as the store. The only thing in town for sale was in that pop machine.

April 12, 2018, 02:10 AM

Nuclear

My parents grew up in a farm community with a "town" so small that when we went to a family funeral my wife realized I was related to everyone buried in the cemetery.

I grew up in a small town, there were only 138 in my high school graduating class.

My wife always wanted to live in a small town, since she hadn't ever lived in one. I thought she was crazy, but we now live in a town of about 5000, with another town of about the same size on the other side of the mountain. A lot of those residents are snowbirds. In the summer, it's like a post apocalyptic movie set. It's my favorite time of the year and I love it here.

April 12, 2018, 04:33 AM

tacfoley

quote:
Originally posted by kkina:
My friend grew up in a small town on the Japan Sea side of the main island of Honshu. He remembers when the very first traffic light went up. It was a major city event. I believe people brought chairs and spent the better part of the first day watching the light change colors.

At the Southern end of Highway 101 at Port Orford OR, they hung a traffic light around eight or nine years back. My pal Dick and I often hang out watching the traffic coming up from the next state down getting all confused by it.

Y'see, sometimes it's on, and then it isn't. Watching strangers slow down, or just drive on looking puzzled, can bring a bit of amusement to an otherwise fairly humdrum day watching the ocean doing it's thing from Battle Rock parking lot.

tac

April 12, 2018, 05:45 AM

MikeinNC

My mom grew up in Mayo Fl, pop in 2010 was 1237.

They have one red light, it's also the county seat.

Everyone knows everyone.

"Violence, naked force, has settled more issues in history than has any other factor.” Robert A. Heinlein

“You may beat me, but you will never win.” sigmonkey-2020

“A single round of buckshot to the torso almost always results in an immediate change of behavior.” Chris Baker

April 12, 2018, 06:14 AM

liner

My town is about 6500 people, 2 lights and a Dunkin Donuts. Lots of open space, good people and schools.

April 12, 2018, 06:56 AM

bronicabill

quote:
Originally posted by cparktd:
Town is small, but it is incorpated with a pop of ~450.

1) I took two grandkids to the local park in town yesterday. As I walked and the kids rode their bikes around the trail I noticed two high school age girls sitting on a bench, they got up and started jogging around the trail. By the time we got to the bench they were almost out of sight and I noticed they had left an iPhone on the bench. I thought I would do them a favor so I sent a grandkid on their bike to catch up and tell them they had left their phone. Kid comes back and told me they did it on purpose, were timing their run and didn't want to carry the phone! Pretty brave even for here I thought.

A couple more observations...

2) No red light.

3) The entire town got together and posed for a town photo! It's on the wall at city hall.

4) The 24hr convenience store closes about dark, but they do leave the gas pumps on.

So anyone else got a true life, You might you live in a small town story?

Would you mind saying what town this is? I noticed you’re listed as being from middle TN, and that sounds a lot like McEwen, my family’s home place. If you don’t want to say publicly, would you shoot me an email?

Sorry for the long quote, but it’s nearly impossible to edit on my tiny iPhone screen with my fat fingers...

April 12, 2018, 09:03 AM

610

The town I grew up in was not incorporated. Population would have been less then 200. There were 3 churches, 2 cotton gins, a grain elevator, post office, 2 small mom & pop stores and half dozen houses (everybody else lived in the country). There were 21 in my senior class. Nobody ever locked their house and everybody had a gunrack in the back window of their pickup.

April 12, 2018, 09:22 AM

Opus Dei

I live nine miles outside the proverbial "one traffic light" town. The town itself is ~5K population. The closest mall is a 100 mile round-trip. It's a place where they turn on gas pumps when they recognize you.

The City and American Legion put flags for 1/4 mile out on each major road (about 100 yards between flags) every Veteran's/Memorial Day/Fourth Of July. And we still have a Nativity scene (shh!). The tallest structure is a grain elevator.

April 12, 2018, 09:34 AM

95flhr

I live a few miles outside a one stop sign town. Not sure about the population in town, but the entire zip code is listed at about 4,490 people.

I can't see another house from mine and far enough off the beaten path I don't hear traffic. The bad news is that it's about a 40 minute drive to get to the grocery store.

April 12, 2018, 09:48 AM

henryaz

Wickenburg is a relatively small town (~6,000). Folks are very friendly, so much so that you can be stuck in line at the store while the person checking out "chats" with the cashier, long after the transaction is complete. You learn patience. Driving, too, patience is required. It is a kind of nice tempo.

April 12, 2018, 11:02 AM

TMats

When I was a Forest Service seasonal in Utah, my mailing address was an unincorporated community called Hanna. There was a bar (yep, in rural Utah), a general store, and a post office. The post office was a wooden...shed, with white clapboard siding that matched the house of the postmaster, whose front yard the P.O. sat in.

I feel bad that I can’t remember her name. She was a widow and as nice a person as you could ever hope to meet. When you needed to get into the post office, you knocked on her door and she would come out and open it up for you. If you were gone for a couple weeks on a fire and got back into town on Sunday evening, you could knock on her door.

My roommate and I shared a house at the Administrative Site. One local rancher used to bring us fresh milk in a wide-mouth, one gallon glass jar. There would be about 4” of cream floating on the top.