Small Towns

We’ve lived here for about 7 ½ years. It is the smallest town I’ve ever lived in (Our population is just over 2500). And while we don’t have a WalMart in town or pizza delivery, we do have a lot of other things that make it totally worth it!

We have a great theatre – admission is $3 for adults & $2 for kids. I took Tyler, Cameron & Amata to see "Horton Hears A Who" last weekend and for the 4 of us I spent a total of $21.00. We all had our own popcorn, pop & candy plus the cost of admission. Try finding that anywhere in a bigger City!
We have an outdoor pool where you can buy a family season pass for $85.00 (and when you are a family of 7 that is a great deal!)
We have a pretty decent grocery store. They may not have the selection that Cub or WalMart have, but it’s great for picking up a few missing items for dinner.
We also have a Dollar General store for misc items;
A fabulous hardware store that seriously has just about everything! Need paint, they’ve got it, a bicycle, yep, or maybe a water fountain or coffeepot, they’ve got that too!
And not to worry, we also have a Casey’s gas station for Pizza, plus a full Dairy Queen and 2 other restaurants in town, plus a bakery.

But I think what I like the most is just the overall atmosphere in a small town.
Every day after school my oldest, Tyler, goes to his friends house with all of their buddies to play ball. Last night I ran to the grocery store and noticed a caravan of bicycles a couple blocks away. There were 8 or 10 boys riding around, my son among them. And it just made me smile thinking how nice it is to not be worried at all about them biking around town. Our town is probably 2-3 miles in diameter, and in all honesty, there is not one part of town that I would worry about them riding around in. I literally know all of the boys’ friends’ parents.
At school they have an actual Christmas party every year, complete with a gift exchange.
For summer baseball, which is a traveling league, if the parents can't make it on time, the kids just show up at the field & someone is always there that can give them a ride.
I know that some of these things do exist in larger cities, but it's not always as obvious.

And there is also this…(again, shamelessly plagiarized from an email I received.)
Those who grew up in small towns will laugh when they read this.
Those who didn't will be in disbelief and won't understand how true it is.
1) You can name everyone you graduated with. (Cameron’s class is the largest right now with 66 students!)
2) You know what 4-H means. (Okay, I’m a City girl, so I can’t say I know what they mean, but I’m willing to bet the boys do)
3) You went to parties at a pasture, barn, gravel pit, or in the middle of a dirt road. On Monday you could always tell who was at the party because of the scratches on their legs from running through the woods when the party was busted. (See #6.)
4) You used to 'drag' Main
5) Most people went by a nickname.
6) You scheduled parties around the schedules of different police officers, because you knew which ones would bust you and which ones wouldn't. (This one is definitely true!)
7) You could never buy cigarettes because all the store clerks knew how old you were (and if you were old enough, they'd tell your parents anyhow.) Besides, where would you get the money?
8) When you did find somebody old enough and brave enough to buy cigarettes, you still had to go out into the country and drive on back roads to smoke them.
9) You knew which section of the ditch you would find the beer your buyer dropped off.
10) It was cool to date somebody from the neighboring town.
11) The whole school went to the same party after graduation.
12) You didn't give directions by street names but rather by references. Turn by Nelson's house, go 2 blocks to Anderson's, and it's four houses left of the track field.
13) The golf course had only 9 holes. (I think I forgot to mention that we do have a Golf Course & it does have 9 holes.)
14) You couldn't help but date a friend's ex-boyfriend/girlfriend.
15) Your car stayed filthy because of the dirt roads, and you will never own a dark vehicle for this reason.
16) The town next to you was considered 'trashy' or 'snooty,' but was actually just like your town.
17) You referred to anyone with a house newer then 1950 as the 'rich' people.
18) The people in the 'big city' dressed funny, and then you picked up the trend 2 years later.
19) Anyone you wanted could be found at the local gas station or the dairybar.
20) You saw at least one friend a week driving a tractor through town or one of your friends driving a grain truck to school occasionally. (Seriously, on the last day of school the seniors who live on a farm all drive their tractors to school)
21) The gym teacher suggested you haul hay for the summer to get stronger.
22) Directions were given using THE stop light as a reference. (Actually, we don’t have a stoplight, but we do have A 4-way stop sign.)
23) When you decided to walk somewhere for exercise, 5 people would pull over and ask if you wanted a ride.
24) Your teachers called you by your older siblings' names.
25) Your teachers remembered when they taught your parents.
26) You could charge at any local store or write checks without any ID.
27) There was no McDonalds.
28) The closest mall was over an hour away. (It’s only a half hour away here)
29) It was normal to see an old man riding through town on a riding lawn mower.
30) You've pee'd in a cornfield.
I would not want to raise my kids any other way!!!!