Posted on 12/07/2016 9:09:55 AM PST by Mad Dawgg
If you live or have lived in small town America would you be so kind and tell us about it. (For our purposes towns of less that 10 thousand in population but still have city services like Police and Fire Depts. etc.)
But if you would be so kind post your experiences BEFORE you read any others on here. The reason being is I am interested to know if there are trends in small town America that manifest nationwide and to see if they are something that most of us notice without being pointed out by others.
What I am looking for is the experiences of how your town was when you were a kid, and how the town is now and the differences you notice in day to day life there. Please give approximate dates and for purposes of not revealing too much personal info on the net narrowing it down to a decade should suffice. Also if you do not wish to name your town just note the State and or region.
Thanks in advance for any and all responses and the more you have to tell us the better it will be.
So, 90% Democrat and everybody's poor? That's what arts & crafts means around here!
Could mean the predominant architectural style, I guess.
Did you say “Small Town”? Here are a couple we visited before settling in here:
https://youtu.be/n03wfCcIiec Tenakee Springs Pop. 100 (40 people and 60 dogs, according to one local)
https://youtu.be/IobjXz4A2TE Port Alexander, Pop. 35 but they have a K-12 School.
I could go on...
Curious to know what kind of projects got rejected?
My still somewhat bucolic town is in search of new business prospects to fill empty storefronts. Our small downtown was killed by a mega-mall, then we were hit hard by the recession. But I have some dread of what might show up.
Small internet businesses looking for a little incremental walk-in retail sales, locally made goods hopefully, furniture, bedding, clothing, crafts. That works if FedEx or UPS delivers from there in a timely manner and there’s decent internet speed.
Maybe we will get more when we begin to see the end of the OBAMA RECESSION.
The town igrew up in was so small we had to take turns being the town drunk. We couldn’t afford a full time one.
Look at the local area, what is it known for, what desirable things have been made, or could be made there that people from away, even out of the country would want? Authenticity matters, along with quality and a price that is reasonable enough that people think “oh, what the heck, I like it, I’ll buy it.”
Brilliant
Since 2002 we have lived in a small county in Texas. The county seat has about 4,500 people. There are drawbacks but we have decent doctors; great neighbors and we love living here. People say “hello”; races get along; all in all it is wonderful!
Living in rural central PA. Not a resident of the local town (pop. ~2000) but address is through their post office. About two decades ago all of the stores in town closed at noon on Wednesday and Saturday and of course all day Sunday. I do mean ‘all’ of them. Need gas? SOL!
Finally got a convenience store open 24 hrs 7 days a week and all of the other businesses changed their hours to modern standards. Too little too late from what I see. Lots of empty storefronts and only one grocery store left in town. Nearest chain grocery store is now 20+ miles away.
Drugs are a local problem, having drug searches in the local school was a deciding factor in homeschooling our kids. The school district can’t control who influences my kids but I can, as well as many other parents in the community. Internet access for home schooling provides an alternative for us that wasn’t available ten years ago. It stresses the districts budget and will eventually cause the school to have far fewer attending students.
Crime is not an overwhelming concern here but does occasionally occur. Firearms are plentiful and with the the passage of stand your ground laws in PA, there seems to be far fewer break ins. Most often it is by an unattended vacation home by some local misguided youth.
UPS, FEDEX and USPS service is a godsend that allows us to not be traveling all the time for store items not available locally. Daily deliveries and online ordering are common occurrences. Regular two day service and next day if needed.
One of the trends I have noticed in the last ten years is the relocation of troubled urbanites to small towns outside of their home area. The theory is that it will separate them from the drug and crime culture. Most are on relocation programs to get them out of living situations that are less than ideal.The problem is brought to the small town when friends and acquaintances come to ‘visit’ weekly and bring the urban problems with them. Well intentioned it may be but the fact is it is a program that spreads problems into rural areas that otherwise would not have had to deal with them at that level. Schools, Police, local and state agencies are required to provide services and at a cost to the local community.
You rode your bike everywhere, Mine were almost always Schwinn Stingrays My favorite one I can remember was a model called the Lemon Peeler. It was a cross between these two versions in the following pictures:
Mine had the 5 speed gear shift and the hand breaks but the large front wheel it was custom assembled out our local bike shop with the confusing name of Ohio Auto. The old guy had started in the auto parts business circa late 40s early 50s and slowly transitioned over to bikes and toys. I was given this bike on my birthday probably when I was around 11 years old. I had that Bike until I was in High School. I was rarely outside without it.
A bike was just an extension of your outside self. All the neighborhood kids had something similar. My next door neighbor rode Huffys and we spent many a summer day arguing the merits of our "rides" over the other guy's obviously inferior bike.
We adapted our bikes to carry the many tools of our daily outdoor world like ball bats and gloves and tools like shovels and hammers and saws that we used to build interesting things like tree houses and go-carts. The tree houses were built in the woods a couple of blocks to the east of where we lived, it was the edge of town and to this day I have no idea who owned or owns that property. There were no signs or any structures save for our many and varied forts and tree houses some of which are still there today though in less-than acceptable condition to serve any useful purpose.
These structures were kid-haven no adults ever came there many because we just did not tell any of them about these places. This was where the many discussion on the opposite sex took place all the speculation of young boys about girls and what they were like how they were shaped etc. When I think of the hours and days spent there it always brings a smile to my face and I am sure at the time if any parents had overheard us there would have been shocked dismay and probably a permanent banishment from said havens But when I compare those memories to what kids of that same age bracket as we were at the time are doing and experiencing presently it would not even raise an eyebrow today of must parents.
Being a kid in small town America in that era (late 50s 60s and 70s) was to me a Golden Age. The adventures I and my pals engaged in are fond memories and are something my daughter did not get to experience much because by the time she was born much had changed for the worse. She was born in the 90s and there just was no thought of allowing any kid under 15 or so to spend the day away from the house. When she was 4 a friend of hers was grabbed and was being hefted into a car when a neighbor parent saw the ordeal and ran full on towards the vehicle with a rake in hand ready to do battle. The child was dropped and the vehicle fled. The only info the neighbor parent got of the vehicle was an out of state license plate most likely Indiana and the make which was most likely a rusty Chevy van with no windows except in the back.
There are several events some major some not that I remember as a kid that would most likely not occur today. One happen mid 70s and it was the Town's Centennial of course that is an event that only happens once in a town's life but the scope of the event was huge or at least it seemed so to us kids. There was a festival held to celebrate the event that lasted over a week (Our town did not have any such events before that save for the fair which is at the fairgrounds on the edge of town but not in the town proper.)
There were two parades one to open the festivities one to close them. Both took hours to watch. The theme was of course based on what the town was like at it's incorporation 100 years ago. When the floats and parade participates lined up the thing stretched for several miles and took considerable effort to organize blocking many streets in neighbor hoods just to stash everyone in order to get in line. Marching bands from neighbor cities for miles came to march in the parade. Horses from all the horse show arenas for miles came also (in fact there were dozens of people dressed as clowns all along the parade route with shovels and carts to collect the multitudes of "road apples" deposited by the alarming number of horses that descended on the town for those two parades. Some estimates have the number of horses in the parades at well over 200 both ridden and pulling the many varied wagons and carts from the era of the town's founding. This may not sound like many but when your town is only around 5000-6000 in total population it seems like all the horses in the world suddenly rode into your town.
Horses were always a part of our parades in town and my family almost always ride our horses in these parades. I can remember riding in the Centennial Parades and my Dad carrying buckets of water many times filled with hoses of friendly homeowners along the side street were assigned for our staging area to the parade. When the horses started depositing "rode apples" on the street one of the older neighbor ladies asked if she could have it all for her gardens. My dad smiled and and said sure and handed me a shovel.
The Centennial Festival was something I will never forget because there were so many things going on. People usually attended the Festival in "period dress" There were several notable Townspeople who were in Character during the entire event.
One character was Judge Roy Bean (apparently because the movie of the same name had released around the time of Centennial and was very popular and of the same era as the Founding of the town) The Judge would hold daily trials after Festival goers were arrested by several of his "Deputies" under highly controversial laws that tended to be made up on the spot. Many were put in the "Stocks" which were located in prominent corner near the Festival stage in the center of town. Some were given community service such as sweeping the streets and/or picking up litter with a fake ball and chain attached to their ankles.
There were also small side events going on constantly in the downtown's store windows. Many of these windows were decorated up to "period" interiors of how such would look from the time of the Founding and then locals would act out small one act plays. One I remember vividly because Our neighbor Cloyce (my best friend's Dad) was a main character involved in a card game in a Saloon that erupted into an argument and a bar fight.
This whole festival was literally years in the making people in town worked on costumes and decorations and and planned events like the one act plays for months even years in advance.
And for the life of me I cannot imaging anything close to the level of commitment and detail that was applied then to a similar event in any town near me in this present day. Not because I don't think local people could not handle such. It is just that an event like that Centennial of my youth would not be considered worth the effort that was put forth then. Mainly because the people that would do it now are my age and I know most of them and they would just not have the time and most certainly would not have the money it would take to hold such an event presently.
Another minor event that stands out for me when I was probably around 9 or nine was a "wanted Man" was in our area. I don't remember his name or exactly what all he had done wrong but he had beaten his wife and one of kids bad enough that both were in the hospital and someone else much worse and was trying to hide out locally. Word had spread he maybe about in our neighborhood and I can remember my Dad and several Neighborhood dads grabbing weapons (mostly 12 gage shotguns) and searching the area checking on neighbors and going to all the outbuildings and garages in our area making sure he was not hiding there. Of course most every Neighborhood Dad had served in the military either in WWII or Korea
Again I cannot imagine anything like that happening today. For a host of reasons not the least of which a large group of men walking about town armed would cause all manner of concern and probably elicit an unwelcome response from State and maybe even federal authorities. But back then it was just part of town life that you did not allow bad men to roam the town and many town officials including police were in amongst those men leading and organizing the search groups. Another yearly event I remember is decorating the town for Christmas this was done up with much gusto. lights were strung all up and down the streets on the phone poles and store windows were fully decorated The Christmas parade was a large affair with sometime a hundred parade entries. Marching Bands from around the area the Local Groups like Kiwanis and Rotary and of course the popular Shriners members in their very rad mini-cars that all us kids wanted so badly.
Today the Christmas parade has our local marching band, two or three Fire trucks, a couple police cars and maybe a couple of local children's baton groups and a dilapidated float with Santa in a sleigh with one reindeer It is over in ten minutes.
The main thing I notice is that town events are few and far between and are poorly attended to the point many have been permanently canceled. Fourth of July Fireworks are gone. the annual Little League parade is in danger of cancellation because though all the teams participate hardly anyone watches the parade ( one of the saddest things I have ever had the displeasure of watching is 20 or so little league teams riding through town and not a single person on the streets watching besides me and two others who were taking pictures.
. Something in small town America was lost these past few decades I know it is just not my area. I know our area has been hard hit by several government schemes that crushed the local economy but I know also I get reports of the hallmark events of small town life fading away where the economy is in no way as bleak as it is here.
And it makes me sad to think it is probably gone forever.
This is where I live also and it may be gloomy but it is the truth.
Born and raised in Gaffney SC. Population around 13,000. For a small town, we have had serial killers, high school football fans attacked by a tear gas bomber and other events that caught national attention. We also have a long list of locals who made out to celebrity status. Andie McDowell, Sidney Rice and others. The cable show “ house of cards” is based on our town. Heck, we even had a guy named Donald Trump drop in a couple months ago.
Forever known as the home of the Peachoid to locals and anyone who’s ever traveled through on I-85.
Loved Hilo at Christmas. Mele Kalikimaka.
Some small towns have managed to cohere and maintain all the events, parades and festivals. Their storefronts are largely filled, too. Not sure what the difference is, but they exist. My sister lives in one. Mocksville, NC.
lol.... not that dinky. Several hundred kids. Class A. It’s just out in the sticks... where it is safe.
Love those Dutch Monkey donuts in Cumming. The finest donuts in all of Georgia.
I grew up in a small town, returning after 40 years of working in big towns......big difference now - drugs and even less working opportunities - especially for young people. Those who don’t finish High School are hardest hit, but even those that do finish but don’t continue to even community college find it difficult to find work - other than minimum wage jobs.
Big box stores have moved in - downtown stores are now just tourist traps selling antiques, beer, trinkets. Property values have gone through the ceiling.
With that said, small towns are great for the retired set, especially when a high rated hospital in part of the mix - it’s the most popular place in town.
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