Anyone live in an isolated super small town- please read on

[pyrxtc]

My summer place is in a small town - a couple of churches, fire/ambulance, 2 general stores (one on each side of the lake), a couple of restaurant/diners.. The next "big" town has a 7/11 type store, five & dime, small (expensive) supermarket, drug store, 2 banks, post office, hardware store, video store, some eateries & gas stations, laundromat, etc..

I would live here year-round in a heartbeat, if I could.. The people are very friendly and watch out for one another - the "quiet" is unlike any other quiet you have ever experienced - the wildlife is awesome - and the mind set is extremely laid back, none of that "rat race" mentality.. People have less material goods and are truly happy with their lot in life.. If you've ever heard that c/w song - "What I Love About Sundays" - that's kind of what small town living is all about.. A "Type A" personality could never survive here, but if you're content with less material goods and have the type of personality that would be happy to "take the long way home", this is the place for you!

Is you summer place in my town??!! You just described our town exactly. I love it and would love to have 10, 20, even 100 acres surrounding us. I did not grow up in a small town either. I grew up 20 minutes outside of Boston, MA. I had enough of the city life for living. I love the relaxed way of living here and wouldn't trade it for the world. A lot of people visit my town all year round a pay about 1 million for their vacation homes (which has significantly brought up the value of my house). Our elementary school serves 2 towns and has a average class size of 15 with almost every parent volunteers some of their time for something there. My neighbors are great and half our town keeps their doors unlocked 24/7/365. Half the town is also inaccessable without 4 wheell drive for 6 months of the year. I have all kinds of different wild animals in the yard. We have bears in the front yard while my kids wait inside for the bus to come. Buses are door to door drop off. We have no grocery stores 1 resteraunt, more like a Deli, Post office, fire/police are same building and firemen are all volunteer. we only have maybe 8 policemen.

My DH drives 45 minutes each way to work but I can afford to stay home. Things are cheaper and easier here. My kids can grow up lke I did, playing around the neighborhood (except during bear season) and wear clothes that cover their body and being looked out for by all adults around not just their own arents.

 

[corie161]

They have a nice lake there, though!

I live in a smallish town. We are fortunate though that we have several major employeers in town and we are not a dying town. We have somewhat limited shopping, but we have the basics like Walmart, Kmart and a couple grocery stores. I like the small town life because we have kids and the kids can do things they wouldn't be allowed to do if we lived in a larger city, like spend the day at the fair with their friends like they did today.

Ok, another Minnesotan here from a small town (no walmart, fast food, etc) 1200 people. Actually just to the north of Albert Lea..(oh and by the way bananiem you must have never met my Grandma in AL, nicest lady by far). We are 20-30 minutes and miles to the nearest Walmart, Target, etc. 40 minutes to the nearest decent mall. 1 1/2 hours from the Mall of America. In my opinion I don't need to have a mall handy 24/7, you plan around it. Our grocery store closes at 7:00, you plan around it. Our school is combined with 3 other small towns. Most of our activities do center around the high school sports, but what a great feeling it is to have the team make state and have everyone rallying with you at the game. We once played against a private school in the Twin Cities area and they didn't have nearly the support that our kids had. When someone has a tragedy the whole town is there to back you up. I have a picture on my desk (I work for said city) that says "A small town is like a big family) and this saying is so true. I like the fact that it's safe for my kids.

Our town was actually part of a feature story in Time Magazine recently because they are trying to grow and are offering land to build on for free. We have had several inquiries from various areas of the state, people wanting to get out of high cost areas and such.

At far as a town being friendly and welcoming, I do believe that you have to be an outgoing person and join in on the celebrations and activities and get involved, people are most like not going to come to you. Once they open up they are very welcoming.

 

[Caradana]

I live in a small town called New York City, eh. In my mind, the size of your town is the size of the circle of people you're friendly with and connected to in that place. Town size is a function of love within geography. In that sense, huge impersonal cities can be smaller than the smallest towns.

I wonder if the core of the original question is this: by asking "why don't people leave small, dying towns," it's generally agreed from a demographic perspective that most residents of those towns were born there. What he's really asking is, "why is it so hard for people to move from where they're born, the safety net of what they know, when the advantages of doing so are so clear and so powerful?"

 

[Pop Daddy]

I have never lived in a real small town but there is a certain charm to it

 

[bananiem]

At far as a town being friendly and welcoming, I do believe that you have to be an outgoing person and join in on the celebrations and activities and get involved, people are most like not going to come to you. Once they open up they are very welcoming.

It really depends on the town. We joined several activities. The people who befriended us were people that moved there from elsewhere and were in the same boat as us. Even my neighbor was "shunned" because she left to go to college and married an "outsider". Oh, the horror! I started a girls night out group through the Early Childhood Ed classes I was taking with my kids. Twelve of us got together once a month for dinner or a movie. Guess how many of us were originally from AL? None of us.
No, I must not have met your Grandma.
I don't know if it's snobbery or cluelessness. The people who have always lived there have their family and friends and have never been the "new one" so they don't know what it's like. I don't think it occurs to them to befriend a new person in town.

 

[corie161]

It really depends on the town. We joined several activities. The people who befriended us were people that moved there from elsewhere and were in the same boat as us. Even my neighbor was "shunned" because she left to go to college and married an "outsider". Oh, the horror! I started a girls night out group through the Early Childhood Ed classes I was taking with my kids. Twelve of us got together once a month for dinner or a movie. Guess how many of us were originally from AL? None of us.
No, I must not have met your Grandma.
I don't know if it's snobbery or cluelessness. The people who have always lived there have their family and friends and have never been the "new one" so they don't know what it's like. I don't think it occurs to them to befriend a new person in town.

I'm surprised about the neighbor who was "shunned" when they married someone else. I can't see anyone from our town doing such. We live close enough to a prison system and have had several families move in that one or both of them work there. Just from personal views, the ones that get involved with the kids activities and town activities are the ones that seem the happiest here.

I actually don't consider Albert Lea to be a small town, it has Walmart, Shopko, a mall, and plenty of fast food, several elementary schools, etc. I consider a small town is where most everyone knows everyone enough to acknowledge them on the street. I like knowing every kid I graduated with and even the under and upper classmen.

 

[bananiem]

I grew up in an area of 250,000 so Rochester was a small town to me when I first moved here!! So in my experience AL was a small town. The first neighbors we met knew where we were from, the ages of our kids, where dh worked, where we were building our house, what church we'd be attending....It kind of creeped me out that complete strangers knew so much about us!

 

[DStar4cup]

I grew up in a small town (300 people). As a kid, I don't remember being bored. I had my horses. We had our rodeo arena and every Sat. night we would have what they called play night. We competed in Barrels, rings, etc. We also had trail rides and I was part of the drill team. We would go to Rodeo's and perform. Also was very active in school. My mom would take us to all the games (she went also) even though neither me or my sister were playing. There was alot of work to be done with having a garden, land, and all the animals. My mom and dad would work all day and then come home and work some more. Social life was spending time at friends houses. My parent's would go play cards and us kids would play outside. Shopping day was on Saturday. Went to town every weekend. I loved that life but the sad thing is now it is near impossible for a young couple to make a living there. I would live that life in a heartbeat if I could afford it.

 

[C.Ann]

What he's really asking is, "why is it so hard for people to move from where they're born, the safety net of what they know, when the advantages of doing so are so clear and so powerful?"

--------------------
It could be they don't want those "advantages" - or in the case of people who have already had them, they've discovered the "advantages" aren't really what they need to be happy..

 

[C.Ann]

Is you summer place in my town??!! You just described our town exactly. I love it and would love to have 10, 20, even 100 acres surrounding us. I did not grow up in a small town either. I grew up 20 minutes outside of Boston, MA. I had enough of the city life for living. I love the relaxed way of living here and wouldn't trade it for the world. A lot of people visit my town all year round a pay about 1 million for their vacation homes (which has significantly brought up the value of my house). Our elementary school serves 2 towns and has a average class size of 15 with almost every parent volunteers some of their time for something there. My neighbors are great and half our town keeps their doors unlocked 24/7/365. Half the town is also inaccessable without 4 wheell drive for 6 months of the year. I have all kinds of different wild animals in the yard. We have bears in the front yard while my kids wait inside for the bus to come. Buses are door to door drop off. We have no grocery stores 1 resteraunt, more like a Deli, Post office, fire/police are same building and firemen are all volunteer. we only have maybe 8 policemen.

My DH drives 45 minutes each way to work but I can afford to stay home. Things are cheaper and easier here. My kids can grow up lke I did, playing around the neighborhood (except during bear season) and wear clothes that cover their body and being looked out for by all adults around not just their own arents.

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Great living, isn't it? If my son-in-law's job was up here, they would buy a house here in a heartbeat..

 

[wenbel]

I love small town living and I wouldn't trade it for the world. I love to shop but I'll take the two hour drive to the mall. I would rather visit cities and return home to "where everybody knows your name".

 

[coolmom99]

I don't live in the small town, but if I could transport my 5000sq foot house to a small town, I would in a second! I would love to be so isolated. I think I have driven in DC traffic for too long..... My thinking is warped!

Why did you find it necessary to include the size of your house? It sounds like you are bragging.

 

[teacherforhi]

If you live in a very small town far from a big metro area- tell us what life is like in these towns. Why do you stay? Do you like living in a very rural area and do your friends and neighbors?

I would ask the same questions of anyone living in a large city. Why would you stay?

I love my town. I don't have to worry about locking my door. No one's going to bother my house. The closest thing to violent crime we have is a drunk driver hit someone with their car several years ago.

I can take a walk downtown (a few stores and such) to our little park in the evenings and not have to worry about traffic or getting mugged.

I can sleep at night with nothing to disturb me besides those darn crickets that get into my vents every autumn.

Every evening on the news, the top story is usually someone getting murdered or robbed or carjacked in Charlotte. Why in the world would I want to live there?

 

[MOMTOCUTESTDOGEVER]

We lived in a small town for 6 years for dh's job. My experience was that the people who were happy in this particular town were the ones who'd been born and raised there and didn't know any other way of life. It was a very odd town though. Not at all welcoming to "newcomers".

We lived in a town 90 miles from civilization for 2 years. Your DH's job must have been in the same place.

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

oh good grief!

 

[janette]

I grew up in a isolated super small town in Montana, would recommend it as a wonderful place to grow up. We lived near a town of about 500, not on a farm but a small community of maybe 40 people most of which would have been my immediate family. My family moved to the biggest town in the area (pop 3,253) after I graduated from HS. I tried to find the nearest Walmart on their website but they will only find one within 100miles. I think the nearest is about 150 miles away. There a few stores but no major chains, JCP was there until not too many years ago but they carried a very limited stock. Growing up we did lots of catalog shopping and my Dad ran the local Montgomery Wards Catalog center for a few years.

I graduated in a class of 35 students. There are advantages to a small school for the basics but my children growing up in a large suburb I think have more advantages because there are special programs and more of an opportunity for advancement. I took 4 years of math in HS and there were 3 of us in our Trigonomenty class which was all that was offered. The only foreign language was German because they had a teacher that spoke it.

Why do people stay? Not that many do, looking at the town website the average age is 42 only 12% have college degrees. The people that I know to have stayed usually have several generations of their family in the area. The ranches are passed down in the families.

I haven't visited my home town in a long time, I plan to next summer and I'm looking forward to showing my girls what I loved about it.

The absolute silence, sitting on the edge of the lake and hearing only birds. The Stars, living in a large metro area makes the night sky not much to look at. I remember sleeping outside and just looking at the stars. They do have a reason to call Montana Big Sky country, the night sky in those northern plains is just amazing. The freedoms, I remember the rule in the summer was to be in by dark. In the summer that was 10-11pm. I can't imagine giving my city kids the go ahead to be out all day ever.

 

[gilesdad]

My wife and I bought a 1700 sq ft home for $39,000 about 14 yrs ago. That same home would have cost at least double in a larger community. Although the equity over time would also rise faster in the larger area, there are a lot of tradeoffs. As a lot of folks have mentioned....
Wearing sunglasses at night because the stars are too bright.
Listening to the coyotes squealing when a freight train is whistling in the distance.
Fishing in the creek behind our house.
Building a campfire and cooking hotdogs and s'mores. (in the bigger towns around here the fire dept will actually come and put out your fire, not in my town)
I can cut down my old apple tree, throw it in the ditch, let it dry, then burn it.
If I forget to lock the door when I leave I don't have to turn around and go home.
Listening to the combines bringing in corn and beans at 1am. Farmers work harder than you'd realize. (no, I'm not a farmer)
Going to the fire dept to borrow a table and chairs because we've got more people at the birthday party than we expected.
Selling fundraising items from school and only needing to write down the name... No address or ph number necessary.

There are of course drawbacks like having to drive 10 miles to the hardware or grocery store.
No gas station.
But you learn the routine.
I love the small town life, and intend to continue living it.
Foosland, IL. Pop. 87

 

[AllyandJack]

I live in one of those towns. I have to drive half an hour just to get to a Dunkin Donuts or a supermarket.

I wouldn't live anywhere else. I grew up in the projects in Boston, so it's not a matter of not wanting to leave where I grew up. I bought 5 acres and built a nice house on it. There is nothing in the world like coming home and sitting on my deck and staring up into that big sky and seeing all those stars. I love coming home and finding deer in my driveway.

Our town is great. There are a lot of new houses going up, but it's maintaining it's farm-town feel. I say "Good Moo-ning" to the cows when I'm on my way to work. We don't have trash pick-up. We don't have streetlights. We don't have fire hydrants. We don't have public water or sewer. I hope I live here forever.

Everyone has their preference and this is mine. If everyone wanted to live in a small town, they wouldn't be small anymore.

 

[dirtysouthinit]

Our town has 2 stoplights and one supermarket. It is a bedroom town of 2000 and I wouldn't live anywhere else in the world. We have 1) Very little crime 2) Top ranked schools 3)I know most people in my part of town. Granted I have to drive 35 minutes to work and it's about 20 miles either way to a walmart or fast food joint. I love it and you couldn't pay me enough to live in a metro area.