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

[lovetheparks]

Some of your small towns sound amazing. DH & I would love to live in a small town, it's employment that stopping us. We lived in WV with family for a while and the closest anything was 20 minutes down the "holler" and that was one Hardees and a grocery store. I loved it

 

[mtblujeans]

First of all, we LOVE Oregon. Like so many of our beautiful states, it has a wide variety of terrain from one end to the other!

Kalispell was a smaller area when we first moved here about 20 years ago. As more people have moved here, the pace of life has picked up considerably! That is just a natural experience as towns or cities get bigger. Bless those small areas that people have the option of moving to if life gets too "busy" in the larger areas. Small towns are a great place to be from or headed to. Some people don't need the ammenities of larger areas....be it a small family just starting out or a retired couple winding down. Thankfully, our country offers wonderful options for all!

Our area has been discovered by both residents and developers. However, our infrastructure cannot handle how fast we are growing and the "powers that be" are just every day people who don't seem to have the knowledge of how to keep up with the growth.

Until the last 2 or 3 years, we did not have alot of the national chain stores. We have had a McD's for awhile, Burger King seems to come and go, and we have an Arby's. Our county has alot of people living in it that work from home, over the internet, or fly out of state to do work but live here.

We are no where the near the largest area in Montana as far as population but we may quickly catch up in the coming years. Most of Montana is of rural flavor and the larger cities are far from each other: Helena, Great Falls, Billings, and Missoula.

 

[TheOtherVillainess]

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?

We moved to where we are now about 5 years ago and it's a small town but it's expanding. I think the last population count put us under 15,000. We are close to several major cities (Dallas, Frisco and The Colony are all within about 20-30 min driving time).

What is life like in this town? Quiet. We all joke about how we only have a squad of like 30 police officers TOTAL and like 15 firemen. No joke. Our town mayor is also a CSR at the Lowe's which just opened about 2 mos ago. Our library could fit inside the lower half of the Barnes and Noble at the mall becaue it's THAT small (it used to be in the old HS).

I like living where we are because it's very quiet and you don't have to drive too far to get away from it all. The thing I DON"T like though is that you have to drive 'to town' to get anything..groceries, clothing, etc.

I also don't like that our library is SO small..but then again that's why the invented the inter-library loan system.

TOV

 

[N.Bailey]

I guess I don't live in such a small town as I always thought I did. We have about 2 clothing stores here, Fashion Bug and Peebles, 3 grocery stores, Western Auto, about 4 or 5 car places like Auto Zone, Car Care etc... We also have 2 jewelry stores, 2 shoe stores, about 10 banks (maybe exaggeration? LOL) 3 pharmacies, Probably like 10-15 garages to get your car inspected/repaired, 2 beer distributors, 3 dollar stores (2 are the same one but located in different areas), 3 or 4 florists and 2 gift stores, 2 elementary schools in town here and 2 on the outskirts that join our middle school and high school that are both in town. We also have a hospital in town and probably 10 or more doctor's offices and about the same for dental (excluding all the others in the hospital). We have 2 stores to rent movies from, a bookstore (also a movie rental place) a JC Penney catalog pick-up only, 3 shops that sell hard ice cream, plus a DQ. We don't have gourmet food here, but we have 2 steak houses, Pizza Hut, Dominoes, 3 smaller pizza shops, Subway, McDonalds, Burger King, Wendy's, then about 10 restaurants that are locally owned with MANY more on the outskirts. 3 convenient stores and these too sell precooked foods. We have Chevy, Ford, Chrysler, and Pontiac dealerships in town with many others a short drive away. I'm sure we have a lot more than this, but I'll stop here. We don't have any major shopping areas though and to get to those is about an hours drive. Oh, they are building a Walmart in our town right now too and a few other stores that have to go in when a Walmart is built.

I don't know if I could live in an area that offered less than we have here. It's not like I have to drive real far to get the staples and a leisurely shopping trips can be planned when we want to go or have time.

The plusses for me far outweigh the minuses though. Little traffic, low if any crime, pretty good schools, low taxes, we have a lake that houses the biggest marina in the state 5 minutes away, community center and community pool to occupy area kids during summer and sports year round, not such a high drug problem (though we too have some), it's just a really great area to raise a family. My town is very family friendly. Once a strip club tried to come in and it was shut down immediately and they waste no time getting anyone off our beach (at the lake) who thinks a thong (as one example) is okay. Not that I have anything against thongs per say, but I don't think they're appropriate when there are a lot of kids around.

My area may not appeal to everyone, but we're quite happy here. I think if I won the lottery and received over 100 million, I'd build my dream house in this town.

and yes, I have LOTS of neighbors!

 

[Stitch Inside]

I just barely graduated high school in the top 10% of my class. I had the 9th best grades. We started the year with 120, but only graduated 98. We had a Hardees, a Maxway and a Piggly Wiggly. We also had some nice seafood restaurants, but most of them closed during the winter. But then, we also had some very nice beaches. And now, most of the Summer Renters bought and live there year 'round. The upside to that, is that there's more businesses/shops and most of the restaurants don't shut down for the winter anymore.

 

[Microcell]

In western kansas the towns are little and dying because of the advent of corporate farming. There are not as many owners anymore, so they move on and the town gets much smaller. MY Dh's home town had 1500 when he grew up and now it is down to 1100.

 

[Microcell]

We all joke about how we only have a squad of like 30 police officers TOTAL and like 15 firemen. No joke. TOV

My Dh's home town has three, count em three officers! No fireman, they come from another town.

 

[Cindy B]

I grew up in a very rural area of NJ--very isolated from others and major towns.

To put it in perspective, the area was called the Pine Barrens.

My parents just moved away last year, but we had lived there since the late 70's.

As for things to do, well, there wasn't much. 4H, Grange, and church stuff was it. Because there were no extra curriculars in the K-8 school, many kids would do stupid stuff and not get caught.

These things would include: illegal deer hunting with a spotlight and pickup with a full gun rack in a residential area, teenagers giving sexual favors for rides to place, going fast down the roads and dragracing, and just stupid stuff. The reason no one got caught was there were no police in the township. The state police were a good 30 minutes away, so you stood a good chance of not getting caught.

The downtown area is shut down. Since my parents move, the old lady department store (just old ladies with a Sears catalog you could order from), the corner store, the bank, the barbershop and the bar have all closed. Two restaurants that were there have now closed as well as the antique store and the health food store. The only thing around is the pizza place (converted from the corner store), and church. The library is only open two -three days a week, and is in the old fire house. When we first moved, the post office was in the general store (which have both closed)

The schools were terrible, and very narrow minded. Of course, many things were tolerated and taught that other people would never be caught dead trying. If you were lucky, you didn't go to the Vo tech high school, and actually went to college instead of working at the gas station or diner. I was one of the lucky ones.

You have to drive at least 20 minutes to a decent store (Walmart doesn't qualify, you can't get a prom dress or sushi at Walmart). There are no fast food places within 15 minute drive, same with a convienence stores. The mall is about 35-45 minutes away, with Philadelphia being at least an hour.

I hated it as a kid. There was nothing to do except watch other kids get in trouble or pick blueberries. We at least got cable TV early, whereas other populated neighborhoods got it many years later.

My sister still lives in this town. I don't understand the appeal. Its far from her work, far from her ex husband, and far from the kids school. I know the taxes are fairly cheaper than my more "urban suburb", but not by much. I'd rather have the nice new library, the police and fire, and a decent school system. I like being 1o minutes from Philly!

I visited my parents retirement home in Delaware last week. It was very similar. I don't understand it.

 

[SillyMe]

My hometown is a nice town. It's not isolated, but it is a small town. It has 2 family-owned grocery stores, 3 gas stations, 1 post office, 1 laundromat, 1 restaurant and 1 small cafe. Small businesses come and go. Retail doesn't do well in our town. For some reason, stores just don't stay open very long. We don't have any fast-food restaurants and no movie theater. The closest movie theater is about 5-7 miles away in the next town.

ETA: There are 8 bars/pubs in our town.

 

[ACDSNY]

I used to live in a small town...but now it's the fastest growing city in California. If it weren't for my job I'd be high tailing it to a small town in Oregon. I miss that way of life. I'm tired of the traffic and rude people that have taken over our area.

 

[katerkat]

We live in a town of about 15,000 people in Mississippi.

the good stuff:
--3500 square foot house on 1.5 acres costs about 250K
--I don't have to hear car alarms, ambulances, and police sirens all hours of the day and night
--I don't have to lock my doors at night
--the taxes are reasonable

the bad stuff:
--no gourmet food in grocery stores or restaurants
--few restaurants
--decent shopping is unheard of unless I want to drive 2-3 hours.
--acceptable shopping is available for an hour drive
--there are few qualified medical professionals
--no veterinarian for my bird...not even someone to trim his nails and wings
--small town atmosphere means everyone knows your business all the time...and since it's the SOUTH, they know if you don't make it to church on Sundays.
--the activities for kids are limited if you don't play team sports
--limited or no job opportunities; when there are jobs available, the pay is at or near minimum wage...and jobs are often filled by people with college or advanced degrees.
--limited choices for things like auto repair


All in all, I'm pretty miserable where we're at because of the negatives and will look forward to moving to a larger city next year.

Only 'cause I know where you live... Have you tried Old Hickory? Scary little hole in the wall, but awesome steaks!!

Anyway, I was driving along the Oregon coast last week (but I am not questioner, for future reference!) and I liked it a lot. You can't get that kind of scenery in a city. They try, but they can't replicate that. And they're not that far from cities - I think it took us an hour and a half to drive from Seaside to Portland? And when we got to Portland, we got noise, traffic, etc.

 

[golfgal]

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".

Ok, what town was it???

 

[bananiem]

I just happened to come back to check on this thread. It was Albert Lea.

 

[HonestAbe]

I worked in a town so small for a couple of years in rural colorado that my neighbor once asked me "Hey Abe - you being honest and all with one of dem fancy college degrees you answer me this. If I divorce my wife is she still my sister?" Seriously that small town was 2 HOURS from a MickeyD's and had like 10 movies you could rent from the APOTHECARY. It was horrible except for the liquor store which always had booming business. So to any idiot having romantic dreams about the country DONT DO IT. A Big Mac is a terrible thing to waste. Honest.

 

[golfgal]

I just happened to come back to check on this thread. It was Albert Lea.

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.

 

[C.Ann]

So to any idiot having romantic dreams about the country DONT DO IT. A Big Mac is a terrible thing to waste. Honest.

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Ahhhh..so this is what a drive-by insult looks like.. I was wondering what aunt polly was referring to on that other thread.. Now I know..

 

[HonestAbe]

Folks - a small town IMHO doesnt have walmart nor Kmart as the basics. Seriously, I grew up in a town of about 10000 with a KMart and thought it was small but I never knew how wrong I was until I moved to a REAL small town. Someone else said they felt like a bit of an outsider because they werent like 3rd generation in the town. I totally knew what they were talking about. Like I said I worked in this tiny place and there were maybe 700 total people in this hole in the wall. Everything shut down by 7 except the restaurant which might stay open until 8. Their was no supermarket (it was the Mercantile) and the only internet was dialup at 14.4. It was excrutiating. There was a black family who seemed very nice and hard working. Then they up and left in the middle of the night after three weeks. There was a man getting a sex change and was going through I guess what was the hormone therapy (hadnt had the surgery yet...) and suprisingly he lasted about 4 months before he fled. It was harsh in it's isolation and you felt like an outsider and there was nothing to do. But I will give this to that small town. They were certainly nicer then 99.9% of the people I have met in the city and everyone was friendly to a certain extent. Everyone waved and that was nice... but if you are a big city kid and you want to go to the movies without driving 2 hours each way you had better give SERIOUS thought before you move to the sticks. I have serious doubts about anyone on this board truly understanding what a small town is. If you have a Walmart or fast food chain then you arent small town. TRUST ME.

 

[golfgal]

Folks - a small town IMHO doesnt have walmart nor Kmart as the basics. Seriously, I grew up in a town of about 10000 with a KMart and thought it was small but I never knew how wrong I was until I moved to a REAL small town. Someone else said they felt like a bit of an outsider because they werent like 3rd generation in the town. I totally knew what they were talking about. Like I said I worked in this tiny place and there were maybe 700 total people in this hole in the wall. Everything shut down by 7 except the restaurant which might stay open until 8. Their was no supermarket (it was the Mercantile) and the only internet was dialup at 14.4. It was excrutiating. There was a black family who seemed very nice and hard working. Then they up and left in the middle of the night after three weeks. There was a man getting a sex change and was going through I guess what was the hormone therapy (hadnt had the surgery yet...) and suprisingly he lasted about 4 months before he fled. It was harsh in it's isolation and you felt like an outsider and there was nothing to do. But I will give this to that small town. They were certainly nicer then 99.9% of the people I have met in the city and everyone was friendly to a certain extent. Everyone waved and that was nice... but if you are a big city kid and you want to go to the movies without driving 2 hours each way you had better give SERIOUS thought before you move to the sticks. I have serious doubts about anyone on this board truly understanding what a small town is. If you have a Walmart or fast food chain then you arent small town. TRUST ME.

There are a lot of towns around us that are like that so I do know what you are talking about. There are several towns with populations under 200 people around here. My in-laws live in a town of 212 people, but they are only 45 minutes away from a major metro area. Did the newspaper in your town still report who visited who in their weekly edition? We have some friends that grew up in a SMALL town and their paper still does that. "The John Smiths spent a lovely 2 hour visit with the Jim Doe's on Saturday afternoon".

 

[C.Ann]

I have serious doubts about anyone on this board truly understanding what a small town is. If you have a Walmart or fast food chain then you arent small town. TRUST ME.

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Did you read the other posts in this thread? If so, then you'll notice that several of us mentioned there were no Walmarts, fast food joints, movie theaters, etc..

I suspect you're a Type A personality - in which case I can understand why you couldn't survive in a small town (or simply wouldn't want to - whatever the case may be).. I've had both - small town suits me better..

 

[Lebjwb]

I'll take the small town anyday. Peace and quiet! I have deer, owls, coyote, fox, turkey, you name it all in the yard. No traffic, horns. I couldn't care less if there was a big mac within 200 miles or not. Wal-Mart....you've got to be joking?