Chewymom

If you’ve been reading on here for a while, you have seen me blog about my small town many times. It is Mayberry. And it is small. And by small, I mean between 50,000-75,000 people. And that’s why I say small is a relative number.

I was poking around recently, finding new blogs to read, and I came across Dandelions and Roses . I read her little bio, and she says she lives outside of a small town of about 6,000. Folks, that isn’t small…that’s TINY! But if some of you are picturing 6,000 when I say “small town,” then I need to correct the record.

I am originally from a large city. Very large. It has suburbs that are significantly larger than the town where I currently reside. I grew up there, moved away and came back for four years as an adult. The second time I lived there, DH’s commute was 45 minutes on a really good day, when there was “no” traffic. Most days it was over an hour, and if there was an accident anywhere within 5 miles of his path, his commute could easily be two hours. With the exception of carpool line, I could go for days and not see anybody I knew. Including neighbors. My children attended an elementary school with over 600 students. Trailers lined the outskirts of the main building, and they were adding an entire wing on one side (but not planning to remove the trailers). The high school near our old house had been on a dual schedule since the early 80’s due to the large number of students. Shopping malls were going up all around us. People with relatively large lots (between 1/2 and one acre) would sell their homes to a developer who would then bulldoze the home and put up two more. And sell them for $700,000 and above, each. I could not walk anywhere–I had to hop into my car for every little errand.

I spent a lot of money in our large city. If I wanted something, I could find anything at all at a dozen stores. Need a new bath towel? Run over to Bed, Bath, and Beyond. Or drive a little farther to Linens and Things. Or hop over to Target. New dishes? Pier One, Pottery Barn, Crate and Barrel all stood ready, within 5 miles of each other. Got the urge for electronics? HiFi Buys, Best Buy, and Circuit City were close by. There was no such thing as delayed gratification.

So, considering that is what I have to compare this town to, it is small. But to someone from a town of 6,000, I’m sure we appear quite large. We have a Walmart and a bookstore. We have a few grocery stores, two pet stores, and a mall. We even have traffic! At times, I’ve had to wait through two lights at 5:00 on the main road. And I’ve even seen up to 10 cars at this one stop sign, waiting for their turn.

I don’t run into people everywhere I go, but I definitely have to consider that possibility when I go out. If I don’t see a friend in the grocery store, I’m likely to pull up next to someone at a stoplight. As I drive around town, I spend a lot of time with my hand up, waving at people I know. Which can be tricky when I am also trying to sip coffee as I drive!

Our houses are known by names. When someone asks where I live, as I describe it, they are likely to say, “Oh, isn’t that the Sims house?” Or, “I remember when John used to practice basketball in that yard, did you buy his parents’ house?” We are only the third owners of our 40+ year old home, so our house goes by two names.

Our town is small enough that we sat near the mayor at a recent event. Not because we were special or anything–just because he was there and sitting near a spot with seven empty spaces. And I know a police officer, which came in handy when I was driving too fast in a school zone, and he waved and then motioned for me to slow down. As I’ve said before, we know several of the doctors well. That came in handy when DD3 poked a bead up her nose, and our ENT friend was willing to come into the surgery center, even though he wasn’t on call that day, and remove the little red bead.

Our town is also small enough that I send my 5th grader out to join the pack of boys that roam the neighborhood on bicycles. In our previous big city, no child of mine would have ventured farther than the block behind us. But here, he can roam fairly freely (he does carry a cell phone) as long as he is home by dark. The 8th grade boys all gather on the elementary school fields to play football on a nice afternoon. My 9th grader, who has Down syndrome, can ride his bike or walk the dog around the block alone, and I don’t fret.

And that is why I call this a small town. To some, it may sound pretty big, but to me it is small. Kind of like a cozy blanket, or a jacket that fits perfectly around your shoulders. Compared to our previous busy, stressful, aloof large city, our town is just a warm, cozy place to live!

This entry was posted on Saturday, November 19th, 2005 at 9:15 am and is filed under SmallTown, USA. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.