Small Town, USA

Small towns, especially in the South have a different culture all their own. People know you, your family, and all of your business. Everyone is a neighbor and someone will always wave at you as you pass, or say hello. Traffic is slow, especially on Sunday when elderly couples go for their Sunday drive, which is more of a crawl. You may have to stop to let an entire house go down the road or to let a herd of deer cross in front of you. Many roads are still dirt and maintained by tractors that scrape a layer off every few weeks, piling it high on the side of the road. Tractors are everywhere, even downtown. There is plenty of tacky artwork to enjoy as well, like the hotdog in front of a local convenience store. It just screams "classy", doesn't it? Life is slower in small towns, some people never leave. Children grow up, graduate, get a job in town, marry their high school sweetheart and grow old from the front porch of their parent's old place. I have always lived in small towns, one had a single traffic light in the middle of town, I think it might have two now. Here, history is maintained and many times, relived over and over again, whereas big cities can swallow up culture and speed up the pace of life so no one knows their neighbor or goes for Sunday drives. There are negatives too, of course, people set in their ways, prejudiced against change or anything different, sometimes with an accent so thick, you can't distinguish the English. Wherever we live, no matter how far from where we grew up, can be home, if our heart is there, but there will always be a place in mine for Small Town, USA.
mandy

“The nice part about living in a small town is that when you don't know what you're doing, someone else does”