Small towns,,,,,

[contender]

Not to hijack another thread.

The definition of a small town;

"That's where everybody knows who's check is good & who's wife isn't!"

 

[welder]

That's pretty good. Accurate too.

 

[gunman42782]

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

 

[gramps]

Spot on Contender!
gramps

 

[vito]

Where you can tell someone to meet you at "the" ATM, or gas station, or whatever. I worked in a small town where there was one traffic light, and directions were often given in terms of that light, such as "go one block East of the traffic light". That's a pretty small town.

 

[ronto]

Where you can tell someone to meet you at "the" ATM, or gas station, or whatever. I worked in a small town where there was one traffic light, and directions were often given in terms of that light, such as "go one block East of the traffic light". That's a pretty small town.

There are no traffic lights in my small town, the closest one is 8 miles away. Directions are easy to give, you are either to the east or west of the feed store.

 

[bogus bill]

As a boy I was raised in several small villages in central Wisconsin. At Auroaville in the 1940`s my folks ran a large country store and our living quarters were upstairs. It sat across the road from a mill pond, a dam a few yards away with the willow creek. Across the road was the village tavern that Harvey and Martha Dalton ran. A garage, post office, feed mill and Hanson`s store on the other end. Maybe 50-70 people in the village back then. My grandpa built the original store in about 1910. Everyone knew everyone. Were I to go back today NO ONE would know me unless they were in their eighty`s or ninety's! The other village was Eureka in the 1950`s. About the same deal. You cant go back.

 

[Cape Cod Terry]

if you live in a small town you don't have to mind your own business, your neighbors will do it for you!

Cape Cod Terry 8)

 

[Doc Holliday]

As a boy I was raised in several small villages in central Wisconsin. At Auroaville in the 1940`s my folks ran a large country store and our living quarters were upstairs. It sat across the road from a mill pond, a dam a few yards away with the willow creek. Across the road was the village tavern that Harvey and Martha Dalton ran. A garage, post office, feed mill and Hanson`s store on the other end. Maybe 50-70 people in the village back then. My grandpa built the original store in about 1910. Everyone knew everyone.

Sounds like my idea of heaven. Probably never needed to lock your house or car.

 

[bogus bill]

About that, remember Ed Gein?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ed_Gein
My mother caught him peeking through her bedroom window! Later she found out who he was when her cousins husband who was the past county sheriff arrested him for cannibalism! Thats the short of a long interesting story. We had kooks back then too!

 

[Bull Barrel]

They musta turned him loose from the mental hospital, mmm....they said he was well, mmm hmm...

 

[Tom W]

I lived in a fairly small town for 40 years. When I first got there, ,in late 1972, you could crawl across the highway and not worry about getting run over. We knew all of the police and members of the sheriffs office, and once I got my first CC permit they never asked me IF I was carrying, but WHAT was I carrying. A person had to try to get into trouble. The local winos would walk the alley past where I worked, never beg for anything. and go about like a subculture. They'd stop and say that when it got really cold they would go to the jailhouse to keep from freezing and get fed. If the officer in charge said no, the guy would break a window and await arrest. The one fellow that didn't froze to death behind the Piggly Wiggly store.
As time progressed the town expanded. I still own a home there, but rent it to a lady. Now there is a whole lot of crime, illegal Mexicans, dopers and not getting better... I still enjoy my trips there, though. I still have a few living friends there. And LOVE to fish there!

 

[WendyZXZ]

Sounds about right to me! I have always loved and lived in small towns.

 

[bogus bill]

[They musta turned him loose from the mental hospital, mmm....they said he was well, mmm hmm...]
No, he died in the state mental hospital many years ago. I have a girl cousin who was a deputy. Last time I seen her we talked about him. She said, ya know what his job is in the nut house? No. He`s the butcher!

 

[Colonialgirl]

Where you can tell someone to meet you at "the" ATM, or gas station, or whatever. I worked in a small town where there was one traffic light, and directions were often given in terms of that light, such as "go one block East of the traffic light". That's a pretty small town.

In Aurora, MN, the traffic light fell down so they replaced it with a stop sign. (pop. 1850)

 

[Mobuck]

It's tough trying to "fool around" in a small community since everyone knows what you drive.
Our "small town" has nearly withered away over the last 60 years. Twenty houses left of almost 100 residences in the 50's. Well over 1/2 the remaining homes are empty through the day as folks drive 15-40 miles to work and nothing goes on at night since those folks are shut in trying to get some sleep for the next day. It's like driving through a ghost town.

 

[Fox Mike]

The closest town to me is five miles away. It has our local hospital and a grand total of five traffic lights. Two on Otsego (one at either end), two on Union (one at either end), and on on Revolution. I won't count the ones on US RT 40 that runs through the middle of it, that would add two. The main body of the town is about ten streets wide by eighteen long.

 

[vito]

My Dad was born in 1912 in what was then the small town of Red Wing in Minnesota. His father and brother and he left in 1921 when his Mom died of Spanish Influenza. When I was growing up in the late '40's and '50's I often asked him if and when he would ever go back to see where he grew up, and he always put it off, saying "maybe". He died in 1975 and never did go back. While he was ill and dying we talked about this, and he said he had such wonderful memories of growing up in that small town, but being the child of recent Russian immigrants he had no relatives at all in that area, and knew that if he went back all those years later he would know no one and that the town itself would be unrecognizable. He said he preferred to keep the memories intact and not mess them up with how the town has grown big. You really can't go back. I myself was born and raised in a huge city, but I have been away from there for over 50 years. On my occasional visits I feel like a total stranger despite certain landmarks still being the same. In fact, living all these years in the real America, New York City now feels like visiting a foreign, and hostile country.

 

[bogus bill]

Quite a few years ago I had a job that took me to many states. My company truck had New York license plates. I was about 23 years old at the time. My job was taking me I think from West Virginia to Northern California. I fixed it so I could swing through Wisconsin and see my folks a day or two. When I left them I stopped for gas about 20 miles from home. I got through gassing and the lady in the store said another customer asked her to ask me if my folks used to run a store at Auroaville. I was raised in that store but the folks sold it after the war in 1946 when I was five or six years old! Must have been by my unique huge nose? I no longer have it though as I lost it to cancer surgery.

 

[GP100]

When I was a young kid, hitchhiking through the country, I was searching for a home that would accept me.. I had seen the tv show with Andy Taylor as the sheriff in Mayberry, and always thought a small town like that was for me.. That life appealed to me.. I was just a kid.. And thought I if I could find a town like that, I would have a decent life with a real family.. I never found a town like that..

Stupid dreams of a dumb ass street kid.. Rainbows don't really exist..

 

[bogus bill]

Things are different when you are born in a small town and STAY there. When I go home and see family still there it seems they know everyone and I know no one.
My mother was born in a county general store. She was very outgoing and never met a stranger. She was raised in the store, eventually bought out my grandpa. When still in her teens my grandpa fixed up a model T truck to sell out of and she had grocery routes to outlaying farms. My uncle, about 12 at the time drove and her at about 14 did the selling and egg buying. I was raised in it during world war two but at the end of the war my dad got her to sell it as he wanted a eight hour job, not work when you woke up until you go to bed for sixteen hours. Mom loved dealing with people. Later she had a road side fruit stand in a tent in front of our house. Years later up until almost her death she would have dad load produce in their truck and set up in surrounding towns on their various market days. She was in her mid 70`s and still doing it. The Oshkosh Daily Northwestern did a feature article on her.
A few nicknamed her "Apple Mary". It seemed she knew everyone in a 50 mile radius.

 

[BRL]

Yep, I live way out in small town WA...I often wonder if those sweet little small town girls realize how wonderful they are when they smile and wave hello.

 

[bogus bill]

Eureka Wisconsin was a village of I estimate 120 people. We moved there in 1952. It had 3 grocery stores, 2 bars, one garage/gas pump plus one small hardware store. Last time I went home about 12 years ago all was empty except the two bars. Go figure.

 

[Mobuck]

"The closest town to me is five miles away. It has our local hospital and a grand total of five traffic lights. "

Gee Whiz. It's a 20 minute(in good weather) drive to a town with traffic lights and a hospital.

 

[welder]

About the same for me, 3 miles to town, pop. 1800 or so and two traffic lights. Then, 17 miles to a town with a hospital and lots of traffic lights. Been that way for me for 52 years.

 

[Pal Val]

I grew up in a small town. Our street was one block away from the main road. We used to play stickball in the street. Would go two or three innings without a car coming by. My grandfather on my mother's side was a schoolteacher and postmaster, so everyone knew him. I had to watch my behavior anywhere I was in town, because if I did something bad my mom would know before I got back home. I don't know how, because we had no telephone.

 

[mohavesam]

Small towns? My village was 2400 people when I was in High School, and it is 1900 people today. One redlight, two locally-owned gas pump stores, and a Dollar General.
Today they're shutting down half of the streetlights, not due to electricity cost, but because of the cost of NYS inspectors and Cuomo regulations, which also crippled the Volunteer FD and EMTs. They still have a 7-man PD, but it too gets heavily-taxed by the state, as do the utility company and the water dept.

So how long can a small historical town in WNY survive? "Until the voters get off their couch" is always the answer.

 

[Coop]

Oh yes. My first experience with a small town was Circleville, Ohio (pop - 12,000) in May 1966. My first job as a Chemical Engineer. The Pumpkin Capital of the world. Beautiful town, lovely people. I bought $1500.00 of furniture my first morning there with a personal check, and all items were delivered that afternoon to my new townhouse apartment.

I have lived, and traveled, all over the world 52 years since then, and Circleville, Ohio always has had a warm spot in my life.

 

[blackhawknj]

I lived in a small town in NJ 1961-1963. We had a bookmobile come through once a week or so, now it has its own library. Two churches then, one has since closed. A general store and luncheonette, long gone.
Also had a swim club, that is long closed.

 

[Heliman]

I grew up in the country, half way between the small unincorporated communities of Duluth and Dollar’s Corner. Each had a gas station/Mom and Pop grocery. If we needed more than they had to offer, we went to the “big city” of Battle Ground, population 888. Wish I could flashback to those happy times.