Thursday, July 15, 2010

From a small town

I moved from a small town in Upstate NY to the South.  Recently I found out that our local newspaper was finally online (not sure what the hold-up has been over the last few years).  Reading through it, I started to laugh and it got me to to thinking. 

You know you're from a small town . . . . . . 
  • when the local newspaper has a Police Blotter in it (never seen one of these in the papers here - do you know what one is?  I wouldn't be surprised if you didn't)
  • you know who half the people are in the Police Blotter (or the Obituaries section) (Is it bad that I even check to see if I know people?)
  • you go to the grocery store or Wally with your mom while you're home and it's at least an hour trip because you or she will know at least 3 people in the store while you're there.
  • everything is a 5 minute drive.  Church is at 8, we leave at 7:55 and make it on time, party at 1, we leave at 12:55.  You can get everywhere in 5 minutes!
  • every class reunion is held the same week in the summer, when the local festival is going on in town, to make it easier for people to come.
  • the mall is a minimum of an hour drive.  I'm not kidding you, to get to a mall my mom has to drive an hour, though she usually just adds on another hour and goes to the better mall (2 hours away).
  • when the big news in town is that McDonald's is closing down for renovations and won't open for like 6-months.
To add to that a few more that are specific to my hometown, but I'm sure I'm not the only one:
  • There's a place for the Amish to park their horse and buggies at Wally.
  • You regularly yield for the horse and buggies while driving there.
  • Your teachers know you and all of your siblings/cousins (and sometimes call you their name)
  • When you say you're from New York, everyone immediately starts talking about NYC.
  • When you say no, you mean Upstate or Northern New York they say, oh so like Poughkeepsie/Albany.  Umm, no, there's like a whole state up there, trust me it's big.  NYC isn't the whole state, it's just that little part in the bottom right.



Moving to a 'big city' was a real eye-opener for me (and KC).  I love where we live now but I do miss my hometown some days.  A small town has it's perks, but mostly I miss my family that lives there, they're what makes it fun and a great place to visit.  Anyone else from a small town?

3 comments:

  1. HahAHA! You're so right about the "upstate" part. I grew up in Westchester County - which most of my friends from the 5 boroughs call "upstate" - to me, anything north of White Plains or Tarrytown = upstate. I think technically it's north of Albany, but who knows? LOL

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  2. Oh girl, this cracked me up! I can so relate. While my family is originally from the San Francisco Bay Area (hello urban), from 10-18 I lived in a town of 13,000 in Oregon. Your description fits so well, it's not even funny. While we're right off the interstate (so only 20 minutes from the mall), we do frequently have to pause for tractors :) Everybody asks, when they hear I lived there, "oh, did you live near Portland?" No, 2 hours from Portland - Oregon's HUGE! Then we moved even further into the mountains, then my fam moved to an unincorporated bit of southern PA (near Gettysburg). I went to college in a farm town in Iowa with 5,000 people. And now I live in a city of 1 million+ :)
    I love small towns though...they definitely bring out the interesting sides of people! :)

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  3. I thought this was hilarious and spot on! I am from a small town in Connecticut. I moved to Los Angeles when I was 19. My entire family still lives in CT and while I love LA, I also love the small town thing. There is just something about it that is still fabulous in its own way.
    http://newlymrsdee.blogspot.com/
    Newlywed Blog

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