What is small town living like?

[Pika...]

I know this might sound like a strange question, but I have always fantasized about living in a small town somewhere (preferably somewhere in Europe or Ice Land) where my days would be spent solely focused on my family (besides work of course).

I know there are a few members on here who reside in small communities such as that. If I am remembering correctly Dragonrider comes from one so small no one has ever asked her out (perhaps too many of the guys are cousins/related?).

Is it really all it's cracked out to be?

I know I would dread living in a place such as New York. I find Orlando Florida too big and messed up.

[FoE]

It's ... like living anywhere else. I've lived in small towns most of my life and it's been pretty much the same as when I lived in a large city, except it was easier to go out to concerts and movies in the latter. There's less (obvious) crime but there's also less for your kids to do. Not having to commute is terrific. Oh, there's less noise, but more farm smells, especially if you live near cow yards like me. I suppose people might be friendlier, but they're also more prone to gossip and less welcoming to "outsiders." Getting a D&D game is a lot harder to organize.

If there's one thing especially about living in small towns that I never could stomach, it's all the goddamn vampires.

[Jacklu]

Born and raised in a small town. It is... well, for one, everyone knows you or your family. My grandmother spent 80 years of her life in this town, so that side of my family is know by everyone. Means I can't get away with anything either. It can also be very boring. Especially for college aged people. It is a good 40 minutes to anything even remotely resembling society. And given the small size of my state, even that isn't all that impressive.

That said, I love living in a small town. I don't like large cities at all. Too many people. Not enough lawns. Job hunting can be a hassle, but once your in... well, as long as you do your job well, people are less likely to fire the grandson of old Mrs. D.

[Cobra_Ikari]

Do you have a social life?

NOT ANYMORE! =O

...but if you spend most of your time alone/on the internet, you won't see a huge change.

[Anuan]

Small town is better than a city in just about every way. Unless you're one of those 'social' types. In which case, I hope gossip is more entertaining to you than moshpits, cause you'll find plenty of one and barely and of the other.Anuan advocates neither gossip nor moshpits.
It's also a lot easier to get some damn privacy and peace-and-quiet.
The air smells a lot better.
Some people actually have morals.

[Mushroom Ninja]

I've lived in a smallish college town (abt. 21000 residents -- 25000 with the college students added) for most of my life. Although you miss out on some things like bookstores (honestly, it's ridiculous -- our closest thing to a bookstore is Hastings), you get all sorts of perks.

For example, I feel in no danger running around parks with friends long after dark. Our murder rate is about 1 every 2-4 years. The story goes that the only gang ever to exist in town got bored after about a week and disbanded.

Also, a traffic jam is defined as ten cars in a line. Being able to bike anywhere in 10-15 min is nice too.

[Serpentine]

High school, country town of 1000 people, school of 365 people (not including the 2 primary schools).
Have to make own entertainment, lots of alcohol abuse, very quiet and normally safe. Look for a town close (less than an hour, more like 1/2 hour) to a larger town with cinemas and the like.
More detail later maybe, gotta go.

[Trobby]

Small-Town Living? Oh! Hey! A question I can actually answer! :smallbiggrin:

Yeah, there are a few quirks to living in a small town. For starters, people recognize you. And not in the "hey, don't I know you from somewhere?" kind of recognize, but the kind of way where if you need to get your car fixed, there is exactly one mechanic you will go to, and he will fix your car and every other car in town, and not blink twice if you bring up your son and ask if he could fix his car too.

It is especially interesting if you happen to be born into a generation of people who have already been living in the small town for awhile. People who you do not personally know will recognize you on sight.

Generally, I find that it's a fairly happy lifestyle, so long as you find a small town with the sort of people you already like.

[Trog]

Well first of all everything's relatively close by as compared to living in a big city. On the down side there's a lot less "everything" to go 'round. Your entertainment and dining options are limited. Petty crimes such as burglary and general theft are probably about the same as everywhere I suppose - possibly a little less. Generally less violent crimes. You can see the stars a lot better than you can in a bigger city with its light pollution. There's virtually no rush hour and certainly no traffic jams. Bars get a lot of business as there is little to do. Sometimes the cops can get a little harassing/overzealous since there is a lot less ground to cover and little exciting going on. Your kids can run around fairly freely though, as long as you watch out for the occasional weirdo suspicious type. I can't speak to the level of gossip versus a big city as I was never in a small town high school where that sort of thing seems likely to germinate. Neighbors can be nosy anywhere, really. Sometimes basic city services can be lacking. Plowing and salting the roads in winter can be sketchy with salting not necessarily happening at all. And, as another example, in one town I lived in there was no service for collecting yard clippings - you had to haul those yourself to a community compost heap.

Probably every small town experience is a little different but that's my experiences with it. I live in a moderate-sized town now of 50-60,000. I've lived in a town of less than 5000 and in a sprawling metropolis of 2-3 million people before. The sprawling metropolis definitely has more to do and more variety but a medium to small town is, imo, better place to raise a family. That's the reason I left the larger city, actually - to raise my kids. No regrets.

[Yarram]

It's also great when you go to the same shops, and you meet the same people working at them each time, so you can develop a rapport with them, and smile and chat when you run into them going down the street.

Every time you go out, you will ALWAYS run into someone you know, and be able to chat with them.

DnD is almost impossible as noone plays it.

The sky is bluer.

[Anuan]

That's the reason I left the larger city, actually - to raise my kids. No regrets.

I approve of Trog's parenting methods.

[Inhuman Bot]

Personally?

I think it's boring as hell.

I'm glad we didn't do it for very long.

[Katana_Geldar]

Sometimes the cops can get a little harassing/overzealous since there is a lot less ground to cover and little exciting going on.

I still remember a few years ago when the police stopped every car on their way to work to check driver's licenses. Such a thing would not have happened in a big city.

[Coidzor]

^: That happened to me when I was heading back from the city at around 11 pm. haha.

Boring. Fairly quiet. Depending upon how rural/backcountry you go, there might be occasional bouts where livestock get out and are near you as you go about things or travel.

There're sometimes things like fairs, I hear as well, depending, but usually one that several small towns go together into a slightly larger small town as a sort of hub.

[Kjata]

I still remember a few years ago when the police stopped every car on their way to work to check driver's licenses. Such a thing would not have happened in a big city.

I'm pretty sure such a thing is illegal for police to do.

Growing up in a small town is pretty boring. All I do is study, smoke, and drink. there is literally nothing to do until you get your drivers license. Me and my friends just kinda wandered and got high or played Warhammer. Your kids are more likely to get high but much less likely to be involved in violent activity.

[UnChosenOne]

Nah. Small town living? Well, I can tell you something as I live in small (somewhat rural) municipality in northen Finland and can tell you somethings a) there is lot of alcohol misuse around here b) lot of peoples who move from city to here think that they can now act like they want c) healthcare is weak d) you will get to used to smell of the manure e) puplic transport doesn't exist at here f) lot of peoples make a suicide around here g) hunting is guite comon and that will cause some of the citypeoples to go this "you're killing cute animals"-mode h) you will allways see same faces.

[Starscream]

Grew up in a very small town. Went to college in a very big town.

Bottom line, I like the big town better. Small towns can be very charming, but also very dull. And judgmental. Did I mention dull?

These days I'm more of a city mouse. I still like visiting home around holidays and such because those are a time to relax and turn my brain off. But I'd go insane if I had to live in Podunk, Ohio for the rest of my life.

Cities are full of life. And people. I like people. And there's always something to do, some block you haven't explored yet, some club or museum or fascinating little bookshop you've never seen.

Of course, city living is stressful. It's fast and hectic and noisy. But I'd rather suffer sensory overload than sensory deprivation. I spent the first 18 years of my life in the middle of nowhere, and while it's a nice place to visit, I never plan on living there again.

[golentan]

It's nice, peaceful, and easy to form friendships with people (and run into people you know). On the down side, you can do pretty much everything exciting to the point that you're sick of it inside of 2 months, and you can bet dollars to donuts nothing new will come along soon. On the up side, this gives you the time and desire to build your own entertainment. On the down side, your neighbors start looking at you funny when you start building a steampunk style airship in your backyard. Even if it's just a dingy.

I enjoy small towns way more than cities, personally.

[HellfireLover]

Grew up in a small town (pop. 6000) and now live in the largest urban town in the area (pop. 14000). :smallbiggrin: Certainly where I grew up, the only social events were skating (winter, Sundays only), rugby or hockey depending upon your sex, golf, or fishing. I chose skating, but that left a lot of time free for wandering around by the river on my own or going for long walks in the rain. It's Scotland, it rains a lot. There's not a lot of crime, but what crime there is tends to be shocking to the community or downright idiotic (http://sport.scotsman.com/rugby/Kelso-ban-five-after-incident.2246563.jp). Lots of people's main form of entertainment is getting falling-down drunk. On the plus side, it is very beautiful, and the air is clean, and you tend to get lots of lovely healthy exercise as the public transport infrastructure is non-existent. :smallwink:

[LCR]

Small town is better than a city in just about every way. Unless you're one of those 'social' types. In which case, I hope gossip is more entertaining to you than moshpits, cause you'll find plenty of one and barely and of the other.Anuan advocates neither gossip nor moshpits.
It's also a lot easier to get some damn privacy and peace-and-quiet.
The air smells a lot better.
Some people actually have morals.

Right, all big cities are absolute quagmires of filth and decadent depravity and only small towns can provide much needed morals in desperate times, such as these.
But besides all that dirt, big cities actually have a lot going for them. Like theatres, cinemas (and not only big multiplex cinemas where you can watch the usual blockbusters, but also small cinemas showing indie flicks), restaurants, opera, concerts etc. Most big cities are also well connected, which means that most of the time there is an airport nearby which can take you wherever you want. Depending on the city (and if you're in Europe or elsewhere), you also don't need a car, because there is functioning public transportation. Then there's sports. If you're into that, a lot of big cities have professional sports teams.
If you have children, a lot of good schools are situated in larger cities, although they're mostly in the nicer neighborhoods and you'd have to be prepared to pay for them. Your children might prefer to live in a small town when they're young, but once they turn teenaged, they will thank God on their little, dirty knees that you live in a city and not somewhere in the countryside. There is nothing to do for adolescents in a small town, so they will eventually take to drinking and other stupid things like illegal car races, which in turn can end very nasty.

[Elder Tsofu]

Small towns can be nice, but you have to be choosy. (as when picking neighbourhood in a big town)
There are a lot of misery and alcoholism out there. :smallfrown:

I prefer the middle-sized towns and smaller cities (100.000-500.000) due to their possibilities. (I've yet to live in a large city so I wont pass judgement on that)

[Bhu]

If you're gonna go to a small town, research it first, especially the crime.

They're good if you fit in. If you don't expect your life to be full of hell and misery from a bunch of close-minded, under-educated alcoholics who take a great amount of pride in having never passed the 8th grade much less gotten a diploma.

Be prepared that if you wish to do anything other than watch tv, drink booze, or try recreational drugs, you will have to travel at least 30-40 minutes away to a nearby large city.

Check out a map of the town. If every major interstate passes though or near it, go somewhere else. Any illegal drugs passing into your state will pass by, through, or stop in that town. And that town will slowly be destroyed the way the one i live in is.

Peek at the local Churches. If they advocate that killing gays or ethnic minorities are okay by God, start looking for another town. The South may have a bad rep, but honestly small mid-western towns are thriving places for racism, homophobia, and would-be dissenters who want to bring down the government by force if necessary. If you aren't straight, white, and fundamentalist christian, you need not apply.

I do like living in a small town. The one I'm in is in between several major cities, and I can visit them to take advantage of shopping and films and whatever I cant find where I live (which is just about everything). But I've also seen the darker side of the town I live in much too often, and a constant stream of cocaine, methamphetamine, and such have begun it's ruin. Before I could walk down the street in the dead of night, and I'd be alone. Now I'm accosted by either a cop, a prostitute, or a pusher every other street corner, and I'm never unarmed.

I guess basically what I'm saying is: Research is key. Do tons of it before you consider moving. And always remember the cliche "small town, small mind" became a cliche for a reason.

[Perenelle]

I find it kind of lonely... I live 20 minutes away from the main "town" but its pretty small. I grew up in a very suburban neighborhood with easily 200 houses all in neat rows with a city nearby. I moved away when I was in 5th grade. I loved how everything was so fast paced and everyone was moving around... I dunno. I wouldnt like living in a huge city but I dont really like teensy tiny towns.

[Sneak]

First, let me preface this statement by saying that I have never actually lived in a small town. Okay, now that that's over with...I could never, ever live in a small town. It would just be boring. Nowhere to go, nothing to do, nothing to see. And furthermore, I would feel so isolated.

It's city living for me, definitely.

[Anuan]

Right, all big cities are absolute quagmires of filth and decadent depravity and only small towns can provide much needed morals in desperate times, such as these.


Exactly! :smalltongue:

Going to scenery for a moment, that's personal preference. I used to walk along the river and climb trees and lay across a branch in the heat, feeling the sun beat off the stones. It was nice. I love natural scenery, I don't like city scenery.

My friend, however, can't deal with seeing a full sky of stars each night and not having buildings in the horizon. It disturbs her.

[Destro_Yersul]

Nice thing about skyscrapers is that they have this wonderful tendency to block view of the daystar. Once the hateful yellow ball is out of my sight, I am much happier. No hot rays beating down on me. I love shade, and big buildings make plenty.

Hate the sun. Hate it so much.

[Mordokai]

It's nice, but not overly so. Been living in one for my entire life and I've just about had it with it. Not because it wouldn't have cinemas or enough fun, I am capable of finding it on my own and I can always get to big city if fun is in short suply. What I'm getting tired of is seeing all the same faces all the time. The population is growing older and it shows. You can't go damn well anywhere without somebody knowing you and you can be sure folks at home will hear about everything that you've done, sooner or later. I don't like that.

What I do like is a lot of space, fresh air and forests and mountains. Have planty of that and I can't get enough of it.

So, all in all, small towns are nice. But spend better 25 years of your live in one and you're bound to get a little bored. And what people said is true, alcoholism is actually pretty high around here. I should know, I count myself as one.


Hate the sun. Hate it so much.

Put 'er there! :smallbiggrin:

Glad to hear I'm not the only freak who feels like that about the sun...

[Cristo Meyers]

Find a copy of Salem's Lot, read it, and then realize that pretty much the only fictional element about small town living in that story is the vampires. That's a pretty good picture right there.

[Destro_Yersul]

What I do like is a lot of space, fresh air and forests and mountains. Have plenty of that and I can't get enough of it.

Solution: Move to Vancouver. We have all of those plus a big city. :smalltongue:


Put 'er there! :smallbiggrin:

Glad to hear I'm not the only freak who feels like that about the sun...

*high five*

Likewise. People around here look at me funny when I complain about the sun and express my wish that it be cloudy all the time.

[Pika...]

If you're gonna go to a small town, research it first, especially the crime.

They're good if you fit in. If you don't expect your life to be full of hell and misery from a bunch of close-minded, under-educated alcoholics who take a great amount of pride in having never passed the 8th grade much less gotten a diploma.

Be prepared that if you wish to do anything other than watch tv, drink booze, or try recreational drugs, you will have to travel at least 30-40 minutes away to a nearby large city.

Check out a map of the town. If every major interstate passes though or near it, go somewhere else. Any illegal drugs passing into your state will pass by, through, or stop in that town. And that town will slowly be destroyed the way the one i live in is.

Peek at the local Churches. If they advocate that killing gays or ethnic minorities are okay by God, start looking for another town. The South may have a bad rep, but honestly small mid-western towns are thriving places for racism, homophobia, and would-be dissenters who want to bring down the government by force if necessary. If you aren't straight, white, and fundamentalist christian, you need not apply.

I do like living in a small town. The one I'm in is in between several major cities, and I can visit them to take advantage of shopping and films and whatever I cant find where I live (which is just about everything). But I've also seen the darker side of the town I live in much too often, and a constant stream of cocaine, methamphetamine, and such have begun it's ruin. Before I could walk down the street in the dead of night, and I'd be alone. Now I'm accosted by either a cop, a prostitute, or a pusher every other street corner, and I'm never unarmed.

I guess basically what I'm saying is: Research is key. Do tons of it before you consider moving. And always remember the cliche "small town, small mind" became a cliche for a reason.

Damn.

I completely forgot about that part.

I am not religious (an atheist I guess), believe in evolution, an Independent, and worse Hispanic. So I am guessing this might screw me over?

Then again, I desire to move to somewhere like Ireland, Finland, Ice Land, etc, so would it be different there?



Funny thing is, based on what you've all said I believe I would have actually liked spending my teenage years in such a place. I have always been kinda strange like that I guess. Plus, it seems like you could have grown closer to friends/a special other. Although I imagine it would have been heartbreaking to see your friends (and possibly love interest) go down the road of alcohol and drug abuse. Is that an absolute? I am starting to think it would be riskier raising my (hopeful) kids in a small town compared to a big city now.

[Pika...]

Oh, and a strange question perhaps, but with such small populations how do you small towners deal with the issue of who you can date/marry?

[LCR]

Oh, and a strange question perhaps, but with such small populations how do you small towners deal with the issue of who you can date/marry?

Easy, just marry cousin Billy-Bob.

[UnChosenOne]

Well like LCR pointet out cousinn marriage is always the one posiblity. Yeah about being atheist, hispanic and american yeah you should not have lot off problems in Europe, though if you realy are after this loveable litel town in europe you should move into Sweden, not to Finland as we (finns) are quite gloomy as peoples and xenofobia is guite comon.

[Cristo Meyers]

Easy, just marry cousin Billy-Bob.

Or just capture yourself a breeder from the next town over.

Never really a problem, I don't think, just sometimes the baggage the parent has with the kid's parents might carry over if all of a sudden they're dating your daughter.

[Destro_Yersul]

Never really a problem, I don't think, just sometimes the baggage the parent has with the kid's parents might carry over if all of a sudden they're dating your daughter.

Case in point:

"But soft, what light through yonder window breaks?
It is the east, and Juliet is the sun.
Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon,
Who is already sick and pale with grief
That thou, her maid, art far more fair than she."

:smalltongue:

[Cristo Meyers]

Case in point:

"But soft, what light through yonder window breaks?
It is the east, and Juliet is the sun.
Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon,
Who is already sick and pale with grief
That thou, her maid, art far more fair than she."

:smalltongue:

Just add consumating their relationship in the bed of a Ford pickup and then yeah, it's about right.

[thorgrim29]

hum.... I lived for a few years in a village (10 000 or so people I guess), but there was very little community feeling because more then half of that was expats for a company in the city 30 minutes away. So all I can say is: Nothing to do, shopping is far away. However, there was a lovely plateau and a wineyard litteraly in my back yard, so summer and automn were fun times for taking long walks.

I was raised (and still live in) a mid-sized town (150 000 or so, more like 190 000 counting students), with two colleges (including the best french speaking university in the continent, we rock). And I like it there, it's a fairly big town (population density is very low), but the public transportation is good enough. You get a good mix of services,specialty shops, clean(ish) air and space.

[Destro_Yersul]

Just add consumating their relationship in the bed of a Ford pickup and then yeah, it's about right.

"And yea, they doth did the nasty in the arse-end of a 1973 F-150"

:smalltongue:

[Mordokai]

Solution: Move to Vancouver. We have all of those plus a big city. :smalltongue:

Have a few thousand dollars for tickets, rent and food to lend me, while I'm looking for job?

Figured as much :smalltongue:


*high five*

Likewise. People around here look at me funny when I complain about the sun and express my wish that it be cloudy all the time.

Tell me about it. I must be the only guy in 10 mile radius to preffer clouds over the sun. It caught me my share of weird looks.

[Dragonrider]

I know there are a few members on here who reside in small communities such as that. If I am remembering correctly Dragonrider comes from one so small no one has ever asked her out (perhaps too many of the guys are cousins/related?).

Very funny. :smallamused: No, the only guys related to me in my small town are my brothers. Must be something else. It's not TINY, either - I suspect to many "real" small-towners, it's cheatingly huge, even if we do live an hour and a half away from the nearest shopping mall.

I like it. It's nice. You can't leave your house without running into someone you know, even if it's just your neighbor walking his dog. There's a farmer's market in walking distance from my house where people from all walks of life - they run the political, social, and economic gamut - congregate once a week to hang out and eat fresh fruit and sausages. And since the advent of Amazon.com, you don't even have to worry too much about the lack of shopping. :smallbiggrin:

Also there's almost no crime. Our high school and its rival vandalize each other's campuses on a yearly basis, and sometimes people steal CDs out of each other's cars, but no one locks their doors except at night and in most parts of town it's safe to walk wherever you want by yourself.

[WalkingTarget]

I grew up on a farm about 5 miles from the nearest town (2,500 people). About half an hour from two modest sized towns (~15,000-30,000 people), and 45-60 minutes from 3 larger ones (~115,000, one of which is where I live currently).

To give some context, until a few years ago you had to drive 30 minutes to get any sort of fast food (there's a Subway in one of the gas stations these days) or to go to a movie (and that was at a pretty crappy theater, 50 minutes to get to a good one if traffic was good). So, unless your idea of a social life was going to one of the local bars, going to a high school sporting event (we were too small to have a football team, though), or hanging out at somebody's house, you had a drive ahead of you.

I grew up in the same house my dad did, which was the same house my grandfather spent his teens in. Everybody knew us even if I personally didn't know much of anybody, and while I was related to a fair number of people there were still plenty of people that I wasn't (so all of the kissing cousins comments are overblown in my experience). Gossip/news travels at near-relativistic speeds in small towns, however, so be warned. People tend to be friendly unless there's some bad history in particular cases (and grudges can last for generations). Acting all superior due to being from the big city is likely to get you some bad history in a hurry, though. Unsophisticated isn't the same as stupid and a lot of people don't seem to understand that.

I had some excellent teachers in the local school (graduating class of 63 people, and that's 3 towns' worth of kids), but there were limited choices as far as classes went so most of them tended to be very general (and I never heard the term "AP credit" until after I got to college and friends I made there were talking about it). Things may have improved on that front in 10 years, but I'm not counting on it (at the very least most of the best teachers I had have retired since I was there, I know nothing of their replacements).

After moving to a larger town I can get to a movie faster (within 5 minutes of 2 rather good ones, currently) and there are different jobs available (not much in the way of computer jobs back in the small town). I don't eat out much, but having the option to do so on a whim is nice (besides diner #1, #2, #3, or the pizza joint). I miss the stars, though. I do know that I wouldn't particularly care for living in a Big City. Visiting friends up in the 'burbs annoys me given the amount of traffic one has to deal with, even without approaching the city proper.

[Erloas]

Depending on the city (and if you're in Europe or elsewhere), you also don't need a car, because there is functioning public transportation. Then there's sports. If you're into that, a lot of big cities have professional sports teams.
If you have children, a lot of good schools are situated in larger cities, although they're mostly in the nicer neighborhoods and you'd have to be prepared to pay for them. Your children might prefer to live in a small town when they're young, but once they turn teenaged, they will thank God on their little, dirty knees that you live in a city and not somewhere in the countryside. There is nothing to do for adolescents in a small town, so they will eventually take to drinking and other stupid things like illegal car races, which in turn can end very nasty.

Well this is very clearly as biased as you can get. Its also wrong unless you are talking about a particular person and city.

I lived in Phoenix (3-4 million I believe) for 8 years, and while it was possible to take mass transit, it was highly impractical 99% of the time. I know there are a lot of places that are better about that, but it is hardly a given. Especially if you want to live in a nice part of a big city you had better be ready to commute quite a long ways to get to any good jobs. I think the average commute time in big cities sits around 1 hour each way.


Personally I loved living in a small town, and so did my brother. I wanted to leave Phoenix as soon as possible, and so did my brother (I talked him to moving down there with me after a little bit, we both went to college there). I haven't been happier since I moved back home.
Having just went to my 10 year high school reunion, there were a number of people that left and are really happy about that and would never want to come back, there are also a lot that would never want to leave.

As for schools, in a small town you generally get out of it what you put into it. Out of high school I was able to test out of at least one college level math class and I probably could have tested out of a second as well as a science or two if I had tried. (it made the classes painfully easy since I knew most everything) Having talked to a lot of people in college about high school I got a lot more out of my high school education then just about everyone else. Most of which came from big cities, Phoenix, Denver, and Seattle I know for sure. Of course some of the people I went to high school with also didn't get much from school. Here though it was a case of them not wanting to, not them not having the opportunity to. Of course I live in a town of about 12000, things change again once you drop down to the sub 5k or so population.


As for what to do, I haven't lost much leaving Phoenix. I still play Warhammer, I just play it at the Library with some friends rather then at a game store. I have fewer places to eat out at, but I've given up eating out anyway for health reasons. Sure there are fewer places to shop, but I was never much of a shopper anyway and even in Phoenix I did almost all of my shopping online anyway because it was faster and cheaper and I didn't have to deal with people and traffic. The only thing that changed is that things got to Phoenix quicker because its a main hub for UPS. Cost of living in most small towns is also generally a lot lower then most big cities. You can generally get more land and a bigger house for less and not be forced to commute 40 miles every day to do it. Also while a lot of those big city things like concerts, sports events, etc. are all there they are also generally fairly expensive and cost prohibitive for a lot of people, its not like the sort of thing most people can do every week or two. Boredom is a cross between what you want to do and what you can afford to do and that doesn't change no matter where you live. Even if there are 1000 little shops to visit and look around in in a big city even if you don't have to drive to get there, it really doesn't mean anything if that isn't the sort of thing you like to do. And I spent a lot more money on gas driving around to places in Phoenix then I do now because its such a big city that it takes forever to get anywhere anyway. It was a 20 mile drive just to visit my brother when we living on the same quarter of town, it was a 25 mile drive from my brothers house to most of the game shops we would play at, it was about 40 miles drive to get to the "local" SCA fighter practice which was near the middle of town. (the SCA is the biggest thing I miss from Phoenix, although there are people here that do it, since I did get started here, but they are very sporadic in activity, but that of course will vary from one place to the next.

Now I get to go camping whenever I want. I can go fishing whenever I want, I can even walk down to the river in town and go. There are very nice biking/hiking trails through town. There is a river to raft down. I can easily go out and do target shooting with guns or bows for free with a 1-2 mile drive. (all the shooting ranges in Phoenix were clubs and cost money to go to) Then there is things like boating/water skiing, four-wheelers, snowmobiles, etc. And while you can do some of that in and around big cities you always have to deal with a lot of people.
We went camping and fishing a few times in Phoenix and even traveling 100+ miles out of town (necessary there to get anywhere nice) you could never get away from people and the only fishing would be stocked because the natural habitat can't support that many people fishing on it.

As for drinking and smoking pot and that sort of thing. Yes, it was common here in high school, although I knew a lot of people that did neither. However it is also very common in big cities too. In fact in high school that was what I heard people talking about doing the most when they went to big cities. I would say that if anything it is more of a problem in big cities then small towns, and at least here there is enough open space that most drunk drivers generally only kill themselves because people aren't packed together so closely.


So one time right after getting to college I was watching Jay Leno (a very rare occurrence) and he was doing the Headlines thing and it was about an brief interview with someone just graduating and the quote was "What do you like most about living here? There is so much to do" and later "What do you dislike the most about living here? There is nothing to do" They said the name of the person that answered the questions and I was like Hey, I know someone with that name, then they said the name of the paper and it was the local paper. The thing about that is that it is very true. There is just as much to do in a small town as a big city, it is just that they are very different types of things. Depending what you like to do will depend which works best for you.

Of course I also realize that GR is not the typical small town either. The industry here is not typical of most small towns around the country/world. It definitely wouldn't be the same living in the same size town in a place where the local city/county governments didn't have a lot of money coming in from industry and where the local median income wasn't the 55-60k a year it is here.

Personally I would never even think about moving to a big city again if it wasn't somehow forced upon me.

[LCR]

Well this is very clearly as biased as you can get. Its also wrong unless you are talking about a particular person and city.



Sorry, I was talking about Europe in general and Germany in specific where what I've said applies best.
I'm aware that the situation in the states might be different, but I've only visited mid-sized cities in the Midwest and Chicago/New York, so I can't really tell what it's like in the US.

[Gullara]

It's ... like living anywhere else. I've lived in small towns most of my life and it's been pretty much the same as when I lived in a large city, except it was easier to go out to concerts and movies in the latter. There's less (obvious) crime but there's also less for your kids to do. Not having to commute is terrific. Oh, there's less noise, but more farm smells, especially if you live near cow yards like me. I suppose people might be friendlier, but they're also more prone to gossip and less welcoming to "outsiders." Getting a D&D game is a lot harder to organize.

If there's one thing especially about living in small towns that I never could stomach, it's all the goddamn vampires.

A lot harder to organize a DnD game? Try impossible. I live in a "big" small town and no one, and I mean NO ONE, plays DnD. This is coming from a person who has wanted to pick it up since I started playing NWN 2 and reading oots. *sigh* but I suppose that isn't the case everywhere. Don't mind me I'm just a little bitter. :smallsigh:

[Mauve Shirt]

I liked it a lot when I lived in a small town. A lot more than living in suburban sprawl. I could actually go places.
Not that I went very many places, since I was very young.

[UnChosenOne]

A lot harder to organize a DnD game? Try impossible. I live in a "big" small town and no one, and I mean NO ONE, plays DnD.
How big this "small" town is? If it population is over 15 000 I wouldn't call it small. Well, expect if it's in america where you can doudle that max population.

[Trobby]

Oh, one more thing...

You know the Hobby Store/Game Shop/Arcade/Movie Theater that you usually frequent every Saturday?

Well, you'll be lucky if your town has even ONE of those things. Chances are to see any decent movie, you'll need to travel upwards of at least half an hour to the nearest "city", and a fair bit further for any sort of electronics or video game store.

[Faulty]

Some people actually have morals.


I approve of Trog's parenting methods.

Yeah, I found this offensive and insensitive.

[Pika...]

A lot here have mentioned that. Again, my life goal has been a family, so I imagine I would not mind as much as other people. All I would like is to earn a wife to dot over and serve, and hopefully some children granted by her to raise. If I could do that 24/7 I'd be happy.


[QUOTE=WalkingTarget;6990185

I grew up in the same house my dad did, which was the same house my grandfather spent his teens in. Everybody knew us even if I personally didn't know much of anybody, and while I was related to a fair number of people there were still plenty of people that I wasn't (so all of the kissing cousins comments are overblown in my experience). Gossip/news travels at near-relativistic speeds in small towns, however, so be warned. People tend to be friendly unless there's some bad history in particular cases (and grudges can last for generations). Acting all superior due to being from the big city is likely to get you some bad history in a hurry, though. Unsophisticated isn't the same as stupid and a lot of people don't seem to understand that.

I do not consider myself superior to anyone. I seem to be able to get along with people ranging from rich corporate lawyers, to broke ass factory workers and carpenters.

[QUOTE=WalkingTarget;6990185

I had some excellent teachers in the local school (graduating class of 63 people, and that's 3 towns' worth of kids), but there were limited choices as far as classes went so most of them tended to be very general (and I never heard the term "AP credit" until after I got to college and friends I made there were talking about it). Things may have improved on that front in 10 years, but I'm not counting on it (at the very least most of the best teachers I had have retired since I was there, I know nothing of their replacements).[/QUOTE]

Damn. I am getting a teaching degree. I guess I will have a hard time finding work then?

[chiasaur11]

It's fairly ordinary.

You know, mayor is centuries old and sacrifices babies to demons, frequent vampire attacks covered up as gang activity, mad scientists building robots and Frankenstein's Monsters...

Like living anywhere else, I guess.

[KuReshtin]

If you're going to move to a smaller town in a country where English is not the native tongue, it would be a very good idea to get to learn the language as quickly as possible, as people who don't normally use English in their everyday life can be a bit reluctant to speak it. Most likely they will be better at understanding English than they are at actually speaking it.

You said that you're getting a teaching degree at the moment. I would say that that would be of great benefit, as a lot of places are desperate for teachers. Again, though, to get a job teaching in a smaller town/city in a country where English isn't the native tongue, you need to be able to speak the language.

There are a lot of differences of opinion in this thread as what is considered a 'small town'.
In the Scandinavian countries (Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland and Iceland) a 'small town' would be a town in the size of between 35k-75k people, and will often have all that is expected of a small town. A couple of places to watch movies, a couple of movie rental places, a couple of fast food places, a bunch of pubs, bars and night clubs a couple of shopping malls (however it's not as big as the mega-malls in the US).

As has been mentioned before, if you want to move somewhere, look around the web to find a bit of info about the place before the move.

[Keshay]

Another thought to consider when looking into small-town living is the healthcare. My uncle is an executive for one of the largest hospitals in central Montana. This hospital serves five counties worth of farm/ranch commumities (~35000 people). The typical transit time in an emergency is half an hour. The next closest, better equiped hospital is 45 minutes away driving, or half an hour for the helio to come down get back, but that would require you first be transported to the airstrip since there is no helipad.

Their entire hospital is smaller than the ER/ICU of the hospital where my sister-in-law works (In terms of beds, doctors, and staff).

The lesson: don't get sick/hurt.

The majority of my experience with small towns is limited to the town my Dad's family grew up (the same Montana town as mentioned above, pop~5700) and the town my one Aunt and Uncle's family lived "nearest" (near being a 45 minute drive away) pop~20k. For the majority of my youth we spnet the majority of the summer at one of the two locations. As such I'll sum the experience up like this: Nice places to visit, nice place to have a second home, nice place to retire, but under no circumstances would I ever, ever raise a family in a small town, reasons follow.

1) Stuff costs alot more. Even with 0% sales tax in Wyoming, the base cost for most things is significantly higher than the cost of the same exact item in PA. Most apparent is the cost of food, but this extends to clothes and other sundries. The savings you will get by (potentially) paying lower mortgage and property taxes may still offset the increased cost of food and such, but when raising a family the budget can get tight.

2) See healthcare above
3) Education, others have made the case. Limited population decreases the need for special programs, whether its gifted or disabled kids. In the case of mentally or physically handicapped kids, many small-town schools are not equipped to adequately accomodate these students, which significantly decrease thier future opportunities and qol.

4) Diversity, as in none of it. My 25 year old cousin came to visit for my brother's wedding last year, and was excited because he had gotten to see "colored folks" in the airport. We just kind of stood there looking at him for a moment, waiting for the crude joke, but it never came. Similarly, when another cousin married an Asian woman, half my aunts and uncles were baffled. On meeting her, they spoke slowly and were generally patronizing. They'd never been around "a foreigner" before, and didn't know how to act. Nevermind that she had been born and raised in Cali, and that this was common knowlege, all they saw was someone different. (I'm not going to get into the varied reaction of my hick relatives responding to various religions being introduced into the family, just use imagination)

5) I'm not sure how to classify this last one. Remember back during the presidential campaign when Palin came to NYC and exclaimed something along the lines of "I had no idea there was so much to see!" That's not an uncommon attitude among small-town folks. When you come from a town where dining consists of the McDonald's and 1-2 diner/casinos actual restauraunts can be a daunting proposition. I've had to actually explain the concept of restauraunts dedicated to regional/ethnic cuisine to relatives. (No you can not order spagetti here, its a Spanish restauraunt. No, no burritios, Spanish not Mexican. Just order the Paella...). Same goes for shopping, entertainment, everything else. Not to mention things like libraries and museums)

Related is a skewed sense of how long it takes to get from place to place. My relatives are accustomed to a 45 minute drive being a 45-60 mile trip. Its hard to explain that it can take that long to travel only 20-30 miles. Traffic and defensive driving are totally foreign concepts, along with high-speed mulit-lane travel. I thought my one uncle woudl have a heart attack driving down the NJ Turnpike .

I'm perfectly willing to consider that I may have moronic relatives, and that these observations are not representative of the majority of small-town residents.

I guess to sum up, one would need to weigh the relative safety/simplicity of small town life versus the limited experiences/opportunites one would then be exposed to. I personally am very thankful my parents did not move back to Montana when I was a kid. Sure, I'd love the weather, but I ruly doubt I'd have had the same opportunites for education and personal expansion in a little town.

[Erloas]

A lot harder to organize a DnD game? Try impossible. I live in a "big" small town and no one, and I mean NO ONE, plays DnD. This is coming from a person who has wanted to pick it up since I started playing NWN 2 and reading oots. *sigh* but I suppose that isn't the case everywhere. Don't mind me I'm just a little bitter. :smallsigh:

Well, I can't say for sure around here, but with a population of 12k here and about 25-30k people 15 miles away there is a fairly active group of gamers. In fact for 40k I see more consistent regular players here then I did in the shops I visited in Phoenix.

As for D&D I know there are groups that do it, I'm just not part of any of them. The thing about a lot of those groups is that they are fairly well defined and you don't ever really find out about them unless you already know the people involved. It is another thing that varies a lot by region, some small towns might have a lot of that sort of thing and others might not have much of anything.


Of course the definition of small town can change a lot from person to person. Like the Columbine thing they were talking about "how could this happen in our small little town" but in fact it wasn't a small little town at all, it may have only had 30-40k people, but it was still a suburb of Denver. I would call Green River a small town, and Rock Springs I wouldn't call big either, but they are only about 15 miles apart and in aggregate its really more of a single 40k city, which isn't a small town as far as I would define it. Of course outside of GR/RS it is another 180 miles to a city of larger then about 10-20k, which would be the Salt Lake City area. My grandma in northern Idaho lives in a town of maybe 2k and its at least an hour or two drive to any big city and not that close to even a medium sized city. And of course there are a lot of other small towns around Wyoming of less then 1-2k people and hundreds of miles away from a big city and still 50+ miles away from cities of even 10-20k people.
And then you have places like a lot of the eastern half of the USA where there are a lot of cities that aren't very big, but there really isn't more then maybe 10-20 miles between them and your population per square mile for a county is still pretty high, even if it isn't just one big city.



Edit: to add a bit about the Education system here. People live here because there are good jobs that pay a fair amount, otherwise a lot of people wouldn't move here, they have to pay well to get people to even give it a look. Of course once they are here and know the area some people still don't like it and some will never leave. It really is unusual in that median income is a fair amount over national average and with all the industry the schools are well funded compared to big cities. The cities didn't have to spend all that money on feeding homeless, covering health care for large number of low income families, their transportation costs are a lot less, and all the other sorts of things that go along with big cities. The student teacher ratios are usually a lot better too because the schools aren't so big and there are simply less students. We had a lot of classes that as far as I know were simply not offered at a lot of schools, or at least at the same level. We had an automotive class with 4-6 lifts where you could bring cars in and work on them, I think one class even rebuilt an engine and oil changes and alignments were common. We had metals classes with welders and cutting torches and everything else you would need to do all that sort of thing. While the woods class in a lot of schools seemed to be making a bird house and that was it we have a full woods shop and materials to make just about anything. I know I made a solid oak coffee table and end table. I know people that made gun cabinets, bed frames, full size dressers and all sorts of other things. I'm sure a lot of that isn't common, but those sorts of things were a lot more important to the population here where they still expect to get something out of high school and the city had enough money to fund it and weren't struggling simply to get people basic classes.
Even outside of industrial arts it applies to so many other classes too. We didn't just have a single math or english or science class for each grade, we had classes of various levels. They had AP classes (I took calculus in high school for instance) and a wide range of electives. They weren't struggling just to get people through the minimum levels like happens in bigger cities were money simply has to go too many places.

Of course there is a "sweet spot" in community size. If you get too small there simply isn't the numbers to support those sorts of things and if you get too big you don't have the money to support them either. With so many cities seeming to have a hard time just paying for basic education services anything extra simply isn't even an option.

And of course I also realize that the small town living I'm used to is not the same small town living in most places.

[Faulty]

Oh, and a strange question perhaps, but with such small populations how do you small towners deal with the issue of who you can date/marry?

Making an assumption here, but I'm hoping you're straight and have absolutely no unique views you consider important, because I doubt you'll find, say, a vegan or a Marxist or something in most small towns.

[Pika...]

4) Diversity, as in none of it. My 25 year old cousin came to visit for my brother's wedding last year, and was excited because he had gotten to see "colored folks" in the airport. We just kind of stood there looking at him for a moment, waiting for the crude joke, but it never came. Similarly, when another cousin married an Asian woman, half my aunts and uncles were baffled. On meeting her, they spoke slowly and were generally patronizing. They'd never been around "a foreigner" before, and didn't know how to act. Nevermind that she had been born and raised in Cali, and that this was common knowlege, all they saw was someone different. (I'm not going to get into the varied reaction of my hick relatives responding to various religions being introduced into the family, just use imagination)

Um, I am sorry to ask this, but should I be worried about dating a Caucasian girl in a small town?

[Inhuman Bot]

Some people actually have morals.

I'd argue that point, but I have to keep my murder average high. I've only done so 37.5 times today! :smallyuk:

[Cristo Meyers]

Um, I am sorry to ask this, but should I be worried about dating a Caucasian girl in a small town?

Depends on place to place. Podunk ass-end of nowhere I grew up in: probably cause a bit of a stir. Larger "small towns" would probably just generate some funny looks and gossip.

We're still talking about people here, mind, so any kind of generalization about what may happen is suspicious at best.

[Trog]

Yeah, I found this offensive and insensitive.
Are you referring to Anuan's judgment of it in light of his earlier statement offensive and insensitive or are you referring to my original statement as offensive and insensitive? *is a bit confused about your meaning* :smallconfused:

[Pika...]

Well first of all everything's relatively close by as compared to living in a big city. On the down side there's a lot less "everything" to go 'round. Your entertainment and dining options are limited. Petty crimes such as burglary and general theft are probably about the same as everywhere I suppose - possibly a little less. Generally less violent crimes. You can see the stars a lot better than you can in a bigger city with its light pollution. There's virtually no rush hour and certainly no traffic jams. Bars get a lot of business as there is little to do. Sometimes the cops can get a little harassing/overzealous since there is a lot less ground to cover and little exciting going on. Your kids can run around fairly freely though, as long as you watch out for the occasional weirdo suspicious type. I can't speak to the level of gossip versus a big city as I was never in a small town high school where that sort of thing seems likely to germinate. Neighbors can be nosy anywhere, really. Sometimes basic city services can be lacking. Plowing and salting the roads in winter can be sketchy with salting not necessarily happening at all. And, as another example, in one town I lived in there was no service for collecting yard clippings - you had to haul those yourself to a community compost heap.

Probably every small town experience is a little different but that's my experiences with it. I live in a moderate-sized town now of 50-60,000. I've lived in a town of less than 5000 and in a sprawling metropolis of 2-3 million people before. The sprawling metropolis definitely has more to do and more variety but a medium to small town is, imo, better place to raise a family. That's the reason I left the larger city, actually - to raise my kids. No regrets.

Well, now we know why your posts are so awesome. You have all the time in the world to make them.

[Faulty]

Are you referring to Anuan's judgment of it in light of his earlier statement offensive and insensitive or are you referring to my original statement as offensive and insensitive? *is a bit confused about your meaning* :smallconfused:

I'm refering to Anuan's statements.

[Trog]

Well, now we know why your posts are so awesome. You have all the time in the world to make them.
Perhaps I do. That doesn't mean I take a ton of time to do them though. Other than to have to go back and correct my increasingly horrendous spelling. :smallwink: :smalltongue:

EDIT:

I'm refering to Anuan's statements.
Gotcha. Thanks for the clarification.

EDIT2: Oh... and the time taken to edit posts adds to it too. :smalltongue:

[Morty]

I live in a city with roughly 40.000 citizen. I don't know if it can be considered "small", but it's certainly not big. And the most important difference between a big town and a small one is that in the latter case, everyone knows everyone else. Not literally of course, but it seems that way, especially if someone's job involves meeting people - my mother is a teacher, and she keeps running into her old students or their parents.

[FoE]

Oh, and a strange question perhaps, but with such small populations how do you small towners deal with the issue of who you can date/marry?

We either meet them in high school or go out of town to find new breeding stock.

[WalkingTarget]

A lot here have mentioned that. Again, my life goal has been a family, so I imagine I would not mind as much as other people. All I would like is to earn a wife to dot over and serve, and hopefully some children granted by her to raise. If I could do that 24/7 I'd be happy.

You'd probably have no problems, then. I personally enjoy sitting around my own/a friend's home to hang out and going to the occasional movie, so it was never really a problem for me either.


I do not consider myself superior to anyone. I seem to be able to get along with people ranging from rich corporate lawyers, to broke ass factory workers and carpenters.

Good to know. I just remember people moving to the area occasionally who'd never stop complaining about how much more interesting things/people were back where they came from. It got old. Fast. Having "get along with people" as a general skill is a plus.


Damn. I am getting a teaching degree. I guess I will have a hard time finding work then?

If you move to a particular town and try to get a teaching job, maybe. If you find a job as a teacher first and then move to the area, that might be easier. My point was more that there weren't a wide variety of courses taught (there were only 2 math teachers in the school, one for Algebra I and Geometry, which pretty much everyone took, and the other for Algebra II, Advanced Math/Trig, Calculus, and the Physics class where there was typically only one class's worth of students per course).

[Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll]

I've lived in suburbs, and I hate them. I've never lived in a small town, but I imagine it would be like the suburbs, but worse. I live right downtown atm, and I love it. I am in walking distance to EVERYTHING! I can walk to the movies, and then go shopping, and then hang at a friends place, and then go to a ball game, and then walk back home, or, if I'm tired, take public transit! So easy.

When I was in the suburbs, everything needed driving, which meant I never did anything. Me and my friends joke, It's no wonder all the local successful bands come from the suburbs, the only thing there to do is join a band, or do drugs.

[Thrawn183]

I grew up in kind of the top end of a small town. Population was 20-30k depending on how you count the coast guard base. Had the least expensive movie theater I've ever seen, $4, $2 matinee's. Now I have to pay like 12 or 13!? The nice thing about the town was that it was the only town for quite some distance, so it had to serve closer to a 100k, that meant that it had a fully decked out hospital etc. So you can find a small town with the amenities because it has different economic pressures acting then other towns. We had mexican restaraunts, country club, chinese restaraunts. Really, it wasn't lacking anything except the real specialty stores...that you'd be a fool to buy anything at anyway.

Granted, my mom drove me an hour and fifteen minutes each way to school every day for ten years so that we could go to a good school, but my parents are strong believers in the value of a good education and the responsibility of a parenty to provide it.

I found that there were lots of things to do, fishing on the river, fishing in the bay, or the sound, or the ocean. You could go to the beach. Hunting. Hiking. Camping. Basically, do you like outdoors stuff?

I moved to Albuquerque (a town that is approaching 1 mil.) for the last 2 years of high school, and I can remember how often people would complain that there was nothing to do. Here's the thing, when you're 15-17 (at least in the US) there's nothing to do anywhere. You aren't old enough to drink. You aren't old enough to get into clubs. You've reached the point where you want to do all the things adults do, but you can't because of your age. Sure, a big town has a nicer malls (and more of them) but how many times can you go there before you get bored?

Sports are one of the few things a big town has on a small town.

Having people get to know you is neither a good thing nor a bad thing. I didn't like needing to watch what I did in public so it wouldn't reflect poorly on my father so much, but man did it make things easier with the car mechanic. And by easier I mean way, way easier.

Long story short, do you entertain yourself, or expect to pay for your entertainment? Answering that question is the fastest way I know of to determin whether or not you should live in a small town or a large one.

[Erloas]

I've lived in suburbs, and I hate them. I've never lived in a small town, but I imagine it would be like the suburbs, but worse. I live right downtown atm, and I love it. I am in walking distance to EVERYTHING! I can walk to the movies, and then go shopping, and then hang at a friends place, and then go to a ball game, and then walk back home, or, if I'm tired, take public transit! So easy.

If I ever had to live in a big city again I would pick the suburbs over downtown without any question. I couldn't stand the thought of living the rest of my life in an apartment/townhouse/condo.

Even being downtown its not hard to have to travel a long ways to get to certain things. At least depending on the city. Phoenix for instance didn't have any theaters downtown (that I know of) simply because the land downtown was too expensive to devote that much of it to a theather when they could buy land for a fraction of the price on the edge of town and build there. There were no game shops downtown either for the same reason. There were some not movie theaters type theaters, museums, insanely expensive resturaunts and very big corporate buildings.
To get all the interesting things like small independant shops you had to out to the parts of town that they could afford to rent.
Of course I know Phoenix is a lot different then a lot of other big cities. There are absolutely no high rise types of residental there (I know just before I left a few years ago they were just talking about Donald Trump trying to build a few), the mass transit is lacking and things are spread out all over the place. Even the big concert venues and sports arenas, well they used to be downtown but now most of them are on the edge of town, the new football stadium, the cricket pavillion where most of the big concerts are, and no where near downtown.

And maybe its just the US, but none of the big cities I've been to have had public transportation that would cut it for normal every day living. Of course I haven't been to the east coast much (visited DC but was too young to remember much about it), and I haven't did much of anything in LA (but everything I've heard says its even more of a sprawling disaster then Phoenix), but it didn't seem like a viable soluation in Salt Lake City, Boise, Denver or Seattle (the later I have only been to a couple times).



But just like the fact that all big cities are different and have different good points and bad, the same is also true of small towns. In terms of things like how well everyone knows you will depend entirely on how small you go, even 10k people is more then enough for a fair amount of obscurity. Living somewhere for 20 years, especially for several generations will also mean a lot more people know you and your family, living there for 5 years not so much. As far as how people treat different ways of thinking that has a lot more to do with what part of the country you live in as much as how big the city is. The make up of ethnicity of people in a small town in Arizona is going to be a lot different then in Montana and a lot different then South Carolina. Same is going to be true of differing religion views, sexual preferences, hobbies and everything else.

Things like the cost of food and gas will have more to do with where the city is compared to major highways/shipping routes then anything else. How many and what type of resturaunts will also have a lot to do with how heavy passing traffic is and how much of a tourism industry the area has.

Take a small town like Park City, Utah with a population of 8,000 (according to Wikipedia from the 2000 census) they have a big outlet mall there, they have all sorts of resturaunts and a lot to do (especially if you love to ski, having 3 large ski resorts within about 20 miles of town, 2 of which are in town). That small town living isn't going to be anything like a lot of other small towns because of those ski resorts. Of course it also has a very high cost of living too.

[Pika...]

ILong story short, do you entertain yourself, or expect to pay for your entertainment? Answering that question is the fastest way I know of to determin whether or not you should live in a small town or a large one.

Well, I hope my wife (if I ever get one) and children birthed by her would be all the entertainment I need.

I'd say running D&D campaigns would be good, but I feel an entire day wasted each week or even bi-weekly wold be a waste if I have the above. Plus,, I imagine the whole D&D is the Devil's work" mentality might still exist there.

[Tharivol123]

Having lived in small (10,000), medium (around 40,000), and larger (110,000) cities I can say there isn't much difference.
In a small town you have no traffic and lower crime, but there is little to do and few people to do it with. The people you can find already have established groups, etc... and it can be hard to fit in if you aren't from town (or, like me, grew up there, moved away, and moved back after all your friends moved away).
A medium town gives you a bit more to do and more people to do it with, but it can be hard to find new people to be friends with since they have already established groups.
A larger town gives more traffic problems, more stupid people, and bad drivers. It can be easier to find people to be superficial friends with, but it seems they are less trusting than people in a small town (with good reason).
For me, the best town is a small or medium sized college town.

[Inhuman Bot]

Well, I hope my wife (if I ever get one) and children birthed by her would be all the entertainment I need.


You seem frightingly optimistic. :smalltongue:

[Bhu]

Damn.

I completely forgot about that part.

I am not religious (an atheist I guess), believe in evolution, an Independent, and worse Hispanic. So I am guessing this might screw me over?

Then again, I desire to move to somewhere like Ireland, Finland, Ice Land, etc, so would it be different there?



Funny thing is, based on what you've all said I believe I would have actually liked spending my teenage years in such a place. I have always been kinda strange like that I guess. Plus, it seems like you could have grown closer to friends/a special other. Although I imagine it would have been heartbreaking to see your friends (and possibly love interest) go down the road of alcohol and drug abuse. Is that an absolute? I am starting to think it would be riskier raising my (hopeful) kids in a small town compared to a big city now.


Well if all the other people in town are similar to you theres no problem :smallwink:

The problems start when you're an obvious minority different in every way from the people around you. And yes from what I understand from friends who have gone there that Finland/Iceland are different. Not trying to put a damper on things so much as trying to warn you to make sure you know what you're getting into before you move in.

[Bhu]

Oh, and a strange question perhaps, but with such small populations how do you small towners deal with the issue of who you can date/marry?

Thats easy. In the town I live in most women get married straight out of high school. So if you haven't gotten married after leaving high school (like me), and are now in your 30's your dating options are:

A) Underage high school girls. Not really an option.

B) Mind numbingly bitter divorcees with 2-4 offspring from previous marriages who spend all their time on your date telling you what massive pieces of crap their ex husbands were. Not an option unless you're a masochist who likes paying for other peoples mistakes.

C) Women who are into some particular kink that pushes potential mates away. Only an option if you're into serious pain or some other stuff I can't mention here and are willing to trust...

D) Hardcore lunatics/drug addicts/alcoholics who aren't good for your health. Not an option if you want to spend your nights terror free.

or E) Drive 40 minutes to the nearest city (prolly the only real option).

Basically there will be a few single people, and they'll probably have given up on dating in despair. Or maybe it's just where i live (man I need to move...).

[Bhu]

Well, I hope my wife (if I ever get one) and children birthed by her would be all the entertainment I need.

I'd say running D&D campaigns would be good, but I feel an entire day wasted each week or even bi-weekly wold be a waste if I have the above. Plus,, I imagine the whole D&D is the Devil's work" mentality might still exist there.

That mentality is largely American so far as I know. If you're wanting to go to Europe it's okay.

[Pika...]

You seem frightingly optimistic. :smalltongue:

Well, there is a reason I am considering saving up for a surrogate.

[Ikialev]

It's really, really bad. Especially when something happens anywhere else, even in a town next from here, and there are NO means to move from here.

[Gullara]

How big this "small" town is? If it population is over 15 000 I wouldn't call it small. Well, expect if it's in america where you can doudle that max population.

No its like 2000 people its on of the bigger towns around, so I really don't know if its actually considered a "big" small town. Its not as bad as I made it sound in my last post sometimes there isn't much to do but thats fine for me because as long as I've got a few friends to hang out with I'm happy with living in a small time, except for the fact that the biggest store is the local CO-OP but having a city nearby is a easy remedy for this.

[Telonius]

Depends on the small town, really. You can have a terrific small town that's the image of Mayberry; or you could have a depressed, meth-infested pit of bigotry, anger, and local petty corruption; or basically anything in between.

[SDF]

From age 2 to 14 I lived in International Falls, MN. (then pop 8500) I now live in a metro area of 1 million +, so I get the contrast. Unless you are already married prospects are limited and I've known couples who literally wife swapped after a divorce. Drugs, while not talked about as much, seem to hit certain people a lot harder in small towns. It comes from not having as much to do. Conservative values are much more prevalent. (MN was at the time one of, if not THE, most liberal state and my small town was much much more conservative then Boise, the capital of the most conservative state) General stores, mom and pop places, and a much stronger sense of community. Property is pretty cheap most places and you get a lot of it.

All in all I had probably one of the best childhoods I could have possibly had in a small town. My parents were always upper middle class, which is a lot in a small town. So, we were able to go on a vacation or two every summer. I had good friends, a good school, good neighbors, ect. I like living in a city now, but I do miss it sometimes.

[Quincunx]

Well, there is a reason I am considering saving up for a surrogate.

Do they have to be your get? There's a considerable pool of women who have chosen motherhood and already gently been used the idea of lifelong commitment, but have been cut off from the commitment. Divorceés. Young mothers. Women who would be gladder than most to meet someone steady who wasn't around for the implosion of the last commitment. Such an attraction would help offset your in-text formality and weirdness*.

*which'll probably wear off in a few years as you drop your guard, but is a problem now

[Bouregard]

You know you live at the end of the world (=small town) if there's no pizza delivery service.