"Tell Me About Where You Live" Contest

A few days ago, @derangedvisions started a new contest in which anyone on the blockchain can participate: "Tell Me About Where You Live" for which he issues this call:

I would like to hear about the area you live, what you like to do for fun there, the cool things that go on, how long you have lived in that area, pictures and/or videos of cool stuff, whatever you can think of to make your post interesting.

The area where I find myself currently is a few miles outside a small town that claims a population of 3,000 people. Due to the phenomenon of "urban sprawl," I strongly suspect that the population of the "proper" portion of the town is considerably less.

My parents moved here when I was a child. After growing up here, I moved away to attend college and seek life in an area with more opportunity. After several decades away, my parents reached an age where they were not managing everyday life so well any more, and I could foresee very difficult times coming very soon for them. So, in the middle of one of their medical crises, I came to help and one situation after another kept me here. So although I didn't really "choose"   to live here, I did choose to help my parents rather than abandoning them. I will probably write a detailed account of that period at some point, but suffice it to say that eleven years later, I am still here (with both parents now deceased) and hoping to move soon and make an attempt to resume my own life once again.

Anyway...

Growing up in this sleepy little town, I only remember a couple of old-timey "grills" that flipped burgers and a couple of true restaurants (which were more like diners with Blue Plate Specials each day). There were no chain restaurants at all, and no "fast food" joints. Everything was locally-owned, "Mom & Pop" businesses except for the grocery store, which was owned by a regional chain. Even the local Western Auto store was franchised by a local businessman. Years later, I remember my shock when I returned for a brief visit with my parents and saw that a Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) had opened a restaurant, which was the very first non-locally-owned restaurant in town. It caused quite a stir among the local populace. After that, other similar places popped up every few months.

The elementary school where I studied through the sixth grade was a beautiful building with a red brick facade and fabulous wooden floors — made from real wood, not the synthetic or "pressed" crap they make nowadays.  I still remember the ruddy powder called "dust down" (which had a very distinctive fragrance, which I still remember) which the custodian sprinkled on those wooden floors before running a dry-mop over them to clean them. Then, he would use a buffing machine to wax them until they shined. I also remember the mimeograph machines which the teachers used to print tests and study materials for us, because photocopiers had not become widely-available/affordable yet (this was back in the 1960s).

Each of the four towns in the county had one elementary school which was attended by the children who lived within the town limits. Out in the county, there was a similar school for residents in each community. It was only the towns, however, that had the Junior High schools (now called "Middle Schools") and High Schools, so children from the county had to be brought by school buses to the closest one.

At the edge of town was an old store, the forerunner of today's convenience stores, where one could buy bread, milk, and other sundries without going to the more crowded stores in town. They also had a cooler of cold, bottled sodas, candy bars, and snacks such as 'Nabs (peanut-butter-and-cracker sandwiches). And because of all the streams, ponds, and lakes nearby, bait was also available in a special cooler as well as fishing supplies (lures, fishing line, etc.). Yes, one could walk out with something to eat and a container of night crawlers, all in one trip!

There are both advantages and disadvantages to living in a small town...

On the side of advantages, there is a quieter, slower-paced lifestyle. There is less traffic in small towns, and parking isn't as much of a problem as it is in the big towns and the cities. Zipping to the Post Office to mail a birthday card to a relative is incredibly easy, and the cashier lines at stores are seldom long. Neighbors will often share vegetables with you if they have a surplus, and sometimes they will look out for each other if the need arises. If the town of 3,000 people gets too much for you to handle, it is a very short drive to the country for a respite, past cow pastures and fields, to a hiking trail or scenic mountain vista.

On the side of disadvantages, small towns have less opportunity for jobs, less options for dining and shopping experiences, and sometimes one has to drive far to purchase things they need or want. Small town folk are often socially and politically conservative and therefore less forgiving of those who step outside their accepted "norm" in matters of personal choices of lifestyle, self-expression, and it can feel rather stifling living in such an environment. They are suspicious of everyone and less accepting of "outsiders" who were not born-and-raised in the area. Even if your family has lived there for over fifty years, you're not counted as one of "them."

Driving around the rural county, many idyllic scenes can be found around almost every bend in the road...

And the mountains are just a stone's throw away from here, climbing higher and higher the further one drives...

It amazes me when I hear people say things such as, "I live in a small town of 25,000 people."  Seriously? That is not a small town! I even doubt that 10,000 people would qualify as a small town. I was born in a town that only had around 600–1,000 people in it, and lived in towns of around 2,000 people until I went off to college. Those are truly small towns.

Much of the population of "small towns" nowadays can be attributed to the phenomenon of urban sprawl. In some cases, companies build factories outside the city limits of small towns to purchase land at a reduced rate and to avoid paying taxes to the city/town. Then, the Town Council expands the city limits to gain that extra revenue from the factory and residents who live in the vicinity. Chain-restaurants and big-box stores often build facilities along major roadways that lead into/from cities/towns, creating a corridor of commerce that eventually expands the city limit in similar manner. But, inside the core of that sprawling commercial area, there is a tiny nugget of an originally-small town nestled inside, so appearances of true core-population can be deceiving. That is largely the case here, as without urban sprawl, the closest town's population would likely still be around 2,000 instead of the 3,000 that is listed today.

Is this a phenomenon that occurs only in the US, or is it similar in other places around the globe?

Thanks for peeking at the area where I currently find myself, and I hope some of you will follow suit with such a post, even after the contest is over! I truly enjoy reading such armchair-travel posts about other regions, countries, and cultures!