I was born in a small town…were you?
I spent the weekend in Artesia, New Mexico.
It’s a suburb of Roswell, NM.
30 minutes outside of Roswell you will find a blue collar, refinery working group of Americans.
I shook a man’s hand he almost crushed every bone in my hand.
He’s 82 and 6’4″.
Their hands were full of callouses from pulling, turning, pushing, and working in the New Mexico sun.
The town color was Orange and it shirts down every Friday night for the high school football games.
I swear I kept waiting for Tim Riggins to round the corner.
I did not grow up in a small town.
I have not spent much time in small towns.
But I loved this town.
I’d love to hear some of your stories if you have.
What do you LOVE about small town living?
Have you ever lived in a small town?
Are you from the big city and would love to end up in a small town?
Los
RAIN IT DOWN
Did you happen to have had a chemistry teacher by the name of Walter White?
LOL!!!
I was born and raised in a small town (Ansted, WV. Try finding that on a map, haha). I now live in a large suburb of Raleigh, NC, but I miss my small town upbringing. I miss knowing my neighbors (and everybody else in town for that matter) and randomly exchanging baked goods with one another. Not to say it didn’t have its drawbacks (less opportunity after high school/college being the biggest), but I prefer rural life to suburban/urban.
By Canadian Standards I was born in a mid sized town. I now pastor in a small town, and love the sense of community it offers. I know people in almost every section of the city and have been involved in some form in just as many. But what I love most about the town is the desire to see change and then the drive to go about making it happen. Not just the talk I witnessed in bigger towns, but action.
I have lived in a small town and am now. The nice thing about a small town is that there is a community feel like you might have in a specific township in a big town. Parades, community day, being involved in the church and the school you really get to know the kids and people as the same kids in the 3rd grade class at school may be the same kids in the 3-5th grade class at church. It’s nice and everything is nearby. The disadvantages though is that there isn’t much in the way of community transportation, malls, clubs, places like the YMCA or other organizations to be involved in. So if you are a social person a small town may not be for you unless you’re in school or have kids, but if you’re an introvert and don’t want to be pressured into anything this may be the place for you. So good and bad, like it but dislike it too! Small towns can be good!
I was born in a small midwest town and moved to an even smaller one in in jr high. In high school, my parents moved east to a big city and I’d always thought that I got my wish. I don’t know if I associate my cherished childhood memories with the small town or just the fact that things seem simpler. Maybe I felt like the action and movement was in the big city.. well, it is. But with the action and movement, you almost forget manners, personality, and how to breathe. People keep telling me that I don’t want the small-town-mentality and that I would just get bored if I went back to it.. The older I get, the more I don’t agree with them..
All, can you do me a favor and “like” this page? It’s a project i’m doing for my internship:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Christians-for-Tim-Tebow/184034221682998
I was born in the hospital wing of the nursing home in the small town of Aurora, MN. I was raised in the nearby smaller town of Embarrass, MN – legendary for extreme cold temperatures.
I love small towns, where it you literally can send the kids over to the neighbors to borrow an egg or cup of sugar.
I have an amazing mother, and was extra blessed to have two other ladies nearby who also were excellent “mothers” to me.
From the age of 6 me and my friends were biking 5+ miles every summer day to the local baseball field to play a game while stopping off at each spot the river crosses the road to jump in (even though our mothers told us the current would kill us)
I’ve recently been thinking about how I love the TRUST in a small town. I was reminded of this as an electrician (whom I had never met before)showed up to do some work just as we were heading out. And didn’t think twice about leaving the door open for him and going on our way.
I moved to a small town (Port St. Joe, FL) from Panama City right before I started High School. It was a shock.
1. That little town shuts down every Friday night for football games where almost the entire population is wearing purple and gold.
2. Banks, the court house and many stores still close at 4:30pm on Wednesday nights for :prayer meeting” in the churches.
3. The old paper mill bell still rings at noon for lunch time.
4. You don’t really meet new people, you just see people you haven’t seen in a long time.
5. The constitution for the state of Florida was signed there and everyone has their engagement, graduation, prom and wedding photos done at “the monument” erected there.
6. The population increases about 2000+ during tourist season and anyone can spot a tourist 1000 miles away.
7. People say hey and wave whether they know you or not.
8. The whole town supports anything that the high school. Mainly because most of them graduated there.
9. Some restaurants close “when everyone is full” each day.
10. People spend time with people, in their homes, while the kids play outside.
I was born in a small town in southern Indiana. I grew up in an even smaller town in Southwest Georgia. Dining and shopping was pretty limited. Most of the time if you wanted a nice dinner, you drove 30 miles to a larger town. Traffic was never a concern. Hunting and fishing were the major past times. If you wanted to catch up on the latest gossip, you stopped at one of the two banks, went to the break room, grapped a cup of coffee and listened to the local farmers chatter. You knew your primary physician, and his family, and the drugist, and the mayor. Local merchants extended credit, pay on your account at the end of the month. DSL and cable tv was only available inside the city limits. It was just a couple of years ago when the grocery store started taking debit cards.
I grew up in a the suburbs of a big city. There were roughly 70,000 people in our “town” and we were about 20 minutes away from down town Vancouver – on a good traffic day.
I’ve been living in much smaller communities for about 6 years now.
I love that most people still leave their doors unlocked, and when it hits -40 and you have to leave your car running to prevent it from freezing while you grab groceries in the store, you car is always there when you come back. I love that we have big community events and more than half the town turns out. I love that in a crisis situation, we pull together like nothing I’ve ever experienced anywhere else.
For each thing I love, however, there are at least as many that I don’t. But you didn’t ask about the things I don’t like, so I’ll leave it there
There are more people in the church I’m serving in than the high school I went to. It was much easier knowing everybody…but more difficult to get away with anything.
I grew up in a small rural community. The nearest small town was 8 miles away and the nearest small city 15 miles away. I love the area where I grew up in a valley in the Appalachian foothills of Alabama. When I go back to visit my parents it does something for my heart. I now live in the small town (although technically a city by population) where my husband grew up. In many ways it is a good place to live. In others not so much. The saying ‘everyone dies famous in a small town’ is also true for living in one. Everyone knows your business and has an opinion on it. Maybe it’s because it’s a small town in the deep south, but there isn’t a lot of grace or understanding even when you do nothing wrong.
I was born overseas made in Japan and grew up on many military bases in many parts of the USA. Loved it as we were constantly merged into different cultures. A military base is somewhat of a small town because everything you need and all you do is on the base. I have to say high school in Honolulu Hawaii well that was AWESOME. Proud to be a military brat.
born in a small town. moved back to that small town. REALLY miss living in the city.
I was born in the suburbs of the big city (Long Island, NY) but we moved to a small town in southwest VA when I was 6. I now live in another small town one county over. What I love: I still don’t lock my doors unless I am gone for several days. If you need something done, there’s always a guy who does that. Traffic problems are minimal and everyone pulls over for funerals. If you talk to anyone long enough, you will find a connection and that opens doors. (like if you switch propane companies and you need it delivered yesterday but they are backed up a week? Five minutes of conversation will establish that the lady taking orders gets her taxes done by my mom and delivery magically happens that afternoon.)
I love this post! I was born in Roswell and grew up in Artesia. I live in Rio Rancho, New Mexico now otherwise I would have been there to see you this weekend. Artesia is a great place to live and raise a family. Football is a religion as I’m sure you discovered, but the people there are second to none. I’m a youth pastor now, and can honestly say that growing up in that small town helped shape me and prepare me for the journey ahead. Many of the people who invested in me still live there and it’s always cool to go back and visit them from time to time. My wife’s family and my family still live there so we’re there as often as we can be. No matter where we are, Artesia will always be home.
The village I grew up in was around 8,000 at the time. Lots of farmland surrounding the village. The school district was big, so students from several townships went to my high school. The librarians all knew me by name when I was little. I loved the sense of community, especially in high school. During FFA week, people drove their huge tractors to school and parked in the student parking lot. My high school was about 1,200, and my graduating class was around 250. I like knowing most of the people in my class. There wasn’t a ton to do in my town, but 15 min away was the capital city, so if we wanted to go to a movie we didn’t have to go too far.
I was born in a small town in Iowa and raised in another small town in Iowa. I love my small town of 9k because there’s enough people that not everyone knows me, but I see at least three people I know every time I go to our one grocery store.
With my kids in school, I like that its not so big that its difficult to deal with – my daughter’s teachers know my son.
The communities here are mostly small & rural and each small town has an identity of its own, but there’s also a grouping system. The smaller towns in between cluster around the nearest bigger town. And the bigger towns cluster together with the nearest city. Its a unique sense of local and larger community.
I do enjoy the town-wide school spirit for Friday night football, or basketball, volleyball or track. Our homecoming week was district wide & even the elementary kids were excited about it.
Oh, and I can’t forget the fair! Fair week is a just a week in itself. The whole town gets both busier and slower simultaneously. Good stuff.
I also enjoy watching the corn grow – it tells you just how much summer you have left before school starts & its harvest season.
There are several things that are frustrating as well about small town life, but we’ll keep it positive.
I love my small town. I made the conscious effort to move back to my hometown after living in Columbus, Ohio for almost 2 years. I hated Columbus because I was just a number and knew very few of my neighbors. I often didn’t know the streets. I felt insignificant and nothing more than a cog in the wheel of consumerism. Everyone I knew was too concerned with themselves and less concerned with the whole.
My small town has recently experienced plant closures, layoffs, and reorganizations. People are hopeless and worried. My county has a 25% unemployment rate. The highest in the state of Ohio.
In my small town, people are devastated. There aren’t any jobs. Our food pantries run out of food every week. Drugs run rampant and rehab facilities are wait-listed. Houses are being foreclosed at alarming rates. People are apathetic and tired of fighting. I voted today and all of the incumbents ran unopposed. People are giving up.
In my small town, community isn’t a noun, it’s a verb. It’s an ever-moving force of love and assistance. People show up for free events that were failing a few years ago. People are kinder, more gentle with what they say and how they say it because everyone is used to the lack of stability and comfort that comes with a job that provides food and shelter.
In my small town, my classmates are moving back. Each day I run into someone else who has decided to return home. They see the beauty of this place. They see the simplicity and the slower lifestyle. They see potential. They see a place for them to get their hands dirty and make a flourishing community for their children to grow up.
In my small town, I can make a difference. I can spend hours of my weeknights making phone calls to local businesses who can stretch just $50 more dollars to sponsor a family movie night that is free to the public. I can attend council meetings and tell them my concerns about crumbling buildings and our diminishing general fund and be heard. I can talk to local business owners about this years holiday parade and confirm their participation and float design. I can get involved with local civic organizations and committees. I can organize food drives and clothing collections. I can help.
In my small town, I can love unconditionally and without holding back. I can know and interact with the poor and the broken. I can see them everyday in the grocery store and every weekend at the bar. I can tell them I am trying to change what is all so very broken with our little town. I can radiate my energy to them and ask them to get involved. I can show them that God is more than they’ve been told before. I can show them this without saying a word because in a small town, your actions are all that people hear.
In my small town, I can truly live.
I grew up in a small town called Charlbury, about 20 miles North of Oxford. A couple of minutes walk from my old house and you can be among Cows and Horses (& their muck!). Miss it every day!
I was born in Charles City, IA and whenever I say that… pretty much no one has heard of it. It’s small… around 8,000 in population back in the 80s and it’s even less now. It’s a town that’s dying unfortunately. But it was a nice little town to be born into.
At age 5 we moved to Lakeville, MN. A bit bigger at 25,000.
At age 10, we moved to Shawnee, KS. Population then was 32,000 and this is where I still live. However, the population has nearly doubled in the last 17 years (65,000+ now).
So I’ve never lived in the BIG CITY… but where I live is by no means small town/country… it’s a booming suburb of a large metropolitan area (est. 2 million people). I prefer the calm of being on the outskirts of Kansas CIty though… and knowing if I want the city—I can have it in 20 minutes.
Crystal – we used to live in Lakeville … now we’re in Shakopee.
I’m pretty sure I’ve ridden through Charles City on RAGBRAI…..
born & raised in a town of 2500 people in central Wis. – We are the Papermakers because of the abundance of paper mills & processing plants in the area. Yes, the town rallies around its sports teams. My parents still live in the same house … lived a few blocks from school, no stoplights and everyone knew everyone’s business good or bad. That fact, and good parents, kept me from getting into (too much) trouble. Love going back – it hasn’t changed much, except for the stoplights.
In my adult life, the biggest town I’ve lived in is 15,000. the smallest is 150.
I hear a John Mellencamp song coming on…
I was born not far from Portland, Oregon only lived there for the first three months of my life. Moved to Baltimore, MD. Lived there for almost 10 years. Moved to Winston-Salem, NC, lived there for about 3 years. Then moved to a small city/town outside of Charlotte, Gastonia, and lived there for about 7 years for most of junior high and high school. Moved back shortly after to B-more for a couple years. And now live in Charleston, SC, have been since 2006.
In a lot of ways, I miss both the big city and the small town. When I first moved here to Charleston, I said I have to get a job in “hub” of it all. Charleston is small compared to Baltimore. As I have gotten used to it, the size is just right for me. There are alot of times, especially now as I am going back to school here , that I really miss my old hometown, mostly because there are people in that town I have history with, I know, some good, some not so good. But I think what’s hard here in Charleston is I didn’t grow up here, I didn’t go to elementary school or middle school here. My high school crushes aren’t here. My high school football games didn’t take place here so it’s hard when on the news I hear about it, I just I want to go back to my hometown and go to a good Huss/ Ashbrook game.
I grew up about 30 miles away from Artesia in Carlsbad. At the time, I hated living in a small town. Now, I can see that it was a great town to grow up in. Have lived in big cities since then and while I love to visit big cities, I’m happy in the size of town I’m in now….Midland, TX population approximately 120,000 people.
Grew up in Elvaston, IL….. population 250. We rode our bikes everywhere, with no fear, and could hear our dad whistle us home from the other end of town. Unfortunately, it’s dying……
My husband grew up in a small town, one that barely made four digits in population numbers, only has one traffic light, and didn’t get a McDonald’s until 1994. They have their own idiot savant, who knows the name and birthdate of everyone he comes into contact with, and he probably knows mine, although I don’t remember formally meeting him. When my father-in-law passed away, the entire borough–plus a few–turned up at the funeral home for visitation. Insane.
After my husband and I got married, we lived in Columbus, OH, for nearly 11 years. Population of the greater area? Easily more than half a million.
Then we moved to a borough in south-central PA. Population *in* the borough? 18k and change. In the greater area? 52k and change. We live in an area with only 10% of the population density of where we used to live. People wondered why on earth we’d left the “big city” to come to Nowheresville. I said it was due to my husband’s job, and then had to explain that he’d taken a position as a youth pastor, because, really, who would move HERE for work?
I have to say, I love it here. The pace is slower (although, “rush” hour here is at 3p, which takes some getting used to), and I have just about everything I need right here. Sure, I don’t have as many restaurants to choose from, but both the post office and the library are only a mile away from where we live. I can walk to either.
You can draw family trees to chart church membership here. Weird, but cool.
We went back to Columbus last year to visit friends.
The city I’d lived in for so long, that I could easily navigate, that had been home for a decade…it felt TOO big now. I felt overwhelmed.
I didn’t like it.
And, at this point, the only way I’m going back there is to visit friends.
I grew up in Zephyrhills, Florida. Never heard of it? Picture Mayberry circa 1983.
When I was little, my dad used to take me with him on occasion to breakfast at a place called Neukom’s Pharmacy.
In the back of this pharmacy (before places like Walgreens, Rite Aid etc ran George Neukom and his ilk out of business) was a little soda fountain/lunch counter that had the best breakfast in town with the obvious exception of my grandmother’s house. Every week, my dad and granddaddy, the police chief, and the mayor would meet there. They’d eat, tell lies, joke around a bit, and then play a numbers game to see who got stuck with the tab.
My little league field was just west (and by just west I mean on the other side of a fence from) one of the busiest skydiving centers in the world. Seems random for a town of 10,000 people, but it was – and still is- a mecca for European jumpers who can’t jump several months a year in their home countries due to weather. Every time one of the planes would drop a load (a couple times an hour that time of year), they may as well have cancelled the games. Imagine trying to get two groups of 5-year-old boys to pay attention to their tee-ball game with a sky full of parachutes. To make matters worse, the other side of the fields was bordered by a train track. A busy one at that.
My high school was relatively large compared to some around. Not because our city was big (it wasn’t) but because it was a one-school town. It’s not any more, but was for a long, long time. My administrators were my dad’s teachers. My band director’s first drum major? My dad. His last year as a teacher? The year I graduated. I had a principal who never in four years- including when he was giving me awards and my diploma- called my Virgil. I was always Tracy. Not because he was old and senile, but because he and my dad were friends. “Who’s your daddy, Virgil?” wasn’t a question as much as a not-so-subtle threat to remind me who I was.
People didn’t make plans Friday nights in the Fall. Street, Rigggs, Garrity, Taylor … they have NOTHING on the local legends who went to war under our sepia-toned Friday Night Lights. Nobody missed them.
I can tell you the name of the family who owned the roller rink. My brother and their grandson are friends to this day. I can name for you about 90 percent of the police force the year I left for boot camp. One day in high school I went to the only off-campus fight I ever went to. I’m still not to this day sure why I went. I wasn’t friends with either of those guys. I guess it was just something to do. The cop (who was also a Marine Reservist unbeknownst to me) who showed up to break up the fight- he became the first boss I worked for as a Marine Corps journalist. That was an awkward first conversation.
I remember the way the band hall smelled. I practically lived there. Partially because I loved music, partially because for a few years in High School I had nowhere better to go.
I can see my grandmother’s face sitting in a booth at John’s Steak and Seafood- possibly the worst eatery in the state of Florida that fooled people into believing it was good.
I get a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach every time I pay $12 for a movie knowing it was never more than $6 back home. And in Zephyhills, the Band Hall, John’s, and Zephyr Theater were all an easy walk apart.
Dice’s Dairy & Dog. One trip here and Dairy Queen is forever irrelevant.
I learned how to golf in Zephyrhills. The first “job” I ever had was spraying down and parking golf carts at the course near my house. I made a buck or two every time I did it, and that’s plenty when you can get an Slurpee, pouch of big league chew and a foil pack of baseball cards for that.
Had my first kiss there. It was horrible. Had my first beer and cigarette there. They were worse. Went to my granddaddy’s funeral there, got kicked out of my house by my mom there (because I told her I was tired of watching her get abused, mind you) and learned what unconditional love is from my Mimi there. She forgot more about Jesus than most of us will ever learn and she woulda kept loving him even if everyone else changed their mind. Across the street from her house was Zephyr Park, where me and my brother would play while dad and his Rotary buddies would hold their annual Fish Fry. Tons of fried fish, cheese grits, cole slaw and bread to go along with kids clogging to Bluegrass.
I think the ducks at Zephyr Park still have a restraining order out against us.
Watched one of my best friends bury his dad and helped my dad pack up and leave for Atlanta for Chiropractor’s School within weeks of each other.
I learned a lot from the simple kind of people I grew up with. People like Lonnie Tucker, whose farm we used to pick all kinds of veggies from. Or the Barthles, whose ornery peacocks would chase us around while we helped turn sugar cane into cane syrup.
Life’s not about what you have, it’s about who you have. I’m thankful for the army of beautiful, genuine, real, loving Southern folks who went a little gray making me into the man I am today.
small towns scare me. I love the city – the energy, the lights, the CRAZY! community comes where you create it. and sometimes you just have to sit on your driveway in your lawn chair and meet the neighbours.
that said, I could live in “Dillon, TX”, cheer for the Lions and #33. the culture shock and weather may kill this Canadian girl, but I’d survive if I could be Tami Taylor’s best friend.
okay, and I know that Riggins didn’t actually play for the Lions, but y’all know what I mean!
CARLOS! i live like 2 hrs from artesia! we pass through there all the time
I was born in Douglas, WY, and lived in Wright, WY. A Coal mining town. My dad was a church planter there…and it was a great town.
You can find more out about Wright at http://www.wrightwyoming.com/
LOVE THIS TOWN…
I was raised for a time in the small town of St. Matthews SC. I wrote a guest post recently detailing one day over at http://www.thelazychristian.com/2011/10/friendly-friday-el-barba.html
We didn’t actually live “in town.” We lived out in the sticks surrounding it. I loved that upbringing. Icy Cokes and Pepsi from the freezer of the store, the fact that the entire town was ready and willing to watch me if my parents needed and the Purple Martin Festival(it’s a bird) made that place film-worthy.
Wasn’t born in a small town (Arlington, TX), but I married into Grand Prairie, TX, which is a city with a small-town mentality. I love living in GP. It’s somewhat big, but you still can’t go anywhere without running into someone you know.
I grew up in a town of about 1700 ppl, DeKalb, TX. My dad was and still is the mayor of the town. It was cool cause all my family lived there, but sometimes it sucked cause ALL my family lived there! Next to church attendance Friday night football was the most important thing. I enjoyed growing up there, but I now live in Ft. Worth, TX and enjoy living in a bigger city. It’s nice to go back a visit but don’t want to move back.
I had an awesome Sunday worshiping with you in artesia NM. My son is in masters commission in north Carolina and I sent him a link to your YouTube video with Danny, he said it had them all in tears. You are awesome, I hope God continues to bless you and use you to bless others!
Lived in small towns most of my life. I was recently at a wedding for a high school friend (Carson, IA = small town). One of our former teachers was at the wedding, Mr. Elliott, and the first thing he said when I re-introduced myself to him was about a quarter of basketball I played 16 years before.
That is what small towns are like. People you vaguely remember, remember details about your life that you don’t.
Small towns welcome you home regardless of how long you’ve been gone.
My husband was born in Artesia and lived there until he turned 18 and went to college. It is a wonderful town. I was born in Kansas City, MO but at age 8 moved to a farm community, population 100 (not a suburb of anything remotely close…just a group of houses and a post office on the side of a highway), and I hated it for the 2 years we lived there. While I love visiting my husband’s family and Artesia, I also love the convenience (and beautiful scenery) we have now. We live in Northwest Arkansas and it has the feel of a small town with the conveniences of almost every restaurant and retail store you could need or want on a regular basis. We love it here!
Spent most of my life in small towns in New Mexico. My friends and I spent whole summers just wandering the streets, riding our bikes everywhere, playing in the dirt and using our imaginations. My husband and I live in Albuquerque (the big city by NM standards) and I wonder how my children will grow up. I don’t think I’m as comfortable just sending them out as vagabonds the way my parents did with me. We love NM though, there’s no place like home!
One of the biggest gifts that I could give to my son was to leave Atlanta last spring, moving our family to a small town outside of Auburn, Al. I lived in a number of small towns and a number of large cities. I prefer the small towns, hands down. Even though the only thing open after 9 pm is the shell station. Even though there is no pizza delivery. Even though no one has heard of my town. We are building a home where quality counts.
Love ‘em both. Pro’s and con’s with each. But dang…you can impact a smaller community and have true impact. In our in-the-middle-of-a-cornfield-town of 2,800, the last Easter I served at our church plant as founding pastor, we had around 1,400 or 1,500 people there + we started 3 regional campuses and 1 international campus out of there! You don’t need to be in a big city to have big impact by God’s grace!
For those ministering in a small town, check out: http://www.theSTICKS.tv ran by my good friend, Artie Davis. Shannon O’Dell at Brand New Church is also a tremendous resource. Keep rocking it for our King right where HE has called YOU. The grass is NOT greener on the other side, trust me.
I was born in Chicago, raised in Denver and I moved 4 1/2 years ago to WaKeeney, KS. Population…less than 2000. I LOVE IT! I am a single Mom to a wonderful almost 10 year old girl. There is community here like nothing I’ve ever experienced before. I don’t feel like I’m raising a daughter on my own out here, I have the support and friendship of a small town backing me up and I feel great about raising my girl here.