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General Forestry => General Board => Topic started by: Sixacresand on September 11, 2019, 10:31:33 AM

Title: Small Towns
Post by: Sixacresand on September 11, 2019, 10:31:33 AM
This an observation I made of small towns and rural communities that used to be towns:  Someone residing there has lived there all of their life and proud of it.  
Title: Re: Small Towns
Post by: doc henderson on September 11, 2019, 10:42:47 AM
True.  and some of us grew up there, and now contribute our success to having grown up there.  i remember moving to Albany, NY for my residency.  all the attending's were happy to be getting a guy from ks cause i would already know how to do things.
Title: Re: Small Towns
Post by: sawguy21 on September 11, 2019, 11:27:36 AM
After living in cities most of my adult life I was glad to return to the small town I grew up in. It had grown and changed, not necessarily for the better, but I was able to reconnect with people I had known all my life.
Title: Re: Small Towns
Post by: WV Sawmiller on September 11, 2019, 12:01:20 PM
    I grew up in a small community and live in one now. My daughter lives in Charlotte NC and there are nice features about big cities but I still love the personal aspect of living out in the country. Our county seat and largest town is about 4.5 miles away and has about 3,000 population and some nice folks but we also have the petty politics and people who have an over-inflated opinion of themselves that we have to contend with. Such is life.

    There we have 2 grocery stores, a couple of Dollar stores, 3-4 fast food places, one sit down restaurant, a well equipment and run hardware store, 4-5 gas stations, one Single A high school for the county, etc. We had a real nice department store but it closed a years ago and now we have to drive 25-30 miles to a WalMart or such. We just schedule what we need when we make a trip to the larger town.

   This thread reminds me of one I started a while back on country stores.

http://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?topic=88415.0 (http://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?topic=88415.0)
Title: Re: Small Towns
Post by: Pine Ridge on September 11, 2019, 05:14:21 PM
I am proud of the small town where i grew up and lived there 47 years, if i live long enough i will move back someday.
Title: Re: Small Towns
Post by: lxskllr on September 11, 2019, 05:27:32 PM
It was a smallish town here when I was little, but it's really grown up. Really grown. I hate it here. I hate all the people, I hate the ugly stores, I hate the ugly crackerbox houses, and I hate the traffic. I like having better food choices than I had when I was little, so it isn't 100% bad I guess.

Every time I drive into rural PA, I immediately relax. I especially enjoy the mountains. The small towns don't have many "amenities", but they're nice, and I wish I was there. I've been here too long to move now. Should have done it 30 years ago, but I can visit places that suit me. Small towns are great  :^)

Title: Re: Small Towns
Post by: thecfarm on September 11, 2019, 07:12:01 PM
I am lucky. Grew up in a small town,moved to an even smaller town.
Title: Re: Small Towns
Post by: SawyerTed on September 11, 2019, 08:05:05 PM
Our county has three smallish towns, two are 3,000 people or less.  One is 10,000 or so.  We don't live in any of them.  Our address is for a community in the southern part of the county but not officially a town - just a zip code/post office.  

It is 8 miles to a grocery store and at least 14 to the nearest "chain" restaurant.  We have a couple of hardware stores , one old time, within 8 miles and a builders supply within 10.   The home improvement box stores and virtually anything else are within 25 miles.  Mayberry and Mt Pilot are within 30 miles (Mt Airy and Pilot Mountain).  Goober says, "Hey!"

My wife wanted to move home to be with her father who had cancer.  So we moved from a "university town" to the farm here 30 years ago.  I was "Emily's husband" for 10 years before people realized I had a name.  :D  Our nearest neighbor is three tenths of a mile away and we can't see any sign of neighbors' houses until the leaves come off the trees.  I don't count family homes as neighbors.  The nearest family member is .2 mile away.  

When it is time to go to town, we go first to Walnut Cove then think about other towns if WC doesn't have what we need.  It is nice to go into the hardware store, builder supply, insurance agent, auto repair shop, resturant or bait and tackle shop and get service from someone who knows you by name.  

The local mom and pop store has bacon, sausage and fatback in the same cooler with the fishing worms.  I have remind my wife that fatback won't hurt the worms! 
Title: Re: Small Towns
Post by: sawguy21 on September 11, 2019, 08:38:53 PM
 :D That sounds like a small town I was through in northern California. I walked into the only store in town to get a cold drink. The till was to the left with liquor on the shelves behind. Next to it was a case of fishing gear then a case of handguns! Booze and guns in the same store!! I was amazed, ain't gonna happen here.
Title: Re: Small Towns
Post by: rubberfish on September 11, 2019, 09:36:40 PM
I currently have 2.5 million neighbours. :o
Thankfully a few years back I bought 10 acres of fir trees
on a small island (1000 residents) to move full time too.
There'll  be no more (EDITED BY ADMIN) neighbours.  8)
Title: Re: Small Towns
Post by: mrcaptainbob on September 11, 2019, 10:06:40 PM
Born and raised in Detroit. Always liked country style living. Raised a family in the 'burbs', the last was on 1.2 acres. A great little ecology area. Small pond on it, quiet and peaceful. The four houses on the road were surrounded by a few thousand acres of corn, beans and pumpkins, sand cranes and ring necks. Children grew up and out, time marched on, retirement happened and relocated to 20 acres far away from cities. We have a flashing four way red light, a gas station, hardware, grocery and even a bank!
  The best is that 95% of the neighbors are super. Most are minimum 1/4 mile away. Some are near and dear friends. A situation where you need not ask for help. It just sorta 'arrives'. Sharing and caring. Trading stuff for effort, effort for effort, friendship for friendship. Coyotes, turkey by the multi-dozen, deer and all other critters.
  Paradise comes close as a descriptor....
Title: Re: Small Towns
Post by: Magicman on September 11, 2019, 10:26:54 PM
I didn't grow up in a "town" and @Sixacresand (http://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?action=profile;u=15201) has been there.  A trip 14 miles North or 15 miles South would get you to the nearest towns.  We went every Friday for groceries, etc.  If Dad's tractor or something broke down during the week, Mom always had a list of stuff for him to get.  
Title: Re: Small Towns
Post by: Nebraska on September 11, 2019, 11:03:10 PM
I graduated high school with a class of four, yes four all guys, we played six man football. Had to drive to find a prom date. My home town had a bank, a tavern, hardware store, post office, grocery store (till about the time I graduated), two gas stations, a grain elevator, and dad's veterinary clinic. Had a population of about 300. Yes everybody knew your name and you darn well better not get into trouble because it was gonna beat you home. 
My first college chemistry lecture had more students than my home town had people.  :o 
Where i live now the town is three miles away a regular  metropolis of 1200 has all of the above plus some.. It's right at half an hour south  to box stores etc, sometimes that is kind of too close.  
A few years ago wife and I bought a little house with ten acres attached to it as a getaway. It's in Verdel population 29. It's about a two hour and change drive from home,  it's about right I love the quiet, and  the next closest town is Monowi population 1,  but Elsie cooks a good Hamburger and you can get a pop or a beer there. Stop on by if you ever go through Nebraska on highway 12.  JUNE is the best  month I can't describe the green.
Title: Re: Small Towns
Post by: Tom the Sawyer on September 12, 2019, 01:04:26 AM
I am originally from a small town in southern Missouri, my dad's job brought us to Kansas City in the 50s.  My dad's family had been in this small town (the county seat) since the 1880s and we made frequent trips to visit family.  Riding in the back seat, I was still aware that each time we came in to town, we would cross a creek named after our family and then pass the city limits sign, with the population of 752.  This went on for years, always, "Pop. 752".  

I got older and one weekend I was driving my mom down to visit her parents and, as usual, we passed the same signs.  I commented that, although the signs appeared to have been replaced recently, it still said the population was 752.  Her reply was, "didn't you know? Every time a baby is born, a man leaves town."
Title: Re: Small Towns
Post by: Peter Drouin on September 12, 2019, 07:09:30 AM
I'm in a small town Born in a small town 10 miles from where I'm setting now.
Everybody Knows me. That can be a good thing or a bad thing at times.
:D :D :D :D :D 
Title: Re: Small Towns
Post by: Magicman on September 12, 2019, 07:54:36 AM
My community:

Population  14
Elevation  296
              ____
Total        310
Title: Re: Small Towns
Post by: Resonator on September 12, 2019, 08:35:08 AM

QuoteI got older and one weekend I was driving my mom down to visit her parents and, as usual, we passed the same signs.  I commented that, although the signs appeared to have been replaced recently, it still said the population was 752.  Her reply was, "didn't you know? Every time a baby is born, a man leaves town."

Reminds me of an old country song:

Bobby told Lucy: "The world ain't round
Drops off sharp at the edge of town
Lucy, you know the world must be flat
'Cause when people leave town, they never come back"
They go ninety miles an hour to the city limits sign
Put the pedal to the metal 'fore they change their mind
They howl at the moon, shoot out the light
It's a small town Saturday night
Yeah, howl at the moon, shoot out the light
Yeah, it's a small town Saturday night
It's a small town Saturday night
It's a small town Saturday night


Small Town Saturday Night - Hal Ketchum 1991
Title: Re: Small Towns
Post by: Ed_K on September 12, 2019, 08:46:04 AM
 I lived in a town of 15k we were so close to the town i live in now that i spent most of my time at Rita's parents dairy farm (since i was 7). 772 pop.two gas stations one country store four dairy farms. Now 650ish no post office no gas stations no stores there is one dairy farm left a few hobby farms mine is a maple / sawmill farm. A few plp have home business's the rest of the working plp go 10m or more for work, Rita go 19m. I've been forced to stay home an i like it that way.
Title: Re: Small Towns
Post by: Cedarman on September 12, 2019, 09:17:04 AM
8 mom and pop restaurants within 7 miles.  Nearest fast food is 17 miles.  Life if good.
Title: Re: Small Towns
Post by: Sixacresand on September 12, 2019, 10:55:08 AM
These posts make me feel like a city slicker.  We still have some stores, but the place is only a shell of what it used to be.  In the last few years, they built a four lane freeway nearby, but as one resident said, it's just a quicker way to get out of town.  
Title: Re: Small Towns
Post by: Pine Ridge on September 12, 2019, 12:35:41 PM
Unincorporated town, 1 convenience store, 1 fire station, 1 school, 1 post office, 1 wedding chapel, 1 salvage yard, 4 churches, 14 year old red heeler female named "tipsy"  that lays by the entrance to the convenience store, everyone knows her by name, she's the official town greeter.
Title: Re: Small Towns
Post by: moodnacreek on September 12, 2019, 01:46:50 PM
Th e small towns this close to NYC have been mostly destroyed even before 9/11. The traffic is unbelievable, wrecks everyday, constant sirens. Everybody is cross'eyed on a smart phone. The police do only speed traps, patrolling is a thing of the past. What we do have is health care and newbees with $.   Upstate, in some areas people still grow corn and wave when you go by and I long for this setting.  Down in Pa., where there are Amish, it is like the old days. The police don't allow tailgating, running stop signs etc. probably because of the horse drawn vehicles. I wish it was like that here. The money is here along with all the shopping anybody could ever use but we have lost so much.
Title: Re: Small Towns
Post by: Old Greenhorn on September 12, 2019, 02:52:50 PM
Well Moodnacreek, I think the issue for your county is that it is too close to the city and serves as a bedroom community. I think every NYC cop and Firefighter lives in Orange county. Please do keep them all down there. I also note that your county borders northern NJ and this can't help either.
 I am in the next county north of you and its a world of difference. We have a large influx of weekenders who buy a house here and visit regularly, but during the week they mostly go home to the city. This puts a burden on the community for volunteers, working folks, and housing that working folks can afford. These folks don't vote here, and they don't contribute to our towns with anything but the money they spend. Sometimes they add a burden by making demands for services and facilities not normally available in these parts. Or they become very vocal about what should and should not be allowed in the town, such as good paying industrial facilities that MAKE things. These projects always get voted down and go to another town.(I hear complaints we don't have Uber service here and I laugh, hard and loud.)
 But in my town I know folks, and they know me. We wave on the road, refer jobs back and forth, know who we can call when we need help. My neighbor thinks I am running for Mayor because every time we drive someplace he sees me waving at folks all over. He doesn't think I can possibly know all those people. (Our town does not have a Mayor, btw.) It's not the rural country around here, to me, but to many it is the backwoods. We do have the second largest producer of sweet corn in the state in our town, but I know laces not far from here I would rather have lived. @BargeMonkey (http://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?action=profile;u=24634) 's town is one of those, very nice place. Our problem is we are too close to the NYS Thruway. I like where we are, but I am beginning to think it is getting too crowded and the rules are getting ridiculous because they are made by increasingly ridiculous people.
Title: Re: Small Towns
Post by: Banjo picker on September 12, 2019, 03:00:23 PM
There is one red light in this whole county.....but we do have several stop signs.   Banjo
Title: Re: Small Towns
Post by: sawguy21 on September 12, 2019, 07:21:30 PM
Quote from: Nebraska on September 11, 2019, 11:03:10 PMYes everybody knew your name and you darn well better not get into trouble because it was gonna beat you home.
:D :D My dad was the high school vice principal and boy's counsellor, he knew what I did before I did it. Couldn't get away with nothin'.
Title: Re: Small Towns
Post by: moodnacreek on September 12, 2019, 08:55:16 PM
Old Greenhorn, back in the day, in the off season we would drive up to Samsonville  to visit an old friend. You still had sidehill farms back then. And of coarse I trout fished the esopus and used to get pine logs from a logger in Accord. The problem with the new people is they ruin what they love the most.  You had quite a few sawmills up there at one time, I don't think any remain.
Title: Re: Small Towns
Post by: Old Greenhorn on September 12, 2019, 09:13:55 PM
Yeah, I am smack in the middle of the area you mentioned. There are 3 sawmills on my road, one on the net road over, and a few within 10 miles. We all just went underground. ;D
Title: Re: Small Towns
Post by: Ianab on September 12, 2019, 09:56:59 PM
Quote from: Banjo picker on September 12, 2019, 03:00:23 PM
There is one red light in this whole county.....but we do have several stop signs.   Banjo
Hey, that's one more than we have.  :D
Lots of small towns around NZ are now just a name on a map. Years ago they might have had a store / school / likely a dairy factory, maybe a garage etc. But as roads improved and travel became easier they gradually died out. 
If they were close enough to a large town or city they might become a "suburb", with enough folks living there maintain  the school , some shops etc As the rural population dropped, schools got close and amalgamated etc
Others had some natural attraction, and are now full of holiday homes and tourist stuff. 
I live in the town of Stratford, population around 5500, and it's big enough to "stand alone", most businesses supporting the surrounding farmers (in some way). It's on the main highway, and 1/2 an hour from any place larger. If you have to go through to New Plymouth you can, but it's not worth going for Groceries. Kid's primary school is basically "full" at about 400 kids, and have had to go to zoned enrolments. New subdivision is being built, getting some new shops on the main street etc, so the town is still growing.
But if you head East out of town, on State Highway 43....  Lets just say, as you leave town there is a sign that reads "No Petrol next 170km". Map shows dozens of places, that used to be small towns, now there might just be a war memorial and a tourist info sign. There is ONE hotel on the road, that's it. 
Lara got a Birthday party invite from one of her friends, weekend sleepover. Google bought up the address, and reckons 1hr 15m to get there. :D  SH 43's not called the Forgotten Highway for no reason. There's still farms out there, but it's some remote and rough country.
Title: Re: Small Towns
Post by: Jeff on September 13, 2019, 07:39:37 AM
I grew up going to Coleman schools but lived in North Bradley North Bradley had a church, a post office, Howard Griswald's Standard station and the North Bradley General store. We also had the two room school house where I went to 3rd  and 4th grade. It was funny back then, I don't know how they decided who got to go to the North Bradley school, because lits of Bradley kids never got to go there, yet they would bus kids to it from Coleman. (5 miles) I was lucky. I got to walk to school. Stash my worms and fishing pole up under the salt river bridge on caster rd so it was there on my way home from school.
Title: Re: Small Towns
Post by: Texas Ranger on September 13, 2019, 09:36:33 AM
Small towns are a wonderful place to live, as long as you were born there.  I have lived in my small town for well over 50 years, and still a new comer.
Title: Re: Small Towns
Post by: sawguy21 on September 13, 2019, 11:33:37 AM
My parents came to Armstrong in 1946, dad got quite involved in community affairs over the years yet they were always considered newcomers by the older folks. Some of their ancestors had arrived in the 1880's with the railroad. It was a good place to grow up, we had a lot of freedom.
Title: Re: Small Towns
Post by: Don P on September 13, 2019, 01:19:45 PM
No, really Jeff, I believe you made it past the fishing hole to school :). Matthews pond was just over the fence on my walk in ;D.

The town nearby, 17 miles, is metropolitan this time of year. School is back in so they turn the second stoplight in the county back on.
Title: Re: Small Towns
Post by: Jeff on September 13, 2019, 04:21:59 PM
I've written about "my" bridge before.

In Like a Lion or a Lamb? in General Board (http://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?topic=17786.msg256109#msg256109)

In Like a Lion or a Lamb? in General Board (http://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?topic=17786.msg256129#msg256129)
Title: Re: Small Towns
Post by: Greyman on September 13, 2019, 05:59:11 PM
I grew up in a small town in Idaho (pop 400).  It was great.  We moved away and two years later went back to visit - drugs had come to town and everything was completely different.  Small towns can turn on a dime like that.  
Now I'm in the process of moving to a town with a full time population of 11.  It gets up to 100 or so in the summer, with quite a few more weekenders.  Still too big for me...   :D
Title: Re: Small Towns
Post by: moodnacreek on September 13, 2019, 09:32:11 PM
Quote from: Greyman on September 13, 2019, 05:59:11 PM
I grew up in a small town in Idaho (pop 400).  It was great.  We moved away and two years later went back to visit - drugs had come to town and everything was completely different.  Small towns can turn on a dime like that.  
Now I'm in the process of moving to a town with a full time population of 11.  It gets up to 100 or so in the summer, with quite a few more weekenders.  Still too big for me...   :D
This problem seems worse in rural areas and it kind of cuts into the beauty of our country.
Title: Re: Small Towns
Post by: Jeff on September 13, 2019, 09:38:36 PM
Lets make sure as we drive (or walk) around these small towns, we dont post anything that will get the local officials interested. ;D
Title: Re: Small Towns
Post by: sandhills on September 13, 2019, 10:43:36 PM
Quote from: Nebraska on September 11, 2019, 11:03:10 PM
I graduated high school with a class of four, yes four all guys, we played six man football. Had to drive to find a prom date. My home town had a bank, a tavern, hardware store, post office, grocery store (till about the time I graduated), two gas stations, a grain elevator, and dad's veterinary clinic. Had a population of about 300. Yes everybody knew your name and you darn well better not get into trouble because it was gonna beat you home.
My first college chemistry lecture had more students than my home town had people.  :o
Where i live now the town is three miles away a regular  metropolis of 1200 has all of the above plus some.. It's right at half an hour south  to box stores etc, sometimes that is kind of too close.  
A few years ago wife and I bought a little house with ten acres attached to it as a getaway. It's in Verdel population 29. It's about a two hour and change drive from home,  it's about right I love the quiet, and  the next closest town is Monowi population 1,  but Elsie cooks a good Hamburger and you can get a pop or a beer there. Stop on by if you ever go through Nebraska on highway 12.  JUNE is the best  month I can't describe the green.

Welcome to the forum Nebraska. I live just west of God's country but we'll be working around there for around a week or for a awhile in Stanton, wouldn't mind slipping in for a visit and to meet you.  We're pouring a new parking lot for a church, haven't seen it seen it yet, just the boss, but one of the days I'd drive myself and when we finished it wouldn't be to far to come over.  I live just west of Albion and we work out of Petersburg, we also have the livestock market here and a sale this coming week so we probably won't get started until Thursday in Stanton.  Just shoot me a pm if you're interested.
sandhills 

Title: Re: Small Towns
Post by: BargeMonkey on September 13, 2019, 11:52:51 PM
  Schoharie county, where the men are men and the sheep run scared, except for Middleburgh where it may look like a woman.... but.... 🤔  I live at the very southern end, due to the lack of cheap housing this area hasn't been affected by the section 8 and heroin addicts laying in the streets just yet like Cobleskill. Delaware county is where it's at 🤣 things are pretty methed up over there. 
 14 in my class, school has about 240-260 K-12 now. My family moved here in the 40s from LI, we are technically "locals" but not like alot of the family's who have been here since the indians, not quite the hills have eyes but close. It's a nice area, 5th least populated county in the state, certain parts theres NOTHING out there. Basically 1hr+ to anything. 
Title: Re: Small Towns
Post by: Pine Ridge on September 14, 2019, 08:21:32 AM
Headed to my hometown this morning to watch one of my little cousins play in a jr high basketball tournament championship game, i'm excited to go "home" if only for a little while !
Title: Re: Small Towns
Post by: Mike W on September 16, 2019, 09:18:37 PM
I grew up in quite a few different places, all were small towns or communities that weren't even an official town.  Best memories as a young pre-teen and teen was in Summer Pines Arizona, near Show Low in the white mountains, our back yard opened to 100's of square miles of forest land, I was never home until dark every chance we had.  grew up and lived in big cities, a necessary evil to some degree, making a living.  Now we live in Boundary WA. population 4, my oldest son, my youngest son, myself and the better half of the last 30 years.  Younger son graduated this year with total of 12 in the class, that town is about 12 miles away, think population is under 400 there.  Boundary was an old mining, timber and cattle ranch area that pretty much dissolved over the years.  Boundary is now the country store / gas station that we own, that's it, have to drive over an hour to see any supermarket or fast food joint.  Columbia river runs through our property, life is really cool here, as long as your not addicted to any type of commercialism for your sense of entertainment. I find the longer I am here, the less I miss any type of city or large town, come to think of it, I don't think I missed any of it the first day we landed here ;D
Title: Re: Small Towns
Post by: low_48 on September 18, 2019, 09:30:10 PM
I grew up on a farm, but within 6 miles of where my Great Grandparents settled after immigrating in 1885. The first settlers named Emden, Il after the city they came from in Emden, German. When I grew up in the 50s, that little town of 500 had 3 car dealerships, 2 restaurants, a grocery store, TV repair came latter, and lots of businesses to support the farmers. Today nearly all the businesses are gone. 1 bar, 1 restaurant, bank, and part-time post office is about all that is left on Main St. I go back once a month to participate in the historical society and tiny museum in town. The houses are pretty well kept up, but 25% of the population is over 65. Visiting is just enough for me. I never liked the gossip and politics in little towns.