The idea of living somewhere 'simple' is very appealing to me - anyone very done this, by accident or otherwise? I'm talking under 10,000 people... One main strip, a theater, a few shops? I ask because I'd love to try it out. I've lived in two, very different cities (Boston and Portland), and it's just not for me.
Sorry, yeah - maybe smaller. It's a funny thing, you can research BIG places, but you can't really research a small place. I've only ever lived in Boston, Brooklyn, and Portland... So under 10,000 seemed really small to me.
Don't hear about many people moving in that direction, so hoping maybe someone here (the most diverse population I'm a part of) may have insight.
I grew up in a small northeast Texas town. (And it's a true town, not a suburb of a larger city. Even when populations are similar, those are very different things.) I also spent a couple of years working in another when I was fresh out of college. There are upsides and downsides to living in a place like that. General day-to-day stress level is often lower, as there's little traffic to deal with, there's less background noise and most cost of living is lower (rent, mortgage, etc.)
The downsides are that some costs of living are higher (food at the grocery story is often slightly more expensive, and the selection of non-standard goods is less), dining and entertainment options are limited, and there's the stereotypical small-mindedness of small-town citizens that is very real. Small-towners are very often friendly and good people, but if you have political and/or social views that run anything other than to the very far right, it can be a frustrating situation.
People who grew up in small towns can also be not completely willing to accept somebody who didn't grow up there. The label of "new" often has very definitions in place like that (some folks in my hometown still call the one movie theater in town "the new theater," and it opened in the early '80s), and people can be slow to open their arms to new residents. And if you're single, it can be VERY difficult. Pickings can be very slim.
I doubt very seriously I could ever go back to living in a small town, but one of my brothers lives in one and he wouldn't have it any other way.
The downsides are that some costs of living are higher (food at the grocery story is often slightly more expensive, and the selection of non-standard goods is less), dining and entertainment options are limited, and there's the stereotypical small-mindedness of small-town citizens that is very real. Small-towners are very often friendly and good people, but if you have political and/or social views that run anything other than to the very far right, it can be a frustrating situation.
People who grew up in small towns can also be not completely willing to accept somebody who didn't grow up there. The label of "new" often has very definitions in place like that (some folks in my hometown still call the one movie theater in town "the new theater," and it opened in the early '80s), and people can be slow to open their arms to new residents. And if you're single, it can be VERY difficult. Pickings can be very slim.
I doubt very seriously I could ever go back to living in a small town, but one of my brothers lives in one and he wouldn't have it any other way.
I'm building a cabin right now near Mt. Jackson, Virginia. It's actually about 12 miles from Mt. Jackson. I don't plan to live there full time, but will spend a lot of time there. It's 112 miles from my house in Arlington. I love the small town life. I'm getting older (42) and its nice to get out of the big city occasionally.
I grew up in a small Texas town, about 30 min west of Ft. Worth. I loved it growing up. Community support seems much stronger in small Towns, the schools are better, athletic programs way better. And it was nice to be able to walk outside, explore the woods, etc.....I say if you have kids, they will def like it mo re than being city slickers
Wow - thanks for the responses. I've been mulling the idea for awhile - and, in a way, moving from Boston to Portland was sort of an attempt to get more of the feel of a smallish town (I know, Portland is a large city - but not compared to the 617). The idea of having a simpler existence - knowing my neighbors, recognizing people at the bar(s), people being aware of each other in general - that kind of stuff really appeals to me.
It doesn't apply to all residents (or to all small towns, either), but taken as a whole small towns ARE small-minded when a large percentage of the population is made up of people who have lived their whole lives there -- grew up there, went to high school there, stayed there. So many of those people are afraid of the world outside and that makes them small-minded. It's the single largest drawback to small-town living, in my opinion.
