Loved your story and pictures. I live a little out of town, but used to work right on main street in our little town. I loved it because it was just like you wrote. I would sit at my desk and see a friend across the street who worked at the bank walk outside to have a smoke and another lady who worked down the street always walked by on her way to the post office. She was always very flamboyant and I loved to see what she would be wearing.
People would come into our office just to say hello.
It's a wonderful peaceful life in a small town.
The nice thing is that I've been offered a job working for the same man in that same office if he gets the contract needed for his work.:o)

I've almost always lived outside of this small town...and went all twelve years of school at the local school, which was just a block over from the building we were working on. I used to so envy the kids who could just walk out their front door and walk to school...and go home for lunch, etc. Where I live in the country, people we know go by and honk, I hear geese, turkey and whippoorwills when I set out on our patio, but none of the "town" sounds....I can often hear a distant tractor (sometimes a not so distant one) and crop dusting planes, but I just think it would be fun to live in town (a person always seems to want what they don't have). And...I was thinking that in a bigger area, it wouldn't have been safe (nowadays) for these two little girls to be setting there all by themselves.

I live in the country too and love all the country sounds like birds, and wind in the trees. I do sometimes think it would be nice to be able to walk to everything instead of driving 20 minutes or more.

I use to live in a small college town when I was going to college. I had the upper floor of a really old 1880's house and shared it with a roommate. It was fun to be able to walk everywhere like campus and stores. I got a lot more exercise then.

I never liked living in the city though, which I did after graduation from college. I lived in an OK neighborhood in Chicago that was just starting to go down. I never felt so alone as I did in the midst of all those people. I would rather live in the middle of a forest then a city. My 2 cents worth.
Clare

And...of course, "everyone" knows us...we can't get by with nuttin'

Maybee, I also went all 12 years here at our small school and so did my 3 sons. My grandtwins will be starting school there this Monday. It's nice to have a history in our town. I also love the fact that in one hour I can be in San Antonio for shopping or whatever.

Yeah, we live about an hour and a half away from a big mall in Iowa City...that's not bad. We will be driving through the country sometimes and I will wonder, "Where do these women go to shop?"

Our son went to the University of Iowa after high school and he got to be in all the parades...the floats were pulled by tractors and he was the only one in his fraternity who knew how to drive a tractor :o) It was quite a culture shock for him to leave this small area where the school is surrounded by cornfields and then going to a University like that...he made it through, though

Alexandria is a small peaceful town in east central Indiana with lots of friendly folks and a genuine love for basketball. Located about 50 miles northeast of Indianapolis, our community is in the heart of the Midwest farmland and you don't have to drive very far to find lots of tomato, corn and soybean fields.

During the late 1800's a natural gas boom hit Ohio and Indiana and Alexandria was right in the middle of things. Businesses and citizens enjoyed a prosperity never seen before. During World War II Alexandria was given the name Smalltown USA by the Federal Government because the community was a typical model of the small town in America.

Thought you might like to read this bit of history about Alexandria, Indiana, not far from me.

Sue

Thank you, Marilyn, that was interesting. I guess our area is most famous for the American Gothic House which was made famous by the painter, Grant Wood. Also Tom Arnold came from the town closest to our small town (for what that's worth :o)

I grew up in the country, and after leaving home, have lived in a variety of places: rooming houses, college dorms, old apartment buildings, and the upper floor of private residences. Each had their charms and nusiances, but each suited my needs at the time. Too much and constant noise is a bad thing (my opinion). I enjoyed my surroundings the most when I could pick out individual sounds outside such as children playing, or an elderly couple passing the time with conversation.

After purchasing our starter home in a city, we had another home built for us in a neighboring small town. I liked that one the best and am still in that house. However, the street has changed for the worse. When we first moved here, hte town had about 5000 population and my street was a bit narrow without sidewalk. Traffic was light. That idlyic condition changed as the town grew. It is now over 10,000 and my street has been widened to standard width with a sidewalk on my side of the street. The traffic has increased such that I have trouble backing out of my drive onto the street during the rush hours. Speeders are commonplace now where they were the exception on the old narrow street. The traffic has increased due to new subdivisions added to the the town. I still like my small town, and would enjoy it more if my house were on a side street. My street has changed. The population mix has changed. I now have a sidewalk to keep clear of snow, although, I have been surprised at how much use the sidewalk has gotten once it was installed.

One day, I heard a new sound coming up the street that I could not identify. It was two boys on skate boards. The wheels made a an odd clacking sound as those passed over the seams in the sidewalk.

Then one hot night back in June, I paused with a start while at the keyboard of my computer. I thought I had heard a gun shot. Gun fire at night is often heard in Milwaukee, but not out here. The light of next day revealed the source of that sound. The sidewalk had burst from heat expansion and levered two slabs into the air to form an apex.

jemdandy...lol...that wasn't what I had in mind mentioning moving to town. We have friends who moved to a condo in Des Moines, and I'm not even sure I would like that...I want a small peaceful town with sidewalks on both sides of the street. The school in our town closed when I was a senior in high school....it operated as a Jr. High school for a while and then all the kids were finally moved to a larger school (three small town consolidated) out in the country. This town will never grow like yours did, it just isn't in that kind of area. But...it is very interesting to hear where the people on this forum live. If I were to step out on our front porch this morning, I would be greeted by something close to silence on a Sunday morning...things will liven up a bit later on in the day, but Sunday is always quiet.

I am sure you have all seen a Currier and Ives painting...The quaint little village with a town common and little shops abound. Ice skating in the winter , people walking by ...bucolic... you get the picture.That's where I would like to live...

June

June...you put it into better words than I. I remember our small town being like that when I was growing up...maybe that is just how my imagination remembers it. We didn't have a town square but businesses along the highway that went through the town. The school was the hub of the society with school plays, basketball games, etc....and of course, the local 50's restaurant that was the hang out for the kids...complete with juke box.