We live in what I like to call a large town, or a small city. I grew up in a large city. Not in the suburbs, but in the actual city, less than 10 minutes from downtown. A kind of ‘lock your doors even during the day’ city. A ‘don’t talk to strangers’ and sometimes even your neighbors kind of city. A big city with lots of malls, stores, and libraries. And lots of traffic and people and noise.
I went to college in a smaller city. A college town. College towns are an entity unto themselves. I loved the community feeling and all of the events; concerts, plays, parties and dances. It seemed to me a very safe place.
And then we moved to an even smaller city or large town. Actually the town we live in now, back when it was much smaller. I love the small town feel of it. But more on that in a minute.
At one point in our marriage we lived in a really small town. Only 500 or so people, an actual main street and no chain grocery store. Our Mr. 13 being born there actually was a big deal! Unpaved roads and every one knew just about everyone else. No hospital and a post office/library combination. In some ways very cool, but overall just a little too small.
Back to the small city where we live now. I like it for a lot of different reasons. I like that when the high school has homecoming, the parade is a town event and the elementary and middle schools come to watch. I think it is cool that the football games on Friday nights are a big deal. I like that my realtor was also the president of the school board and that my mortgage guy is running for city council. I like that we see my kids teachers around, at the store and restaurants. I love that the grocery store clerks and the librarians know my name. I love that if I forget to lock my door it’s okay. I love that.
I also like that it is just big enough that I don’t know every single person. I love that it is big enough to have a Target and a Michael’s. I love that it has paved roads and a decent sized library.
I only hope it doesn’t get too big. Because if it grows too big, I may have to look for a new small city to live in.
I like our town, big enough to choose between Walmart and Target, big enough to choose between Sam’s and Costco, big enough to have a nice library:) I admit, it’s bigger than yours, but I’m good living in a medium sized city:)