I grew up what most people from the south would call "out in the middle of nowhere". No traffic lights, we weren't even considered a town. Just a rural community. But to be fair, there were places even farther "out in the middle of nowhere" than we were. The nearest town was 7 miles away. The nearest small city 12 miles away.
When I married my DH we moved back to his hometown. We've lived here almost 12 years now. And we do love it. Moving from the nearest grocery store being 8 miles away to being 2 miles away is something I am thankful for.
Technically, we're a city with a population of about 15,000, but we do have a very small town feeling to our fair city. (I'm not sure about the technical differences of a town versus a city. I know that some of it has to do with what type of government you have, but I'm not sure what impact population has on it either.) And sometimes that small town atmosphere comes with lots of quirks and idiosyncrasies.
One of those quirks? The post office closes at noon on Wednesdays. Do you know how many Wednesdays I've pulled into the post office, hopped out of my vehicle, opened the door to the post office to realize that they are closed? With the P.O. boxes being available around the clock there are almost always cars in the parking lot during the day so it can be deceiving. You would think after all these years I would remember this little tidbit of info.
So do you live in a small town or were you raised in a small town? If so, what were some of the quirks or oddities of your small town life?
I live in the City of Mebane, North Carolina. We are located in the Piedmont area of North Carolina, about three hours to both the mountains of Western North Carolina and the beautiful coastline of Eastern North Carolina. Mebane is conveniently located between the International Airports of Greensboro and Raleigh-Durham, with I-85/40 running through the city.
Having said that the little quirky thing I had to get used to when I moved here from Canada 8 years ago, some of the local stores close between 12 noon and 2pm on Saturdays. So I have done the same thing as you, planed my day and then drove to the store to find it closed.
But I love it here. I stayed in an apartment in Chaple Hill and it used to take 2-4 hrs to run the Saturday errands - traffice and congestion. Now I'm done in less than an hour.
Karen W
Posted by: Karen W | January 13, 2009 at 09:56 AM
Oops! I meant to say as well that we are a City of just under 8,000 in the corporate limits.
Posted by: Karen W | January 13, 2009 at 09:57 AM