Growing Up In a Small Town

[DandyDon]

For those of you FROM small towns... you understand... For those of you less fortunate... this is ALL REAL! (I swear the writer wetn to my high school?!)


You might be from a small town if...
1 You can name everyone you graduated with.
2. You know what FFA is.
3. You ever went to parties at a pasture, barn, or in the middle of a dirt road.
4. Your idea of a FUN weekend was riding around parking lots because that is where EVERYBODY was.
5. Your idea of an EXCITING weekend was watching a fight in the parking lot.
6. You swore at someone and your parents knew within the hour.
7. You ever went cow-tipping or snipe hunting.
8. School gets canceled for city, county, or state events.
9. You were ever in the Homecoming parade.
10. You have ever gone home for Homecoming.
11. Everyone thought it was really cool to date someone from the neighboring town.
12. You had senior skip day.
13. The whole school went to the same party after graduation.
14. You don't give directions by street names, but, instead, like this: Turn right by Nelson's house, go two blocks east past Anderson's, and it's four houses left of the track field.
15. The country club golf course had only 9 holes. (Or there wasn't even one)
16. You can't help but date a friends ex-boyfriend/girlfriend.
17. You refer to anyone with a house newer than 1980 as the "rich people."
18. The people in the city dress funny, then your town picks up on the trend a few years later.
19. You bragged to your friends because you got pipes on your truck for your birthday.
20. Anyone you want can be found at either the Dairy Queen or the feed Store.
21. You see at least one friend a week driving a tractor through town.
22. The football coach suggested that you haul hay for the summer to get stronger.
23. Directions are given using "the" stoplight as a reference.
24. The city council meets at the coffee shop.
25. Your "letter jacket" was worn after your 19th birthday.
26. You decide to walk somewhere for exercise and 5 people pull over and ask if you need a ride.
27. Your teachers call you by your older siblings' names.
28. Your teachers remember when they taught your parents.
29. The closest Red Lobster or Olive Garden is at least 30 miles away.
30. So is the closest shopping mall.
31. It is normal to see an old man riding through town on a riding lawnmower.
32. You have a good laugh reading this because you know they're all true.
33. Then you forward it to everyone who lives in your town
(because you know them all!)!

 

[Firefyter]

I remember all of that, coming from NE Texas, except for #29. The Red Lobster, Olive Garden, and the malls were all 100 miles away from us. You can't begin to understand how excited we were to get them ALL within 50 miles of us....LOL.

 

[azsilver]

The same holds true for those of us who grew up in rural Iowa on a Farm---sorry not on the Ranch as is the case in the southwest and Texas.

An Iowa transplant in Arizona.

 

[Scuba_Jenny]

I grew up in a small town, but not THAT small...

 

[JacobsonC2]

it did make me laugh and rember some good times in high school. i just wish small towns would stay small.

 

[DandyDon]

23. Directions are given using "the" stoplight as a reference.

This one we used to do, but the state pulled our's last year. Now it's: "Turn left where the stop light used to be"
:lol:

 

[Dee]

Yeah, Buddy!

34. You recognized every car/truck/tractor that drove down your road and knew where they were going.
35. Downtown was the only place you found streets, Main St. First St., Second St., etc. We live on roads.
36. Any houses newer than the 50's were in the New Addition.
37. Sat. mornings were spent doing chores and the afternoons were spent at the drug store counter drinking Cherry Cokes.
38. I wasn't unusual to see kids horses tied in front of the drug store.
39. Only 'rich' kids got cars of their own. No one was ashamed to be seen riding a bicycle after the age of 15.
41. You learned to drive in a cow pasture or school yard.
42. The local police, if there was any, also knew everyone so if Mama sent you to the store he knew it was important and looked the other way knowing you didn't have a driver license...you may have only been 13-14 years old!

 

[coppermaus]

3. You ever went to parties at a pasture, barn, or in the middle of a dirt road.

Oh yeah. Salt, slam, lime, throw lime to the goats. It was years before I could even look at a goat.

 

[Snowbear]

That's more like it, Dee -
Most of Don's examples applied to the TheBigCity

 

[ScubaTexan]

The city I grew up in (Arlington, where I still live) was only that small about 10-20 years before I was born. However, I did get a brief taste of small-town life when I went to junior college in Athens, at what was then called Henderson County Junior College (now Trinity Valley Community College). It's only been in the last 15 years or so that Athens has grown to the size it is now (Athens Scuba Park was still a clay quarry). My fondest memory is walking around the courthouse square all night with some of my cheerleading friends with our Homecoming torch, keeping it lit. Since my parents were both from the Athens area, Athens was almost like my second "hometown," and I'll always wish it could have remained that size.