SMALL TOWNS
Those who grew up in small towns in the 50's or 60's will laugh when they read this. Those who didn't grow up in small communities, will be in disbelief and won't understand how true this is.
1) You can name everyone you graduated with.
2) You know what 4-H / FFA / FHA mean.
3) You went to parties at a pasture, barn, gravel pit, river bank or in the middle of a dirt road.On Monday you could always tell who was at the party because of the scratches on their legs from running through the woods when the party was busted.
4) You used to 'drag' or 'cruise' Main St .
5) It was cool to date somebody from the neighboring town.
6) The whole school went to the same party after graduation.
7) You didn't give directions by street names but rather by references. Turn by Nelson's house, go 2 blocks to
Anderson's, and it's four houses left of the track field.
8)The golf course had 9 holes.
9) You couldn't help but date a friend's ex-boyfriend / girlfriend.
10) Your car stayed filthy because of the dirt roads, and you will never own a dark vehicle for this reason.
11) The town next to you was considered 'trashy' or 'snooty,' but was actually just like your town.
12) You referred to anyone with a house newer than 1950 as the 'rich' people.
13) The people in the 'big city' dressed funny, and then you picked up the trend 2 years later.
14) Anyone you wanted could be found at the local gas station, the ice cream shop, pool hall or drive-in.
15) You saw at least one friend a week driving a tractor through town or one of your friends driving a grain truck to school on occasion.
16) The coach suggested you haul hay for the summer to get stronger.
17) Directions were given using THE stop light as a reference.
18) When you decided to walk somewhere, 5 people would pull over and ask if you wanted a ride.
19) Your teachers called you by your older siblings' names.
20) Your teachers remembered when they taught your parents.
21) You could charge at any local store or write checks without an ID.
22) There was no McDonalds.
23) The closest city was at least an hour away. City = over 10,000
24) Most people used reel type/push lawn mowers.
25) You've pee'd in a wheat field / cornfield / hayfield / barn lot.
26) You probably started driving a tractor to plow/disc/etc. by the time you were 10 years old.
27) Most people went by a nickname.
28) The guys kept their guns in the car/truck so they could go hunting after school.
29) They had been hunting with a gun since they were 7 years old.
30) The car / truck you drove belonged to dad and was probably the only family vehicle (besides the tractor and grain truck).
31) Eight out of ten high school boys could tune a car's engine; and four out of ten could rebuild that engine.
32) There was a huge crowd in town on Saturday night.
33) Farmers could actually 'trade' their eggs / milk / cream / chickens for groceries and other goods at some of the local stores or barter with each other.
34) We listened to the radio when we were not listening in on the party line.
35) We got into the drive-in movie free in the trunk of the car.
36) We know what a mouton, Snow Ball and Dippity Do is.
37) We would not have wanted cold, creepy looking granite countertops, bamboo on our floors, a "spa" bathrrom--one inside worked for us, and we didn't plan to live in it to relax. We would NOT have wanted an SUV, and didn't like "station wagons" when they came out. We laid on the shelf under the back window. We rode on the tailgait of the truck.
38) We might of heard of, but didn't know personally, anyone who took illegal drugs. We drank 3.2 beer.
39) Without TV, talk shows, rea;ity TV, the internet or cell phone apps, we always knew who we were and where we were going and what our dream was. Nobody used words like "self esteem," self-actualization,"
"finding yourself," or post-traumatic anything. If we had a question about all that, we just asked our parents or grandpatents or teacher.
And most of us did well.
All but three of the above fit my experience quite well.
#9---I never dated a local girl
#17---We didn't have a stop light.
#33---That practice was 99 percent gone by the time I came along.
No to 17. No stop light in my town.
The rest are good. Brings back some memories.
Jerry
>4) You used to 'drag' or 'cruise' Main St
And it was only 4 blocks long.
>17) Directions were given using THE stop light as a reference.
It is just a flashing light. There is only one red light in the whole county.
>26) You probably started driving a tractor to plow/disc/etc. by the time you were 10 years old.
I was 13 but it had an 8 row tool bar on it.
>35) We got into the drive-in movie free in the trunk of the car.
My Uncle owned the cotton field behind the drive-in. My brother plowed a way in the back so we could just drive in with the lights out.
I'm from early suburbia spread from far West side of Detroit (55-73). With the exception of the tractor stuff, most everything else applies. I think it had to do with keeping the family value system intact, no matter where anybody lived.
Neighbors had an open door policy, with the cookies; we had a milk man; I had a paper route at 10; used to hop the fences to play hockey in the neighbors back yard; even the dogs were nicer; the teachers could still slap you when you needed it.
Then it all went to shyte in the late 60's. Those days are gone gone gone forever. As we move on....
"16) The coach suggested you haul hay for the summer to get stronger."
Coach had nothing to do with it. Dad made us haul tens of thousands of bales every year!
Dad was nice enough to let us go to practice.
What town?
We were 12 miles from the County Seat, but most of what you listed would have been true of the town. Except they didn't have a golf course or a traffic light and I have no idea what a mouton is.
Andy
My town has 1200 people and the next town over has 500. I want to move there where it is still quiet and peaceful.
We have a Flashing Yellow light and this past summer we had a temporary "red" light on Main Street!- while they fixed the water main - nobody really waited for the light to change; some wouldn't even acknowledge the damn thing. Only the foreigners were stopped, you can ALWAYS spot them when your driving because they don't WAVE back!
yup, most of them true for me except no stop light in town, no golf course in town and we drank real beer (and harder stuff).
and substitute log truck and skidder for grain truck and tractor.
I'll bet those skidders were real chick magnets, eh?
> I'll bet those skidders were real chick magnets, eh?
Of course, everybody knows women prefer loggers over dirt farmers.
So small that two towns consolidated their schools and still had barely 200 students in grades K through 12. My freshman year there were only two senior boys.
Football was king on Friday nights.
"Green Hand" in Ag class the freshman year.
One very small store that was also the post office and town hall.
Rodeo Club.
37) We would not have wanted cold, creepy looking granite countertops, bamboo on our floors, a "spa" bathrrom--one inside worked for us, and we didn't plan to live in it to relax. We would NOT have wanted an SUV, and didn't like "station wagons" when they came out. We laid on the shelf under the back window. We rode on the tailgait of the truck.
38) We might of heard of, but didn't know personally, anyone who took illegal drugs. We drank 3.2 beer.
39) Without TV, talk shows, rea;ity TV, the internet or cell phone apps, we always knew who we were and where we were going and what our dream was. Nobody used words like "self esteem," self-actualization,"
"finding yourself," or post-traumatic anything. If we had a question about all that, we just asked our parents or grandpatents or teacher.
Can't agree with these three.
I always loved wood floors. That's all bamboo is afterall, just another version of a wood floor. Actually the most attractive homes are from the 1950's, lot's of Frank Lloyd Wright styling (i.e., Ranch homes in the Mid-West).
No drugs but a lot more alcoholism. I remember bar room brawls, bums (which we don't see anymore) and guys "sleeping it off" in the gutter on a Saturday morning.
Glad those days are gone, people not communicating. As my Aunt (who was sexually abused when she was a young girl in the 1920's by a foster parent) at least "people communicate now". Yes sexually abuse in the 1920's, peoples' morals or lack thereof hasn't changed. At least today we can talk about it, back then you had "to suck it up".
