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Whittle, chop fire wood, sew new clothes, boil water for a bath, put new horseshoes on the horses, sharpen knives and tools, read the Bible, play a harmonica, have a square dance in the bar and invite the neighbors from down the road over, can vegetables, etc.
I live in Youngstown, Ohio, a city of about 65k in a metro of about 560k. I find that there's more to do here than I have time for. But, that's because I spend much of my spare time working on the restoration of my house, or surfing this forum.
Lived in between 2 unincorporated villages in Wisconsin. It was a big tourist area, so in the summer it was like Cape Cod or whatever, and there were people from all over the world, fine dining, sailboating, beaches, etc. Pretty quiet in the winter, so I spent that time (this was the 80s & pre-internet) ordering punk & underground zines from all over the world, finding out about culture (art/music/books) in this fashion, and ordered records and underground comics (and pen palled) from pretty much every continent. By the time I hit college, I knew a hell of a lot more about cutting edge culture and art history than friends I eventually met from Chicago, New York, Detroit, Twin Cities, and so on.
So basically, I played in the woods and on the beach, ate fine foods, met people from all over the world, and then when it was winter and quiet, I obsessively caught up to was happening in every corner of the world (including large cities). It was a nice balance, and I'm eventually moving out of Milwaukee in order to have the "summer" balance back, because I miss it. It's even easier to keep up with what's happening in Milwaukee, or Chicago, or La or Tokyo than every before, and I'm too old to be right in the middle of it anymore, anyway. Loved where I grew up...
i just moved from a small town in Louisiana were i would see boats going up and down the bayou. To a small town in Texas were all i see are cows, it's depressing. I think it's the change of scenery.
A lot of time is spent commuting 50 miles each way to work, or driving 25 miles to a supermarket, Home Depot, a movie or a dress-up restaurant.
Aside from that, there is the same Internet and Cable in small towns that you have in the city, and dishes and laundry still have to be done, and that's how people keep themselves busy.
If you live in a big city, now many times in the past year have you gone to a major league sports event or to hear your symphony orchestra play? People in small towns wonder what you do on the other 360-odd days, that makes big city living so exciting.
Work
School (which is ending relatively soon)
Friends
There are no boring places, just boring people. It's not what you do that makes something exciting, but who you're with, IMO. You can feel just as bored in a big city as in a small town if you aren't with the right people.
I just came back from London and it makes LA and SF (where I spend most of my time) seem small
As a single person how do you keep yourself busy if you live in a small town or smaller city?
Know this is super old but it sounds like you are confusing walkability with size (even though San Fran itself should be walkable and compact)...there is no way you exhausted everything that London has to offer and there is no way that you have scratched the surface of what LA and the Bay have to offer...unlike London where you can walk or take the tube everywhere, in LA and the Bay you may have to walk to it...nothing small about those areas
As for living in a true small town..hey, people adapt...they slow down...take a longer time with an activity instead of rushing off to another one...some people will never like that lifestyle...the same way some folks will never like the big city lifestyle
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