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It is narrow minded to believe that people that live in small towns or rural areas are all conservative or give a rat's a## what you think or where you attend church if you even do. Most people in small towns and rural areas are there for the peace, open spaces, and freedom. They don't care what you do as long as you don't infringe on their right to do whatever they choose. If you enjoy the constant rat race of living in the city, more power to you. For the rest of us, more sunsets and star gazing for us.
I was paying some bills this morning, posting some letters. One of the great things to me is that after 25 years in the same town, well probably a small city, is that people know me. The cashier at the phone company or the power company, the clerk at the post office, the owner of the Chinese buffet, and many others.
It was one of those terrors on the back of the mind about moving to a new city, of not being known, of having to start such a cycle all over again.......and probably never getting it back.
It's also a "directive" to keep on the back of the mind to "behave" because one is known in town, one is liked, one does have a reputation. A directive to recognize what you can do, what is over all acceptable (ie, being a belly dancer) and to know what is too far, that you can't throw it to the wind and believe "who is going to know?" or "what difference will it make?" for that is simply not true. Ie, it's more of a personal reason/fear but I don't drink in public because I never want to wake up the next morning wondering if what I did the night before was due to party energy or alcohol. Looking at it from the the "gossip" angle, that too is an uncomfortable risk.
A directive to know that you can't be so open with your frustrations. The person you lose your temper and curse out at the theater tonight ("For God's Sake, can't you be quiet?")........maybe be in the crowd, in eye contact with you tomorrow as you are introduced as an organizational leader.
Once, when I was younger, I probably didn't care as much by what I did here and there....but I am older now and I do care.
Long story short, that is probably another "cost" of deciding where to live....and it may be one that people are not so actively aware of.
There's a lot more to rural America than flyover country. 60% of California's vast Central Valley has been taken out of agricultural production because it has been converted to 5 acre ranchettes. Kansas and Nebraska are just corn factories; nobody really lives there.
Little corn is grown in Kansas that is not irrigated and it is not part of the Corn Belt due to its climate being unfavorable. Wheat is grown where climate is marginal and is not as profitable as corn- so that is commonly grown there in addition to ranching.
Meatpackers really live there. Hop a bus out to Garden City, KS...
The economics out there will not be sustainable in a few more decades at the most due to the rapidly depleting aquifer, plenty of articles regarding that.
The economics out there will not be sustainable in a few more decades at the most due to the rapidly depleting aquifer, plenty of articles regarding that.
The economics of everywhere are always changing, but the rates of change in many places are coming to strain our capacities to adjust. Still, at the present time, lots of meatpackers do in fact live in and around Garden City, Kansas.
I've had this problem licked most of my life. I currently live on the ocean with no traffic, great scenery , friendly people in Rockport Texas which often is named in those "Top ten small towns" surveys. I am only 24 minutes from downtown Corpus Christi.
Unfortunately we will have to move and this time we will have a place overlooking downtown El Paso , and another 95 minutes away west of Ruidoso NM. This last change is especially appealing because summers in this part of NM have highs in the mid 70s and no mosquitoes.
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The posters who think small towns are expensive are wrong. It just depends where. Internet in Rockport is about 30mps mbps? Fast enough for anything.
If one looks hard enough - they can find most anything
I've had this problem licked most of my life. I currently live on the ocean with no traffic, great scenery , friendly people in Rockport Texas which often is named in those "Top ten small towns" surveys. I am only 24 minutes from downtown Corpus Christi.
Unfortunately we will have to move and this time we will have a place overlooking downtown El Paso , and another 95 minutes away west of Ruidoso NM. This last change is especially appealing because summers in this part of NM have highs in the mid 70s and no mosquitoes.
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The posters who think small towns are expensive are wrong. It just depends where. Internet in Rockport is about 30mps mbps? Fast enough for anything.
If one looks hard enough - they can find most anything
They're usually not expensive but you get what you pay for.
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. We have gotten dentists out here since the movie though.
