Small Town Living

Strange Things Happen Here

I was raised in a small town. I knew everyone that lived on my street. We had block parties, we played softball in the middle of the road. My best friends lived on the same street, their parents still live there.

It was the most normal thing ever; putting our lawn chairs out along the parade route a few weeks before the 4th of July. That’s right, a few weeks before the holiday, almost everyone in town reserved their spot by setting out their lawn chairs along the sidewalk on the main road through the middle of town. It didn’t seem odd or strange, it was just what we did.

Fifty years later it still happens, although with the added essence of social media influence. Lawn chairs, camp chairs, benches, go out a whole month before the 4th now, providing ample fodder for Facebook warriors. It’s the battle of “this is how it’s always been done” and the “we just moved here, we want to change everything”. The battle erupts every year, so far, the lawn chairs win!!

It’s not the only quirk this small town, ninety miles north of Los Angeles holds near and dear. Winter time, that is, those few times a year when temps dip below freezing, the local Facebook pages blow up with queries about helicopters hovering in the valley overnight. See, this valley is known for citrus and avocado groves, orchard fans come on when temps drop and they sound a whole lot like a helicopter. I imagine if you didn’t know, it’d feel like an invasion.

I discovered oddities in most small towns I’ve lived in. A high mountain town in a remote valley in Colorado practically over-looked the 4th of July in favor of Cattlemen’s Days. Parades, rodeos, all things cattlemen closed the mains roads and took over the town. For a southern Californian this was a major curiosity, a strange thing indeed. It’s been happening since 1900, so it’s as normal for locals as the lawn chairs are to me.

The smallest town I’ve lived in, a forested mountain town is proud and protective of its bear population. They go above and beyond to make sure new residents know and comply with trash and food storage rules for living in bear territory. Protecting the wildlife, those that were here long before we were, taking action to ensure the bears don’t acclimate to human food is admirable and all too uncommon these days.

The saddest small town strange thing I’ve experienced is a quaint town being absorbed by the nearby bigger town. Urban sprawl crept into a small Texas town, the town square held strong but the surrounding amber waves of grain were no more. Thousands upon thousands of houses sprouted up in its place. I was only there a short time, but every time I drove down a tree covered street in the old original neighborhoods I wondered what they thought. Did they embrace change or were they feeling overrun?

Are you a small town dweller? What quirks does your town hold with pride? An oddity to one is completely normal to another; hurry, grab your lawn chair, let’s go reserve our spot for the parade!