A trip to the grocery store is a major social event because you will see between two and ten people you know, and you will have to stop and visit.
Your hair stylist is also your daughter’s basketball coach, and she picks your son up from football practice for his haircut while she is picking up her own kids.
Your teen-age son dates the daughters of at least two former classmates.
At back-to-school night, your child’s teacher looks around the room at the parents and identifies at least half of them as former students.
Friday night high school football and basketball games are a form of entertainment for most of the town’s residents, and the announcer’s voice on the football stadium loudspeaker can be heard throughout the town.
On your early morning run on the outskirts of town, you meet three people you know at separate times, and one is even wearing the same t-shirt as you are (from the local 5K race).
The local movie theater is family or volunteer owned or operated, and it shows one movie a night (and only on weekends). But, the prices are so low that you can afford the movie and the large popcorn, too.
Your morning commute is only three minutes long and seldom includes traffic lights.
You can park within 10 feet of the front door of your favorite downtown clothing boutique, and you don’t have to plug a meter.
You have an unobstructed view of the sunrise and sunset most any day of the week.
The cost is just $75 for a family pass to the city swimming pool for the ENTIRE summer, and most of the kids can safely ride their bikes there from most any neighborhood in town.
When you get married, your wedding photo and announcement take up most of the social page in the local newspaper. When you die, your obituary is front-page news.
The county fair is the biggest event of the summer, and most of the town’s residents come out to see the animals and 4-H projects, eat funnel cakes and snow cones, get dizzy on the carnival rides and watch kids wrestle pigs or adults ride bulls.
We don’t have Whole Foods, but we have whole cows and whole pigs that can be purchased from a local farmer and stored in the freezer to enjoy all winter long, along with frozen sweet corn, peaches and canned tomatoes that were generously given by friends and neighbors from their fields or gardens.
A new baby, an illness or death in the family results in a steady stream of hot meals and casseroles delivered to your front door.
The tallest building in town is the local grain elevator. And if you don’t know what a grain elevator is, you are probably not from or living in a small town.
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