Main Street
As I mentioned before, rural living and small town living have been a bit of an adjustment for us. We live in a town with a population of less than 2,000. Everyone knows everyone (apparently), news travels fast (or so I’m told), and apart from the occasional festivities such as the Christmas parade and the annual hay day which we’re looking forward to this summer, there isn’t much else that goes on.
But we love living here, and we’re proud to be a part of this little spot.
If you were to take a drive down the main drag right into main street here are a few of the things you might see.
1. Four weeks after Christmas, Main Street visitors are still welcomed by a giant Season’s Greetings.
2. The local cafe, named for the owner’s son, sells neither lattes, hot tea, or scones. Instead one can purchase iced tea, decorated sheet cakes, and on Saturdays an all~you~can~eat breakfast buffet served in disposable chafing dishes. The Saturday breakfast buffet is then followed by all-you-can-eat catfish.
3. While the town has a small population they do have their own library branch. Due dates are still stamped into the back of the book and overdue notices are delivered by a phone call.
4. The Senior Citizen’s center is draped with a sign “Celebrating 31 years”. Some time ago the “1″ was crossed out and replaced with a handwritten “2″. The center serves lunch every Tuesday and the menu is always printed in the local paper.
5. The beauty parlor is run by a mother/daughter duo. A handwritten sign advertises “Walk Ins Welcome” and daily specials. The mother and daughter can tell you everything you want to know about anyone who has lived there ever. Older ladies come in to get their weekly wash and set. For the younger bunch, camo manicures are offered.
6. The town features a museum. There are rarely any visitors but from time to time a group of overall clad men will gather around front, grilling burgers on a portable grill. A small version of a steam train is parked out front and free rides are offered over the weekends.
7. The only fast food is a tiny Subway that is the place for lunch after church on Sunday. The Sinclair station frequently offers barbecued brisket, but this is only “fast” if they’ve remembered to take the brisket out of the freezer to thaw.
8. A trip to the Dollar General (the only “grocery” in town) and I can run into the guy who set the electric poles on our property. A trip to the post office and I will run into the plumber.
9. The post office lobby is also frequented by various elderly men, probably former farmers, clad in ball caps, leisure suits, and cowboy boots. They’re always happy to get the paper so “they can have all the news”.
10. The front page news this week: a salute to a trio of local volunteers.
 If something you read today was helpful to you please consider leaving a comment and following along ~ we’d love to have you! Just visit the sidebar and subscribe to updates via email. All considerate comments are welcomed, appreciated, read, and enjoyed. I will do my best to respond although it may take me a little bit. I’m often up to my ears in laundry, cleaning, baking, gardening, or canning, but I’d love to chat! |
Find this post and others like it linked to: Farm Girl Blog Fest, The Homestead Barn Hop
Nice! These are exactly the kinds of things that continue to lure us to smaller towns. We left Houston last year for East Texas (population 100k – which isn’t exactly “small” but much smaller than most cities we’ve lived in) and will eventually be in an even smaller town somewhere.
Love the descriptions, I feel like I just walked downtown with you and and had Subway for lunch!
Cute. Seriously cute.
You have a senior center!?!!?! Way out classing my small town LOL
Yes! And they serve lunch! They might even have a bingo night.
This sounds so much like our little town here in Australia.
I loved your descriptions of the minutiae of small town life. It makes me smile. 
Sounds heavenly.
~Ann
Enjoyed the description of small town life…my husband and I graduated from a small college (of 300+) with total town inhabitants of 3500. It was a challenge but it being in Kentucky, had a lot of natural beauty and a few great parks. Me being from northeast Ohio, it was a cultural challenge, but I really enjoyed my time there! Thanks for sharing your town life.
My grandmother lived in Fostoria, Ohio for many years. My mother went to high school there. It has seen better days but in it’s time it was a lovely place. My brother just graduated from school in KY and when we went out for his grad we really love it. Quaint little place surrounded by beautiful farms. We’re looking forward to going back this summer for his wedding.
Sounds much like our small town here in Victoria Australia. Ballan has 1800 (1805 including us
) population and we have a library, 2 op shops (and they’re good ones too), a lovely cafe, a hospital, hardware, animal feed stockist, plumber, supermarket and a few other shops. It’s lovely and although we haven’t yet invested ourselves all that much in the town (I’m somewhat of a hermit) I know that everyone knows everyone and we look forward to becoming part of the everyone.