I prefer small town.....and I miss it! I feel the same about city people, the same way city dwellers feel about small town people. I DO like what the city has to offer as for as museums and theater, but the rest of it I don't want. I hate hearing the sirens of police and ambulances all hours of the day in the cities. I prefer the sound of the singing birds & the soft breeze blowing through the trees. I don't like he horrible traffic in the city, & I feel the people are a little cold & not as friendly. As far as food goes, I think you find the BEST food in small towns, especially off the beaten paths. Most everything is made from scratch and is organic. I read that Bon Appettit magazine voted a restaurant in a very small town in Illinois as having the best BBQ in the nation. There are craft fairs, farmers markets, old beautiful country churches ,antique malls, allot of history to explore, & smart entrepreneurs in small towns. I like the sense of community and knowing the people who live there.

You know Cookie, some towns are lovely in the way that you describe...but those same towns seem to have a good cross-section of people living there that make them pleasant but still dynamic,...a blend of long-term people whose families settled there plus newer folks who have moved from elsewhere and made a good committment to fit in, give back to community.

I've stayed in too many towns and rural areas where my partner and I just would not fit in --how many small towns would have a mixed interracial couple...who on top of all this, is not married but living common-in-law for a long time? We probably would always be friendly outsiders in such communities.

Some towns where we tried to find a general store or even any food store, just had....lousy food selection. And we seek out fruit/veggie stands by the roads as we bike along also.

since we don't have a car....then the issue of healthy food sources or shall we say, a wide variety of healthy food would become an issue for ...both of us.

As we age, I think being in an community /city with a wide range of support services and advocacy groups becomes quite important if you should experience problems where no one in your family has the expertise/means to help you. Church groups do not have expertise in certain support services/care for long term illnesses, etc.

My friend who lives in a town of 2,000 (but commuted 100 kms. each day for her job in city of 80,000), had a tough time trying to find local support expertise when her mother fell into dementia. She was the sole caregiver since her father died.

Cookie,
I see this all the time here and I don't know what it means! What does "amp," mean?
dancer

Dancer,
Ampersand,"&" is a symbol for the word "and".

Thank you, Cookie. They are my initials so I was
confused!
dancer

I live in a village two miles from where I grew up.
My Grandmother's family go way back My Grandfather was an "incomer" from the Highlands.
So I am known to many people in the town.People I went to school with and the parents of the children my children went to school with.
I also did youth work and worked in schools in the nearest big town.
I am therefor many things to many people.
The capable adult who led the youth and the professional to those from my schools.
But to some mostly elderly now people I am the little girl who was reared by her Grandparents and whose Mother died.
Even on my sixtieth birthday I felt this dual role.In fact so many people knew due to others of my generation having the big Six Zero.
I am shown love by many...reminded of my background by some and choose to use a pen name when writing even when the BBC use poems because I need to retain my anonimity so I can say what I want to.
The fact my Father came here after Arhnem is mentioned now and then I am asked where he is now..This is usually after
Remembrance day and people must talk amongst themselves.
So going to the city gives me a feeling of being just me...
I am used to the town I grew up in and find most of what happens amusing..the sheer lack of bounderies is at time funny.Mind you these elderly people are usually folk who have not travelled much and no doubt have little else to interest them.A new generation is springing up due to house building and times are changing.
Two of my Aunts married farmers from the village I now lie in but somehow this is beneficial...they moved further away to farm and the remaining decendents can be counted on as good neighbours.
Interestingly my own children have travelled a lot and I feel this is in sharp contrast to myself..
the little country mouse who visits the city sometime.
Mountain ash

I am also a country girl. When I speak of the city, I'm referring to our small Portland,Maine which I've lived in off and on for the past 30 years. I was born and raised in the country and roamed woods and fields growing up. There was a time that I liked the busyness of city life and all the sights but I intend to be where I am forever now. The only time I left to actually take up residence elsewhere was a year and a half while I was "finding myself" at age 22 in Colorado. Here at home, we have no one living behind, in front(across the road) or beside us. I love the peacefulness and yet we can crank the blues music on my husbands fantastic garage system while we're in the yard...and we don't bother anyone at all! I have flower gardens and plenty of space. It's where I belong now. Of course, I still love traveling around and being in the city, especially during the holidays. I'm a born and bred Maniac and I plan to stay that way. It's been so interesting to read about where you all are and why you like it!

I'm a mountain girl!

Mountain Ash, I think you are in a unique and ideal situation. It sounds as if you are one who "makes," your small town a town! You are deeply rooted there and that makes you happy, I think, and part of everything. It is very hard to be accepted into a small town if one moves there. However, I have known some people whose family has been in the region of a small town for many generations who are mightily happy there and in fact, make the town what it is. If we were made welcome in small towns by those like you, ( and I'm sure we would by you,) we all would be more comfy there.
You have something to hold on to there that is rare and I think, very nice.
I'm happy to think that you have such roots and it's nice to get to know you, someone who has such a different life than mine.
dancer9, gypsy at home finally..

Thanks Hannelore, Dancer and Poppie! "City Girl" is the only poem I've written specifically about this being my home in the larger sense. Then, California felt like a home almost as soon as I got here, as opposed to other places that just felt like way-stations.

Some of my CITY friends don't understand how someone like me could live in suburbia for 27 years, but there are both drawbacks and pluses to everywhere. I find friends wherever I go, but when I lived in small towns -- it was me and the three other outsiders. This neighborhood was built in 1976, so in that sense, everyone is "new" and I'm no more outsider than the next.