I spent a few adolescent years (grades 5-7) in King City MO, a small town (pop. somewhere around 1000), near St. Joseph, where I was born. Though I had many adventures there and was editor of my 6th grade newspaper, I was ecstatic when our family moved to San Diego. Small town to me is 7500-10k. One long-ago road trip, I drove the blue highways California to Lake of the Ozarks, MO, where I was doing research for a novel set in a fishing camp. All along the way I stopped in small towns. Sometimes I have a picnic in some grassy town square or just park along some main street and get out and walk along the streets. Seems there was always one of those barrel root beer places on the outskirts. Once after an overnight in some small town in Kansas I asked a local where I might get a "light" breakfast. He told me the Dairy Queen served biscuits and gravy.
I bet you're going to get a lot of stories in response to this Spark.
I grew up in Batavia, Iowa, population 430. My grandparents were farmers and lived “out in the country” on a farm surrounded by fields of corn and soybeans, no neighbors in sight!
We moved to a BIG city, Ottumwa, Iowa, population 25,000 when I was 15! I’ve lived in Southern California since 1982, population 1.3 million just in Orange County!
You know I have a lot to say about this, Betsy. I currently live in a town with a population of 12,208. I believe that qualifies as small. I grew up in a town that at the time probably had a population of about 7,000. I think when you get above about 30,000, you're moving out of small town territory. I also think it's contextual. The "small town" I grew up in was in the middle of a rapidly growing area that was becoming suburban. So pretty quickly, it was no longer a small town, regardless of what the Census numbers said. Small town is as much a cultural phenomenon as it is numerical.
I've spent most of my life in rural areas. In Kentucky. Now in Indiana. My small town is plopped down in the middle of a very rural area. The biggest city is an hour away.
What do I think of when I think of small towns in rural areas? I know that these places tend to skew older as far as their population, though that may be changing a little bit. I don't think of them as more conservative. All kinds of people live in all kinds of places. The idea of "blue dots" or "red states" is sort of a myth we're telling ourselves. On the ground, it's all so much more complicated than that.
When I think of small towns in rural areas I think about quirkiness. I guarantee you that every small town has its collection of "weirdos," though they probably won't tell you about them because those "weirdos" aren't really weird to them. They're just their neighbors. They're just Frank down the street.
I think of people who are often living in ways that are more deeply connected. You're stuck with who you have, so you make things work. I think there's something really valuable there.
When I think of small towns, I think of the joy of being known in a way that's hard to get in other places. I walk down my streets and say hello to people. We stop and talk. They ask me about my writing and about my book. They ask how our trip was. I feel held, and yeah, cared for in small towns in a way I've never felt anywhere else.
I have a lot of opinions, including that for most of our human evolution, we lived in small groups and that maybe we're still better suited to a smaller scale. It's so much harder to generalize and de-humanize in smaller groups.
I like to think of myself as a chronicler of small towns. There are so many stories to tell. As Niall Williams said in THIS IS HAPPINESS: “A hundred books could not capture a single village. That’s not a denigration, that’s a testament.”
I somewhat think that a town is smaller than five thousand people. From five thousand to fifteen thousand, it's a small city. I spend a lot of my time in a town of around two thousand, county about seven thousand.
I lived in the town of O'Brien, Oregon, for almost a year as a kid. It couldn't have had more than a few hundred people. The only (tiny) store was also the post office. I was from Los Angeles so the town felt very small to me. I'd say that a town has to have less than ten thousand people. I have lived in rural towns and even on a small commune near Santa Cruz, CA. When I think of small American towns I think of main streets and town squares, and of community and cooperation. People helping each other out.
I was raised in the cookie cutter suburbs in Maryland outside DC. My work/career was also cities: DC and LA. It was exhausting and stressful. We bought 10 acres in rural southern Oregon. Our nearest town is 2500, mostly retirees, so not a typical small town. To the west, very rural, old hippies , survivalists, right wing Christians and our county is flaming red hats. East of us a small city/town which has no center, a big meth problem, and an annual brain drain as the smart ambitious kids move out and the leftovers begrudgingly work minimum wage jobs. The ignorance and hostility is astonishing. The lack of empathy for others is probably the result of decades of dashed hopes. Only the old folks contribute to community, whether it’s at church or in the struggling social welfare programs (soup kitchens, homeless shelters). I’m happy in my spot which is forested and beautiful but I don’t interact much with the people in the area. It’s just exhausting to listen to the religious drivel and ignorant politics. I’m likely to leave before much longer and I’m sad about it. It has been eye opening to witness white rural poverty.
Just finished Sally Rooney's "Intermezzo." I found the story of 2 brothers who lost their father intriguing, both juxtaposed by age (10 year difference) and career (attorney/competitive chess player). The sex lives of both brothers are different and the same, and their love/hate relationship has lots of ups and downs until they accept one another for who they are.
I found Rooney's writing powerful and quite savory, but I thought her use of a Joycean technique was overused and in many situations, unnecessary; it reminded me of a cake that had too much icing piled on that lent to the inability to eat a slice without feeling that it was overly sweet and would be better tasting with less icing.
PS: Was your visit back East a caretaking adventure? Not necessary that you share; just curious.
I was born in Tarentum, a small town in PA, with a population of 5K. My parents moved us to an adjacent town, Natrona Heights, population 12K. I left for the Army at 17, and upon my return, after living in Germany for 2 1/2 years, the town got even smaller. Many parts of both Tarentum & Natrona Heights look like ghost towns: empty storefronts and a lot of graffiti.
Those elephants!
I spent a few adolescent years (grades 5-7) in King City MO, a small town (pop. somewhere around 1000), near St. Joseph, where I was born. Though I had many adventures there and was editor of my 6th grade newspaper, I was ecstatic when our family moved to San Diego. Small town to me is 7500-10k. One long-ago road trip, I drove the blue highways California to Lake of the Ozarks, MO, where I was doing research for a novel set in a fishing camp. All along the way I stopped in small towns. Sometimes I have a picnic in some grassy town square or just park along some main street and get out and walk along the streets. Seems there was always one of those barrel root beer places on the outskirts. Once after an overnight in some small town in Kansas I asked a local where I might get a "light" breakfast. He told me the Dairy Queen served biscuits and gravy.
I bet you're going to get a lot of stories in response to this Spark.
I grew up in Batavia, Iowa, population 430. My grandparents were farmers and lived “out in the country” on a farm surrounded by fields of corn and soybeans, no neighbors in sight!
We moved to a BIG city, Ottumwa, Iowa, population 25,000 when I was 15! I’ve lived in Southern California since 1982, population 1.3 million just in Orange County!
You know I have a lot to say about this, Betsy. I currently live in a town with a population of 12,208. I believe that qualifies as small. I grew up in a town that at the time probably had a population of about 7,000. I think when you get above about 30,000, you're moving out of small town territory. I also think it's contextual. The "small town" I grew up in was in the middle of a rapidly growing area that was becoming suburban. So pretty quickly, it was no longer a small town, regardless of what the Census numbers said. Small town is as much a cultural phenomenon as it is numerical.
I've spent most of my life in rural areas. In Kentucky. Now in Indiana. My small town is plopped down in the middle of a very rural area. The biggest city is an hour away.
What do I think of when I think of small towns in rural areas? I know that these places tend to skew older as far as their population, though that may be changing a little bit. I don't think of them as more conservative. All kinds of people live in all kinds of places. The idea of "blue dots" or "red states" is sort of a myth we're telling ourselves. On the ground, it's all so much more complicated than that.
When I think of small towns in rural areas I think about quirkiness. I guarantee you that every small town has its collection of "weirdos," though they probably won't tell you about them because those "weirdos" aren't really weird to them. They're just their neighbors. They're just Frank down the street.
I think of people who are often living in ways that are more deeply connected. You're stuck with who you have, so you make things work. I think there's something really valuable there.
When I think of small towns, I think of the joy of being known in a way that's hard to get in other places. I walk down my streets and say hello to people. We stop and talk. They ask me about my writing and about my book. They ask how our trip was. I feel held, and yeah, cared for in small towns in a way I've never felt anywhere else.
I have a lot of opinions, including that for most of our human evolution, we lived in small groups and that maybe we're still better suited to a smaller scale. It's so much harder to generalize and de-humanize in smaller groups.
I like to think of myself as a chronicler of small towns. There are so many stories to tell. As Niall Williams said in THIS IS HAPPINESS: “A hundred books could not capture a single village. That’s not a denigration, that’s a testament.”
I somewhat think that a town is smaller than five thousand people. From five thousand to fifteen thousand, it's a small city. I spend a lot of my time in a town of around two thousand, county about seven thousand.
Thank you for the reminder to circle those in most need of protection. A lesson beautifully taught by the elephants and eloquently interpreted by you.
I lived in the town of O'Brien, Oregon, for almost a year as a kid. It couldn't have had more than a few hundred people. The only (tiny) store was also the post office. I was from Los Angeles so the town felt very small to me. I'd say that a town has to have less than ten thousand people. I have lived in rural towns and even on a small commune near Santa Cruz, CA. When I think of small American towns I think of main streets and town squares, and of community and cooperation. People helping each other out.
I was raised in the cookie cutter suburbs in Maryland outside DC. My work/career was also cities: DC and LA. It was exhausting and stressful. We bought 10 acres in rural southern Oregon. Our nearest town is 2500, mostly retirees, so not a typical small town. To the west, very rural, old hippies , survivalists, right wing Christians and our county is flaming red hats. East of us a small city/town which has no center, a big meth problem, and an annual brain drain as the smart ambitious kids move out and the leftovers begrudgingly work minimum wage jobs. The ignorance and hostility is astonishing. The lack of empathy for others is probably the result of decades of dashed hopes. Only the old folks contribute to community, whether it’s at church or in the struggling social welfare programs (soup kitchens, homeless shelters). I’m happy in my spot which is forested and beautiful but I don’t interact much with the people in the area. It’s just exhausting to listen to the religious drivel and ignorant politics. I’m likely to leave before much longer and I’m sad about it. It has been eye opening to witness white rural poverty.
Southern Oregon is notorious that way. My ancestors first settled there and didn't stick around, way back in the nineteenth century.
I grew up in Newburg, MO, a railroad town population 799. It is now 400ish. No passenger train, no factory.
Just finished Sally Rooney's "Intermezzo." I found the story of 2 brothers who lost their father intriguing, both juxtaposed by age (10 year difference) and career (attorney/competitive chess player). The sex lives of both brothers are different and the same, and their love/hate relationship has lots of ups and downs until they accept one another for who they are.
I found Rooney's writing powerful and quite savory, but I thought her use of a Joycean technique was overused and in many situations, unnecessary; it reminded me of a cake that had too much icing piled on that lent to the inability to eat a slice without feeling that it was overly sweet and would be better tasting with less icing.
PS: Was your visit back East a caretaking adventure? Not necessary that you share; just curious.
I was born in Tarentum, a small town in PA, with a population of 5K. My parents moved us to an adjacent town, Natrona Heights, population 12K. I left for the Army at 17, and upon my return, after living in Germany for 2 1/2 years, the town got even smaller. Many parts of both Tarentum & Natrona Heights look like ghost towns: empty storefronts and a lot of graffiti.
This book sounds irresistible—and perfect for now. Just put it on hold at the library.