Such a great interview that I had to take a pause to order the book! Thank you!! I can’t wait to read it. I grew up in a small town (8,000) and my novel is a going home story set in a small town. One thing I keep encountering as I’ve drafted and practiced pitching the book is various helpers want to add adjectives like “godforsaken” and “backwards” in front of ‘small town.’ It’s certainly complicated to grow up in a place where you know most everyone’s business (or at least have what my grandmother called “a healthy interest in other people’s affairs”) and I didn’t choose to settle down there, but I feel so protective of this fictionalized town in my story. Really looking forward to this arriving to my mailbox. 💖
Sounds as thought this book and you will be a great fit. I completely get that protective feeling when writing about the small town in your novel. I felt the same way when I write my first one. Please keep us posted on your book!
Still there. Feel most at home in the neighborhood I grew up in until I was ten. Live close to the area where I went to elementary school and high school. There is a sense that locals are now a rare breed!
I grew up in a small farming rural town of 500 during the 1950's to early 1970's. Most of my family remained and remains. The sign on the highway right before you turn into Perry, Illinois, still reads Population 500.
That's small. The town I grew up in had between 600 and 700 people in 1966 -- but they weren't sure because it turns out the census skipped small towns every other year. Today, the population is a whopping 1,067. When you go home to visit, does the place feel different to you? Bigger, smaller, something else?
I traveled back and forth frequently between AZ and Illinois, and yes, the town grew smaller and smaller. I've given much thought and journaled as to why over the years and realize those changes have been coming more from me than the small township. Those rural communities usually remain the same within their boundaries of fence rows and mowed lawns.
I grew up in Riverside, California, in the 50s in what I considered at the time a medium-sized cosmopolitan town -- population around 40,000. Lots of orange groves, no smog, no warehouses. I never knew how segregated it was, with definite Japanese, Korean and Black areas. Often visited L.A. which oddly didn't seem much bigger to me, probably because I never explored outside my specific destination. In 1958, when I was 13, we moved to Yucca Valley, CA, population 3,000, an isolated desert town with many living off the grid -- a real culture shock. Didn't seem too far removed from the Wild West. Had to take the bus 25 miles to high school in 29 Palms. It definitely seemed like everyone had their noses in everyone's business, but when I look back, the difference seems to be that in YV people had no way to escape. We moved back to Riverside two years later, and I soon escaped for good to San Francisco and San Diego. I can visit the "villages" that make up these cities, but the real village is just too claustrophobic for me.
Interestingly, one of the reasons I was drawn to San Diego is that it had a village-y feel that came from all those different communities that make up the city. It's kind of the best of both worlds -- big enough to be anonymous if desired and small enough to feel connected if / when that is the right thing.
I have friends who feel the same about living in a small town, Judy. They just don't like the idea of everyone knowing their business. I definitely had the need to escape as a young person, so maybe it gets easier as you get older. Thanks for commenting!
I have lived my 81 years in three great conurbations: London; Birmingham and Nottingham, the latter for the past 46 years, all of which are really networks of communities, many with historic roots that can be traced back to William the Conquerer’s Great Survey of 1086, better known as the Domesday Book. Nottingham is made up of 15 Domesday locations and they all have a sense of identity which is a match for any village or small town. Many like me live our lives where we are, in my case Beeston, rarely wandering far from home. A map would suggest it is a suburb, but it is not. What I love about the places I have lived is how welcoming and cosmopolitan they have been and that, like a village, l can walk where I want to go. My Beeston has a distinct ever changing character.
In England many villages have become places where the better off, anti-social, better-off escape to faux-communities and gated drives. I love the distinctiveness and individuality of cities, as I know substack writers like Anne Kadet does with her weekly Cafe Anne posts. The only yearning I have ever had is to live in a working town by the sea, such as Cleethorpes, where our daughter and her husband live, and Hastings, where my sister lives, but having a hospital a 10 minute bus ride away is something one does not want to lose. Well, Betsy, I loved your interview with Robyn Ryle and will search out her book. That many living in villages ‘escape to the city’ at the first opportunity tells you a lot about the negativity of villages if you are one of the less fortunate residents!
Oh, I would love to live in a village by the sea. It's sad to hear so many English villages have become refuges for the wealthy. Thanks for reading and commenting!
Robyn, if I may, in which case you should love a BBC series called Villages by the Sea, which pack a lot of history and exploring into 30 minutes and, I see, are available on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL2vJ5Cg-wlPwxqTODj-6YC5jdB3PhSyQe We always watch the repeats. Enjoy the rest of your day. Robert 🐰
P.S. You have prompted me to write about how villages have changed in my lifetime.
Excellent interview! Two writers I admire very much. I spent the last five years of childhood in a small town (before that we were rural). I loved being able to walk to the library and to walk to school. I loved being able to take piano lessons and voice lessons. I did not love how conservative, homophobic, and racist the town was. I left at 15 (end of my childhood) and never returned to live there. I visited because Mom still lived there for years. But as a lesbian, I was not welcome there. Big cities saved my life. I love living in Portland, Oregon where today I'll dress as a chicken and go to the No Kings rally.
When I was a child I lived in a place called Tarentum, PA. I left at 17 and when I returned it just got smaller and smaller. Over the years, when I would return for a family visit, most of the stores had been boarded up, housing fell to ruins, so what remains now is skeleton of its former self, on life support, with memories of the past it's only viable foundation.
Such a great interview that I had to take a pause to order the book! Thank you!! I can’t wait to read it. I grew up in a small town (8,000) and my novel is a going home story set in a small town. One thing I keep encountering as I’ve drafted and practiced pitching the book is various helpers want to add adjectives like “godforsaken” and “backwards” in front of ‘small town.’ It’s certainly complicated to grow up in a place where you know most everyone’s business (or at least have what my grandmother called “a healthy interest in other people’s affairs”) and I didn’t choose to settle down there, but I feel so protective of this fictionalized town in my story. Really looking forward to this arriving to my mailbox. 💖
Sounds as thought this book and you will be a great fit. I completely get that protective feeling when writing about the small town in your novel. I felt the same way when I write my first one. Please keep us posted on your book!
Oh thanks, for mentioning that, Elizabeth. I'll check your book out, too. I'm really glad to have found this Substack.
It is small and hangs in there despite the changes in the economy and lifestyle changes through the decades.
Still there. Feel most at home in the neighborhood I grew up in until I was ten. Live close to the area where I went to elementary school and high school. There is a sense that locals are now a rare breed!
I think that's true in so many places, Jeri, that locals are becoming more and more rare.
I grew up in a small farming rural town of 500 during the 1950's to early 1970's. Most of my family remained and remains. The sign on the highway right before you turn into Perry, Illinois, still reads Population 500.
That's very small!
That's small. The town I grew up in had between 600 and 700 people in 1966 -- but they weren't sure because it turns out the census skipped small towns every other year. Today, the population is a whopping 1,067. When you go home to visit, does the place feel different to you? Bigger, smaller, something else?
I traveled back and forth frequently between AZ and Illinois, and yes, the town grew smaller and smaller. I've given much thought and journaled as to why over the years and realize those changes have been coming more from me than the small township. Those rural communities usually remain the same within their boundaries of fence rows and mowed lawns.
I grew up in Riverside, California, in the 50s in what I considered at the time a medium-sized cosmopolitan town -- population around 40,000. Lots of orange groves, no smog, no warehouses. I never knew how segregated it was, with definite Japanese, Korean and Black areas. Often visited L.A. which oddly didn't seem much bigger to me, probably because I never explored outside my specific destination. In 1958, when I was 13, we moved to Yucca Valley, CA, population 3,000, an isolated desert town with many living off the grid -- a real culture shock. Didn't seem too far removed from the Wild West. Had to take the bus 25 miles to high school in 29 Palms. It definitely seemed like everyone had their noses in everyone's business, but when I look back, the difference seems to be that in YV people had no way to escape. We moved back to Riverside two years later, and I soon escaped for good to San Francisco and San Diego. I can visit the "villages" that make up these cities, but the real village is just too claustrophobic for me.
Interestingly, one of the reasons I was drawn to San Diego is that it had a village-y feel that came from all those different communities that make up the city. It's kind of the best of both worlds -- big enough to be anonymous if desired and small enough to feel connected if / when that is the right thing.
I have friends who feel the same about living in a small town, Judy. They just don't like the idea of everyone knowing their business. I definitely had the need to escape as a young person, so maybe it gets easier as you get older. Thanks for commenting!
I have lived my 81 years in three great conurbations: London; Birmingham and Nottingham, the latter for the past 46 years, all of which are really networks of communities, many with historic roots that can be traced back to William the Conquerer’s Great Survey of 1086, better known as the Domesday Book. Nottingham is made up of 15 Domesday locations and they all have a sense of identity which is a match for any village or small town. Many like me live our lives where we are, in my case Beeston, rarely wandering far from home. A map would suggest it is a suburb, but it is not. What I love about the places I have lived is how welcoming and cosmopolitan they have been and that, like a village, l can walk where I want to go. My Beeston has a distinct ever changing character.
In England many villages have become places where the better off, anti-social, better-off escape to faux-communities and gated drives. I love the distinctiveness and individuality of cities, as I know substack writers like Anne Kadet does with her weekly Cafe Anne posts. The only yearning I have ever had is to live in a working town by the sea, such as Cleethorpes, where our daughter and her husband live, and Hastings, where my sister lives, but having a hospital a 10 minute bus ride away is something one does not want to lose. Well, Betsy, I loved your interview with Robyn Ryle and will search out her book. That many living in villages ‘escape to the city’ at the first opportunity tells you a lot about the negativity of villages if you are one of the less fortunate residents!
Oh, I would love to live in a village by the sea. It's sad to hear so many English villages have become refuges for the wealthy. Thanks for reading and commenting!
Robyn, if I may, in which case you should love a BBC series called Villages by the Sea, which pack a lot of history and exploring into 30 minutes and, I see, are available on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL2vJ5Cg-wlPwxqTODj-6YC5jdB3PhSyQe We always watch the repeats. Enjoy the rest of your day. Robert 🐰
P.S. You have prompted me to write about how villages have changed in my lifetime.
Thanks, Robert. I'll check it out. And yay, you should totally write about how villages have changed!
Seeing my hometown gentrified and swollen with tourists makes me want to move to a small town that is still in it's "before" stage.
Are you still living in your hometown, Jeri? Are there corners left that feel the same?
Amen to that, Jeri. Gentrification in small towns is so real and definitely something that comes into these stories.
Excellent interview! Two writers I admire very much. I spent the last five years of childhood in a small town (before that we were rural). I loved being able to walk to the library and to walk to school. I loved being able to take piano lessons and voice lessons. I did not love how conservative, homophobic, and racist the town was. I left at 15 (end of my childhood) and never returned to live there. I visited because Mom still lived there for years. But as a lesbian, I was not welcome there. Big cities saved my life. I love living in Portland, Oregon where today I'll dress as a chicken and go to the No Kings rally.
I hope you have some photos of you in that chicken costume, Sandra! I'm glad you found the cities that felt like home.
There are photos of me in the costume on my FB page.
Thanks, Sandra! I'm picturing you now dressed as a chicken at the rally and it is making me smile!
What a great interview!!!
Thanks, Louisa!
When I was a child I lived in a place called Tarentum, PA. I left at 17 and when I returned it just got smaller and smaller. Over the years, when I would return for a family visit, most of the stores had been boarded up, housing fell to ruins, so what remains now is skeleton of its former self, on life support, with memories of the past it's only viable foundation.
That's so sad and unfortunately the fate of a lot of small towns.