A Town as Small as They Come

I live in a very small town. One stop light, no chain stores or restaurants, lots of farms and a ton of winding back roads.

For the record, while I would say that it qualifies as “country,” we are not talking dirt roads and roosters here (although we did have an incident with a herd of cows escaping from their pen and traipsing around my neighborhood). Just a lot of open land and a few “gentlemen” farmers, as my mother calls them.

Now I am all for cities. I love big cities and I plan on living in one after college. But I also love my little town of Richfield. So that being said, I want to defend the small town. I want to highlight a few reasons why they are great (and mention some quirks about them).

For one, in small towns everyone goes to the same school for the most part. There is one school district and you go to school with the same 200 kids from kindergarten to senior year of high school. Everyone knows who you are and what your “deal” is. As nice as this is, it also means that it takes a long time to break that mold that you fit into so nicely before you picked up and left for college.

Tying into the school thing, everyone comes home for the summer. You know those "Home Days" that some places have...okay, maybe not. They are big festivals where everyone and their brother comes and eats and has fun and does a lot of people watching. We have one of those in Richfield and you literally see everyone there. From the guy you dated in middle school to the girl you had chemistry lab with. It is nice and kind of cringe-worthy at the same time. 

Second, everyone knows where everything is. You don’t really even have to know street names. You just know where houses, developments, stores, restaurants, and the 15 hidden highway entrances are. You use landmarks like the “little Giant Eagle” (or Country Counter if you haven’t left the area for 50 years), Restaurant Hill, the bowling alley, and the Octagon House.

Building off this, small towns like Richfield don’t have roads that work off of a grid. There is no grid. Every road follows the land, so you just have to know where you are going. It is one of the things that I think about when friends from Erie, Pittsburgh or Buffalo start talking about their home towns. They would hate driving in Richfield…because the roads go on forever and change without much notice and you could end up in the middle of a national park or in the place where all of the buzzards gather every year if you aren’t careful.

Next, sporting events. Biggest thing to happen in towns like mine are sporting events. Question on typical Friday nights, “Are you going to the football/basketball/soccer game tonight?” You can find everyone at sporting events.

And after those sporting events? The adults go to The Three Musketeers for drinks and food and their kids take over the local Steak & Shake, Swenson’s, or Friendly’s.  It is how it has always been and probably how it will always be. (As a band member, this is ingrained into you from day one. You just go to Steak and Shake after games...if there isn't a bonfire that is...)

Also, everyone knows everything about everyone. I live in a development, with cul de sacs and yes, I also belong to a country club, but that is not the point. Everyone in the neighborhood knows everyone else’s business, from divorces to what baseball team your son got on and how good that team is in comparison to your own son’s.

All this being said, I love my town.

I think it is wonderful that I can tell if people are leaving or going home based on what direction they are traveling on the main road.

I love that we have a quirky restaurant called Whitey’s that specializes in booze, burgers, beach volleyball, and a cash only policy.

I love that there is one high school and that the rock out front has been painted over and over again from the class of 1963 to the class of 2013.

I love that all of the boys in my neighborhood play baseball during the summer.

I love how our library looks like a barn and has Charlotte’s Web characters outside.

I love that bonfires are the most popular form of summer entertainment.

I love that I can drive 15 minutes and be in a national park.

I love that I can take 20 different routes to get to the exact same place.

I love that we have after-prom at the bowling lanes.

I love that I can count on being able to find all of the band kids at Steak and Shakes after Friday night football games.

And I love how when I turn the bend as I am getting off the highway, how the land all of the sudden opens up into fields and I know I am home.

So don’t look down on small towns. They ground people and give them a true home to come back too. Give them a shot or you'll never know what you are missing.