ssgramma

Phyllis - it is so pretty over your way too!

seamstome

I live in a rural suburb of Chicago. Everyone on this Board probably knows exactly what my town looks like because we were the site for the filming of the movie Ground Hog Day.

Population 25K in a county of 300K. We used to be farming economy, then manufacturing, then construction based and now we are unemployment based economy with a good chunk of the employed people commuting over an hour to work like my hubby. It is like a diamond ring that the setting is cracked and tarnished.

No real anything here but within a 45 minute drive I have everything there is.

MrsM

I live in the Village of the Town. We are mostly a rural farming area. One funny thing about our Village is that nearly all the Bars are on Church Street and all the Churches on Main Street. We have a few Mills in the Village but we are hurting for jobs and industry. Everyone seems to be either a beautician or a realtor. We have a central school in the Town, kindergarten - 12th. Mostly everyone grew up here. I am an outsider, only been here about 25 years. Everyone knows or is related to everyone else so you have to be careful what you say. I do not know all the connections. It is a quiet place but we have had our share of suicides and murders. Doors are still kept for the most part unlocked. It is a pleasant place to live. We are best known for being the home of Grandma Moses. Her grandson continues her tradition of folk painting.

toomanycats

I live two and a half miles out of town. Nearest neighbor is a cousin a mile away. Town consists of a grange hall, fire hall and a general store that serves limited lunch and monday night potluch and about 10 houses. The orginal store burned when I was a kid. We used to have a post office but lost that so now have to go to Igo for the post office that is 12 miles north. Alot of people have moved here from when I was a kid and most work in redding which is about thirty miles or so depending on where you live out here, east. The power ends here. The houses on up the road have phone but no power except by generator. Orginally a ranching community and pretty much still is. My family, one of the first to settle here has been ranching five generations. People who move here do so because of the rural lifestyle.

Annaquilts

Mine is too big and we lost anything ressembling country and community spirit. We are in agriculture but most of the farms have moved north.

hperttula123

I live in a really small town. We have a tiny grocery store, a gas station, two churches, and about 6 or 7 bars. There isn't much here, and everyone knows where your going before you even decide....lol. I like it here though. There are lots of places to fish and pick berries. Lots of wildlife and scenic areas. There are no gangs and very little violence(not like the city I grew up in).

joan_quilts

I live in a very rural area of PA. We moved her 15 years ago because we wanted to raise our kids in the country. We have 3 acres of land, lots of gorgeous wild life, very quiet and beautiful.

The only draw back with living here is that if you were not born and raised here, have family roots you can trace back to the 1700's, you will never be accepted. Everyone is related to each other out here. Nothing changes. Nepotism runs rampant. Gossip is even faster spreading than the manure spreaders in Spring! LOL

There are 2 grocery stores here. We have 2 traffic lights. You have to drive 45 minutes if you want to go to Wal-Mart, which is in the next county over. Everything closes up by 8:00 at night.

There is a local quilt club but no guildes here. The quilt club is so unorganized it drove me nuts! I went to a few meetings but got very frustrated when I tried to make suggestions and was told, "this is the way we have always done it, so we won't change". Ok, I went back home and kept teaching myself by using the internet! LOL

There is nothing here for the kids to do. That is why we have such a high pregnancy rate and our young people have many car accidents and usually alcohol is a factor.

But, the biggest crime is usually a mailbox getting smashed or someone breaking and entering a business, or under age drinking.

There is no ethic diversity either. There are no African Americans in our school. It is very red neck and hunting is not a season but a way of life. That is kind of sad because there is not a lot of emphasis on education. Many kids graduate,graduating classes are like 64 kids, and many can not read or do basic algebra.

Dh and I are waiting for youngest son to graduate in June then we are moving. It has been a good place to raise the kids as far as crime goes, but, it has also been a bad place because of the attitude of the people here.

Cindy2sew

Jonesboro.
And the home to one of the best quilting shops IMHO. Tennessee Quilts. I dont get there often enough!

Cindy

mom-6

My town of approximately 8000 poppulation is the county seat and has a beautifully restored 1890s courthouse. At one time we were an antique shoppers mecca, but now there are only a couple of antique stores left. We've had several attempts at revitalizing the downtown, but as others have mentioned, there are still lots of vacant stores. Although several have been converted into offices of one kind or another. And the upstairs of several of the pre 1900s buildings have been converted into living areas.

There is a real emphasis on athletics for the kids, but if your youngster is not athletically inclined, they're out of luck.

We have a community college and it offers dual credit classes for HS juniors and seniors that allows them to pretty much do their freshman year of college while still in HS.

We are basically a rural community, with a bit of industry. Several of our plants relocated to Mexico, partly because at least one of them kept getting in trouble for having too many illegals.

The face of our community has changed in the last few years with much more ethnic diversity than when I was growing up.

Jobs are scarce unless you are wanting to do fast food or work at one of the nursing homes.

We are in an excellent location, about an hour from the DFW metroplex, less than that to a large lake for fishing or boating.

Jan in VA

Wish I could describe my town of Bedford to you.....other than active, charming, comfortably busy, beautiful old homes and downtown buildings, many nice restaurants,strong town government, friendly people, beautiful natural surroundings, largely Christian, decent shopping, small town feel in the city proper (our county is quite large), many rural farms, lovely seasons.....but I'd have to keep you from moving here and filling the place up! LOL!

Jan in VA