Small Towns
My husband is from a small town and me, well..I’m not. I’ve lived in a small town, two actually, but not for very long. Believe me it is so different when you have lived in a small town your whole life. In small towns everyone knows everyone as well as every-one’s business. Which I’m not so convinced is a bad thing. You have a lot of friends that you have had for a very long time and you know all of their family.
I grew up with Target, The Galleria, and the Theatre. Very different stuff.
When Ryan and I go visit his friends and family back home it’s always a huge learning experience for me. It was hard for me at first not to be judgemental, not in a bad way, but everyone and everything is so different. I mean the language is different. They talk about fishing, bottle feeding their heffers, and grass fires. They have accents, that sometimes I can’t even understand. But one thing is for sure, they are not out to impress anyone.
Recently we met up with an old running buddy of Ryan’s, and he and his wife took us “riding around.” This is probably one of the biggest hurdles I have had to overcome. Because all you do is ride around. It’s not that I’m too good for this experience, it’s just simply something I never did. Where I was from you got in your car to go to the next destination period.
However, I have noticed something that I love about small towns. I love the fact that folks (you like that?) just stop by. Now THAT is something you certainly do not see in the suburbs. We live our lives here, it seems, inside our fences. What happened to that mentality of just visiting for the sake of visiting. Why do I feel the need to ask to see my friends? I know that we are all busy, but seriously I would love it if my friends felt comfortable enough to just stop by my house…because they were in the neighborhood.
On the flip side of that, if say someone did just come by, I don’t want to greet them with, “Sorry my house is a mess.” That too is something that is peculiar to me. Seriously, are houses supposed to be clean ALL the time? If that is the case, I am doing this stay at home thing all wrong.
So if any of you out there ever just want to just stop on by. I have a pot of coffee always ready. My house, guaranteed, will not be tidy. But, you are welcome anytime.
