Small Town Values

I think you should all read this by Meagan at Velveteen Mind. She is an exquisite writer and has really captured the heart of small town values.

I grew up very near Salt Lake City, in a suburb, that felt very small townish. My parents still live in this house, for over 40 years now and so have most everyone else in that neighborhood. We all knew each other. We went to school together. We went to church together. We played with each other. When someone was sick, had a baby or had a death or other tragic event touch their lives, nothing had to be said, the neighbors immediately started making meals that could be frozen and taken to the home of the affected family. All the mom’s in the neighborhood were stand ins for our own mom’s when we did something naughty. We toilet papered each others houses and played kick the can nearly every summer night with everyone on the street. We played in the snow and ran through the sprinklers in the summer.

When I was a teenager, I always thought I wanted to move away to a big city like New York or Los Angeles. I never got the chance, not that I wouldn’t have if given the opportunity. I’ve always ended up in the ‘burbs, whether in the US or overseas. My Father-in-Law lives in one of those small towns. It is magical and quiet. I love to sit on his front porch in the early morning when the misty fog hasn’t yet burned burned off. Coffee cup in hand, it is the epitome of peacefulness. In fact, those moments and that porch are some of my favorites.