You Can Go Home Again!

Thomas Wolfe wrote a book "You Can't  Go Home Again", but I disagree.  Until I left for college, I had lived in the Small Town my whole life.  I was sooo ready to leave and see what else was out there.  Saving you the boredom of all of the details, I'll skip to when we moved to the Small Town.

I think you CAN go home again, providing you don't expect everything to be the same as it was when you left.  The Small Town doesn't actually feel like all that much of a small town, thanks to the commerce that we have.  There are a few more subdivisions than there were when I left for college 20 years before, and there are a few more shopping centers.  The Church Parish that I grew up in had built a new church, but it remained in the Small Town.  The Shopping Center that had been a place for cruising on Weekend Nights is just a shell of what it had been when I left.    More restaurants had popped up.  A new middle school had been built adjacent to the high school.  Walking trails were added to the parks.  The "Motor Mile" used to be the home of a mile long stretch of road that housed car dealerships, but now many of those have closed down.

But, some things stayed the same:  people fill the stands on a football Friday night, kids are the first priority in the town, kids still walk or ride their bikes to and from school, and the pool is still the place to go in the summer.  The teachers at the schools take an active interest in their students.

Things will continue to change.  There are plans in the works to build a road to bypass the highway that people use to get to the Big City.  This highway is called "Murder Mile" (instead of "Motor Mile" , or "I'll Kill Ya Highway" due to the amount of accidents and deaths that have occurred on that road.  That may affect more businesses on that road who depend on the traffic for their livelihood.

On one of the properties where one of the plants used to be, there are some plans to build some kind of shopping area.  The Small Town doesn't have a "downtown" area; early residents went to the Twin City for shopping, and the courthouse is also in the Twin City.  My opinion is that we've gone this long without one, so we can continue without it.  We'll see what happens with that.

CH & I are happy with our decision to move our family to the Small Town.  The boys had a bit of a hard time at first, but I think they realize that it was a good move.  Things have changed in the Small Town, as expected.  You would expect that, in the course of 20 years, things have to change to keep up with the times.  I can't say how things will change in the future, but it's my hope that the things that really matter will continue to stay the same.

11 comments:

  1. I love to travel the backroads when I go somewhere in our state. But I hate seeing what happened to all the quaint small towns. Big business came in with the malls and such and just wiped them out. Glad your town is holding on!

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  2. Small Town sounds like a nice place to come home to :)

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  3. I totally agree - you can go home again! We lived in another town in WV for 5 years and were so happy to move home.

    I do agree - you can't expect it to be the same. For us, a challenge has been when our college friends (who only lived here in college) come to visit. Honestly, they rarely come anymore because now they have spouses and children and just can't understand what you could possibly do here other than go to the bar. We try to explain to them that we manage just fine without ever going out clubbing on the weekends. Yes, we came back (and we grew up here before college), but the way we experience and live in our town now is very different than the way we did in college.

    I know I haven't commented a lot - but I've really enjoyed your A to Z series!

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  4. This series, and especially this post, has helped us get to know you a little bit better. Hard to believe that it'll be over tomorrow.

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  5. We moved to a small town but are surrounded by bigger areas. We don't have a downtown and it's a scary drive to get gas when I let the tank get on "E" which doesn't always mean enough. Still, there is something to be said about living in a community where everyone knows everyone.

    http://completelycalifornia.blogspot.com/

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  6. Sounds like you made the perfect decision. When you talk about the bypass highway it reminds me of the movie Cars and how the new road affected the local businesses.

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  7. I've enjoyed hearing about your small town during the A to Z Challenge.

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  8. Good morning, Sandy. In the small town where we reside in the summers, many of the folks I know have grown up there, moved away to college and their early careers, and then returned home.

    Some of them, former athletes, are the ones at the high school, making sure the Hall of Fame photos are hung and the honor dinner happens. They round up the money for things like a digital sign with the name of the school and picture of their mascot at the edge of the campus.

    Many are supporting the Boys & Girls club and other worthy community projects. They are giving back to the town that gave them their foundation.

    Like you said, lots of things have changed, but the important ones don't. Thank you. xoa

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  9. We marvel at all the restaurants there now. Is your hubs from that area too? I can't remember...we contemplate retiring down that way. Not small town, but maybe somewhere in the vicinity : )

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  10. I love small towns and wish we had chosen to raise our 3 older kids in a smaller place. If I had it to do over again that's one thing I would do differently. I always enjoy reading about the happenings in your beloved "small town".

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  11. Sounds like you live in a wonderful "small town"!! I like medium towns...large enough to have amenities I enjoy, but not so large that you have all the traffic and crime of larger cities.

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