The Good and the Bad: Living in Small Towns in America

Living in small towns in America has advantages and disadvantages. There are some towns that have great advantages, such as being near lakes, rivers, and mountains. Small towns usually offer good home-town hospitality, where the people are friendly and willing to help with anything that they can. Small towns have parades on important holidays, such as the 4th of July, and Memorial Day. Small towns, also, celebrate their centennials and bi-centennials, when they are 100 years old or more. There are small towns located on the Mississippi River that are beautiful, for example: MacGregor, Iowa, which has beautiful antique shops and is the home of the famous Ringling Brothers' circus. There are pros and cons to living in small towns, though. Some small towns have more to offer than other small towns.

Living in a small town have the advantages (pros) of knowing everybody, and there are few strangers to worry about. Everyone usually knows everyone in the town, and are friendly and familiar enough to talk to. In a large city there are many strangers that aren't known and are unfamiliar. The air quality in small towns is much better than in the polluted cities. The education is good with smaller class sizes, and is not so crowded like in the big cities, but may not get the funding like schools in bigger towns and cities. Kids can walk to school in a small town, because the school would be in short walking distance. There are some stores, maybe a diner or two, and bars that are popular in small towns. Small towns usually have at least one bowling alley. In small towns everything is close by, so its easy to get to the stores without having to drive very far. Everything is within walking distance, which helps to save money on gasoline. There is little or no crime like there is in the big cities. Its usually safe to walk down the street in small towns without being threatened or harassed.

Two advantages of living in small towns are peace and quiet, not a lot of noise like in the big towns or cities, with the sirens going off day and night. The traffic in small towns is much smaller than in the big cities, and its easier for people to get around in the small towns. Small towns do have a lot of advantages and a lot to offer to anyone and their family who are considering moving to a small town.

One of the disadvantages (Con) of living in small towns is that everyone knows everyone and knows everyone's business. Small towns may have people, who are ignorant and have small minds. Some people may gossip about other people living in the town. Everyone knows everyone's family history and may not be forgiving for anything bad that may have happened in anyone's past.

Teenagers can cause vandalism in small towns, for example: breaking windows in stores or vandalizing parked vehicles. Teenagers may not be able to find anything to do in small towns, so they get bored and cause a lot of trouble and break windows, etc...There's not a lot to do in small towns, and there's not a lot of places to go.

Small towns can be affected by the economy in an adverse way. There have been small towns that have lost their grocery stores, and the townspeople have to drive to a bigger town to get groceries, which is not convenient, at all. Another big disadvantage of moving to a small town is that there are few or no jobs, and one may have to have their job in a bigger town or city, so they will have to travel to go to work.

I lived in a small town in Howard County, Iowa, before moving to a much bigger town, back in 1968. I had two friends, who use to live there, as well. One time the two friends and I got into a little trouble, because one of the friends took a pair of hi-heels from a neighbor's house, and we all got chased by two older teens driving a car. The neighbor did get the heels back, and we were told to stay away from their property or else they'd call the sheriff. That really scared me and the two friends, so we stayed away from the neighbor's property. Afterward and many years later, it did seem kind of funny, but it was still scary to be chased by two teenagers in a vehicle, and me and the two friends on foot.