Tuesday, March 27, 2007

Life in a Small Town

Small town living (and politics) is new to me. I grew up in Tulsa, Oklahoma - not a small town. Went to college in a town that was approximately 30,000 with the college students. Moved to NYC after college, found teaching in Harlem was not a good choice for a young girl from Oklahoma. Leaving New York, I moved to the Dallas/Ft. Worth metroplex in 1989. I have lived all over the metroplex in the last 18 years...Ft. Worth, Carrollton, Flower Mound...all parts of the Greater Metroplex. As my mother used to say, "You can't tell when you leave one town and get to another".

Last year, our family moved to a town - still part of the metroplex - but somewhat isolated by a lake. Truly country living in the middle of a major urban area. There are 2100 people in town, the mayor (age 90) has been mayor for the last 30 years. She just ran again unopposed...I am not joking. Her son (age 70) is the president of the Library Board. His wife is on the city council, she is in charge of streets and drainage.

We are having a drainage issue in our front yard..water isn't flowing in the neighborhood quite like it should, this was brought to mind by the wonderful rains yesterday. I am on the Library Board so my husband said, "Why don't you talk to C, and find out if the town can do anything?" Sure enough, a simple conversation with one man, who is going to talk to his wife and mother will get our drainage issue handled....Life in a small town has its advantages!

4 comments:

elizabeth said...

LOL - I love it! That's what we have up at the lake and I look forward to retirement and having the Andy Griffith life. :)

Jennifer said...

Been there....grew up in West Texas, small town, where everyone knew everyone....and their business.

Beth said...

We love small town living. We don't even have a mayor - just a few selectman. We only have two full time cops and a volunteer fire department. We don't have trash pick up or town water or sewer. Everyone knows everyone - or at least someone who knows someone.

It's a great way to raise a family.

Lori - Queen of Dirty Laundry said...

Sounds just wonderful! We live on the South edge of the DFW Metroplex, in what used to be a small town, but these days it's becoming just another busy suburb. Sure, the shopping is nice, but I sure would like a true small town.