I’m Surrounded By Nuts!

Someone wise and smart once noted: “The nice part about living in a small town is that when you don’t know what you’re doing, someone else always does.” Amen. I live in what was once considered a small town but although it’s grown substantially since I moved here 15 years ago, it has still managed to maintain a small town mentality and identity. That has it’s pluses and it’s negatives as you might imagine!

A few of the plusses include knowing where the kids are most of the time and what they’re up to, knowing enough people around town to always be in the know about local businesses, knowing the local police officers (that can be a negative too!), and finding out who’s doing what (a.k.a. gossip).

The kids really can’t get away with much around here. I find out from other moms when my son’s been in trouble on the bus and I hear about who his latest “girlfriend” is (if you can call them that at 12).  When they tell me they’re going to be someplace it’s easy to run into them out and about…..it’s a small town and they generally have to walk or bike wherever they go. I think that it’s pretty safe and I know that we’re very lucky to live in this sheltered bubble. But then again I worry because I know that the real world outside of our bubble isn’t that safe and isn’t so pretty. That’s okay, college will straighten them out…..or better yet, the military.

Now, on to the negatives of living in a small town where everyone knows your buisness. This one’s my favorite: running into people who like to tell me that they ran into my ex-husband at the bar. I never hear of them running into him anywhere else…..that’s odd. I hate that. Or how about this one: there is no such thing as a silent/quiet divorce in a small town! I’m not the only person to have had that experience and since it would seem that half of the town is doing it these days it just becomes depressing to find out that people I knew well, partied with, whose children attended the same pre-school as mine are now in financial distress and divorce. YUCK!

MFH and I have talked a lot about leaving. Given the economy I would pack it all up and move to some other country in a heartbeat but then reality takes a baseball bat and hits me in the head and the idea is gone as fast as it came. Every time I think “FLEE, RUN, FASTER…..FASTER!!” I hit that brick wall that I like to call my children and I’m reminded that they need the stability of the small town environment in these most unstable of times.

So I guess we’ll be here for another 7 years or so. Long enough to hope for a housing market rebound and for the kids to be off at college. Then we’ll pack up and high tail it to an exotic island in the Carribean……or Mexico maybe! I doubt that will happen but one can dream!