As my newsfeed on Facebook blew up Friday with everyone’s Homecoming pictures from back home, I was reminded of a place that still makes the idea of Mayberry possible. Generations of graduates gather on the streets, local shops and businesses close down for the annual parade, and it seems like the whole town is there in the heart of old town to cheer of the next generation of small town life.
Some see small town life as something to escape or something not worth looking for; they see it as something not as great as the bigger places in the world, but as someone who left for the supposed greater places in life (I think I left just to see what else there was outside its walls), I can tell you, there are many things to love and appreciate about a small little town we all like to call E town.
It’s a place where the town centers around the happenings of the schools. I remember a place that would practically be silent on a Friday night except for the roar of the crowd at Tiger stadium because that’s where everyone was. If you had the experience of being one of the teams that made the run to states in the 90s you remember a flood of cars filling the parking lots before the big games, town fans rallying behind the teams with pep rallies and send offs. You remember the town paper at practically every game and big school event, and anxiously waited for the next edition of the Daily Standard to cut out the clippings of those wonderful school memories.
I remember how you can’t walk into a grocery store or a bank or even outside your door without taking three times longer than you planned because you’d run into at least three different people that knew you or was asking how your mother, father, or grandparents were. It’s a place where you better behave in school because half the teachers were an old family friend of someone’s in the family. It’s a place where everyone seemed to know you since you were knee high to the grass.
It was a place where high school kids hung out in the hitch lot or the McD’s parking lot. It was a place where you lined up to the street for the town’s favorite ice cream at Dari B. It was the place every high school kid wanted to work.
It was a place you loved. It’s place that as much as you were excited to graduate and move on, you were sad too because you knew you’d be leaving something great behind.
Other recent posts you may have missed
The Naysayers and the Believers
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Some see small town life as something to escape or something not worth looking for; they see it as something not as great as the bigger places in the world, but as someone who left for the supposed greater places in life (I think I left just to see what else there was outside its walls), I can tell you, there are many things to love and appreciate about a small little town we all like to call E town.
It’s a place where the town centers around the happenings of the schools. I remember a place that would practically be silent on a Friday night except for the roar of the crowd at Tiger stadium because that’s where everyone was. If you had the experience of being one of the teams that made the run to states in the 90s you remember a flood of cars filling the parking lots before the big games, town fans rallying behind the teams with pep rallies and send offs. You remember the town paper at practically every game and big school event, and anxiously waited for the next edition of the Daily Standard to cut out the clippings of those wonderful school memories.
I remember how you can’t walk into a grocery store or a bank or even outside your door without taking three times longer than you planned because you’d run into at least three different people that knew you or was asking how your mother, father, or grandparents were. It’s a place where you better behave in school because half the teachers were an old family friend of someone’s in the family. It’s a place where everyone seemed to know you since you were knee high to the grass.
It was a place where high school kids hung out in the hitch lot or the McD’s parking lot. It was a place where you lined up to the street for the town’s favorite ice cream at Dari B. It was the place every high school kid wanted to work.
It was a place you loved. It’s place that as much as you were excited to graduate and move on, you were sad too because you knew you’d be leaving something great behind.
Other recent posts you may have missed
The Naysayers and the Believers
The Working Mom Life on the Job Evaluation Form
Time is What Makes Great Parents
New here? Like to read more? Like our Facebook Page to get the latest postings.
Oh my gosh! My last comment to Tamara (Like) Camera so applied to this post too! I always refer to the city I grew up in as "back home", despite being the Midwest and raising my family here. There is just something about the memories of a child and the feelings you get when you reminisce (sp?).
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What a great post Angela. After reading this post, I thought about the small town where I lived. Sierra Vista, Arizona. A small military town. I moved there from Texas, and I had traveled quit a bit before moving there. This post made me realize how much I actually miss the small town feel. Thanks for sharing. :)
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