As a small child I lived in the equivalent of a small town - where we all shared the same backyard and went to the same swim club and church. My parents hated it. My brother and I, being children enjoyed it well enough. And my mother lived in a small town, Liberty, Mo - before she went off to college and got married and hated it. She said she felt lonelier there, more cut-off, and more isolated. She prefers cities or suburbia.
I don't think I'd do well in a small town. Not enough diversity of people. And I have such a low tolerance for boredom. I work with a lot of people who oddly do live in the equivalent of small towns. It's one of the funniest things about NYC - in some ways it feels more small townish than one might think. During the huge black-out in NYC that I experienced in 2003 - people took all the meat out of the fridge and held cook-outs in front of their brownstones, stores gave away food and they basically held one huge block party. Radios were lent to folks along with batteries. It was not at all what we see on tv.
We make generalizations about cities. When I first moved here from KC, people in KC told me NYorkers were mean and it was unsafe. But the people I've met here aren't that different than out there. Same deal with that small town - they aren't that different. People still gossip about each other. We have block parties. Kids play on the sidewalks.
Today for example - I chatted with a few people on my block about a bunch of people dressed up and rolling grocery carts about the neighborhood. We also chatted about Heath Ledger who used to live about ten blocks up from me.
The weirdest thing is I feel like I talk to more people here and am less anynomous to the store owners and folks around me - than I was in smaller towns and suburbs in the midwest.
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branchandroot
no subject
Date: 2008-01-26 09:56 pm (UTC)I don't think I'd do well in a small town. Not enough diversity of people. And I have such a low tolerance for boredom. I work with a lot of people who oddly do live in the equivalent of small towns. It's one of the funniest things about NYC - in some ways it feels more small townish than one might think. During the huge black-out in NYC that I experienced in 2003 - people took all the meat out of the fridge and held cook-outs in front of their brownstones, stores gave away food and they basically held one huge block party. Radios were lent to folks along with batteries. It was not at all what we see on tv.
We make generalizations about cities. When I first moved here from KC, people in KC told me NYorkers were mean and it was unsafe. But the people I've met here aren't that different than out there. Same deal with that small town - they aren't that different. People still gossip about each other. We have block parties. Kids play on the sidewalks.
Today for example - I chatted with a few people on my block about a bunch of people dressed up and rolling grocery carts about the neighborhood. We also chatted about Heath Ledger who used to live about ten blocks up from me.
The weirdest thing is I feel like I talk to more people here and am less anynomous to the store owners and folks around me - than I was in smaller towns and suburbs in the midwest.