Like many of you, I grew up in a small town but, unlike my dad, I wasn't anywhere near south Detroit. In my town, everyone seems to know everyone, seeing you go to school with the same people K-12, and life always seemed less stressful. How about you? What was your small town like? See if any of these ring a bell:

1. "Across town" means ten minutes. Tops.

2. Country roads are your real life rollercoaster.

3. When describing where you're from, conversations tend to go like this:

"Do you know where (insert name of largest and closest city) is? Okay, it's like 20 minutes (or an hour) away!"

4. Every place you go in town means running in to at least two people you know.

5. Summer nights are what give you LYFE.

6. Your local shaved ice/ice cream joint will forever and always be the one to beat.

7. Thunderstorms are your favorite season.

8. Your lingo for small insects are unknown to many city-dwellers: chiggers, june bug, rollie-pollies, skeeters, etc...

9. The answers of many of life's problems are solved with either the lake or the river.

10. Cell phone reception is not always a given.

11. You're no more than a mile away from the nearest cow or horse.

12. High school sports are everything.

13. People drive around in anything from cars, to vans, to tractors, to horses and buggies.

14. The face city-people have when you tell them the size of your graduating class is priceless because theirs was probably at least double that of yours.

15. A vast majority of your high school friends have married other high school friends. Therefore...

16. Weddings = class reunions.

17. Getting a new business of any kind is, like, SUPER exciting.

18. You're used to leaving your car unlocked everywhere you go.

19. Winter weather = 95 percent chance of no school.

20. A good portion of your major streets are actually highways.

21. Walmart is the center of life (if you even have one).

22. "Let's hang out" means going to someone's house or being outside. There are no alternatives (because there's no actual places to go).

23. You have to make plans to go "spend the day in the City" to get the things home doesn't have.

24. If you live "out in the country," the roads to get there are worse than Rainbow Road itself.

25. You have some sort of town nickname that only your people use and understand; everyone else gives you the weirdest look when you say, "Yeah, back in B-Town..."

26. You know whenever life gets crazy, home is always a summer sunset away.

Cheers,

ZER