They are the scene and inspiration for every country song ever. Hollywood tries to portray small town living often and doesn't do the worst job, but there's something about small towns that cannot really be explained or understood without growing up and living in one and experiencing it firsthand. Here is a list of twenty things city folk just don't get it.
1. Everybody knows everybody.
Therefore...
2. Secrets are nonexistent.
In true Southern style, your business is everyone's business.
3. So are stoplights.
4. You learn how to spot speed traps because your town is full of them.
5. That one gas station that everyone goes to after school to get snacks.
6. No matter how much you cannot stand country music, you find a way to tolerate it.
7. You also probably own a pair of cowboy boots, and you even wear them sometimes.
8. There are multiple Tex-Mex restaurants and they’re all so much better than Chipotle.
9. At least half of the people you know live on more than five acres of land.
10. You’ve never been in a homeowner’s association and frankly, don’t understand the point of them.
Who has time to complain about broken fences and unmowed lawns when your neighbor's cow is in your front yard?
11. You have a script memorized for when you have to explain to someone where you live.
“And where exactly is that?”
12. Driving 10+ miles to the nearest Target.
Or Chick-fil-a, or any other form of modern civilization
13. Three words: Friday Night Lights.
It's cliche but it's true, football really is everything in Texas. FNL every week! No matter how small the town or how terrible the team, I can guarantee that everybody will be at the football game every Friday night.
14. How packed the nearest Whataburger is after the football games.
15. There’s a yearly festival for something.
No matter how wacky or obscure, the entire town shuts down to celebrate.
16. There is a truck in every single driveway.
17. Actually seeing the stars at night.
I tell people this all the time, but I didn’t understand what light pollution was until I was almost sixteen years old. It was 10 p.m. in a city and I asked, “why isn’t the sky dark yet?”…
18. You drive on dirt roads on a daily basis.
19. Your high school has an intense rivalry with a neighboring school.
And then spend the rest of the year going to the same grocery stores and churches.
