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Do you live in a small town or rural area?

I live in a really small town surrounded by other small towns for miles in all directions. I was just wondering if anyone else here was in a similar situation.

by Anonymousreply 39May 20, 2022 10:47 PM

I live out in the country, 5 minutes away via car from a town with a population of 10,000. There are 2 cities nearby, both being a 30 minute drive away. One has a population of 75,000, the other 45,000.

by Anonymousreply 1June 15, 2015 10:33 PM

I used to live in a small town in the Midwest. It was quaint, but I don't miss it. Definitely an acquired taste.

Do you like it, op? What's it like being gay there? How do you make a living?

by Anonymousreply 2June 15, 2015 10:37 PM

Pennsylvania town of 300. Nearest town seven miles north has 7,000.

by Anonymousreply 3June 15, 2015 10:39 PM

I live in a town that is small in winter and spring. In summer and early fall, it becomes one of the world's most famous destinations. It's very schizophrenic. It's like having someone come and take something of yours and saying, "I'll give it back in four months."

Every year.

by Anonymousreply 4June 15, 2015 10:42 PM

I was born about 40 miles from where I live now and I've lived here since I was about 2 years old. It's a town with about 3200 people surrounded by towns about the same size for at least 50 miles in all directions. I don't mind small town life but not in this small town because there's nothing to do around here.

by Anonymousreply 5June 15, 2015 11:08 PM

I really felt for sorry for all of my classmates from high school who stayed in our home town all of their lives. The really adventurous among them moved only one town away. What a waste. My best friend from there makes cuckoo clocks at a factory in Connecticut. Sad.

by Anonymousreply 6June 16, 2015 12:10 AM

I live in Vermont. The entire state is small-town-rural.

by Anonymousreply 7June 16, 2015 12:12 AM

I live in a suburb surrounded by trees. It is wonderful to wake up each morning to birds chirping. No one lives close by so it is paradise. We own the undeveloped lot behind our house. A family of deer has been living on it since this past Winter: a buck, two doe, and two male fawns.

It is a five minute drive across a bridge to the city (city is Charleston South Carolina). The town (name of town is Mount Pleasant) I live in is heavily populated, but sprawled over many miles, with many subdivisions. To me, it is small enough that everywhere I need to go (grocery store, post office, movie theater, clothe shopping, etc.) is a five minute drive. Great schools, great weather year round.

by Anonymousreply 8June 16, 2015 12:52 AM

[quote]I live in a suburb surrounded by trees. It is wonderful to wake up each morning to birds chirping.

I live in a city neighborhood full of trees and chirping birds.

by Anonymousreply 9June 16, 2015 1:19 AM

I live in the southern tier of the adirondack mountains directly on a lake. I love it. It actually gets too busy in the summer months, but the gay life sucks. Plus I am 46, yeah I know....dead.

by Anonymousreply 10June 16, 2015 1:28 AM

R4, I lived in Taos and every winter it was the same way you describe. "Die Yuppie Scum" bumper stickers and t-shirts were popular among the regular inhabitants. Most ski people are dreadful assholes.

by Anonymousreply 11June 16, 2015 4:28 AM

Has its pluses & minuses.

Offsite Link
by Anonymousreply 12June 16, 2015 4:36 AM

looks cute but. . .. .

by Anonymousreply 13June 16, 2015 4:42 AM

Spoon River Anthology

by Anonymousreply 14June 16, 2015 4:44 AM

I love the people posting who refuse to say where they are...maybe they think the homophobes are going to come and get them.

by Anonymousreply 15June 16, 2015 4:44 AM

60 minute drive (30 of them over gravel) to the nearest grocery store. My boyfriend and I love it.

by Anonymousreply 16June 16, 2015 4:46 AM

When I watch Discovery ID Trash Crimes, it seems that in a lot of rural areas, the gas station is where the young people hang out. Young women disappear, young men get shot or stabbed and the narrator says,

"She was last seen when she told her mother she was going to get gas."

"He stopped at the gas station to get some snacks for his crippled mother when he was suddenly shot..."

Yeah, suuuure they were at the gas station for gas and snacks. They were scoring drugs. They show video of the gas station and you can see groups of young people hanging out in the parking lot. Lots of fights or "altercations between innocent young citizens" occur in the parking lots.

It just seems so sad to have a gas station as the local gathering place. We went to diners and sat nice and warm indoors eating burgers and fries and fiddling with the little jukeboxes while scoring pot. Poor rural people have to hang outdoors in the cold and drizzle to socialize. I feel bad for them.

by Anonymousreply 17June 16, 2015 5:09 AM

R8. I'm from Summerville. I got a house there to visit my family every few months, but end up staying there more than in the big city. The traffic is horrible in the town, but 3 miles down the road where I live, it's so peaceful. I swore I'd never live there again, but 35 years later, I'm open to going back permanently. I'm still shocked that an insufferable redneck town transformed into something decent.

by Anonymousreply 18June 16, 2015 6:29 AM

Isn't it difficult to earn a living in a small town?

by Anonymousreply 19June 16, 2015 6:54 AM

R12 does your town have a name?

by Anonymousreply 20June 16, 2015 10:54 AM

R10, are you the Sacandaga gays?

by Anonymousreply 21June 16, 2015 11:16 AM

I live in the center of Nebraska (I'll admit it). I moved the big city as soon as I got out of high school and swore I would never come back. Aging parents changed all that. They're long gone, but frankly, I make a silly amount of money here, and the cost of living is so low it's a joke.

The trick is to get the Hell out every few weeks. I have more close friends in LA and Chicago than I do here.

My biggest mistake was not buying a rental in LA or Chicago or somewhere years ago to build-up some real estate equity. At this point there's no way I'm going to move somewhere and deal with starting from scratch making payments on a home in an expensive real estate market. I've tried to invest an equivalent amount to compensate for my low housing costs, but there's no way I'm selling good dividend paying stocks at my age to put the money into a house. I'm stuck.

by Anonymousreply 22June 16, 2015 11:26 AM

I live in western Kentucky where it's mostly small towns.

by Anonymousreply 23June 16, 2015 12:32 PM

R20, the link has the name of the town right on it. Just click the link and read it.

by Anonymousreply 24June 16, 2015 3:08 PM

I had to grow up in an "unincorporated village" in a rural county. It was near the water and during the summer people would rent cottages. I guess it was a nice place to visit but you wouldn't want to live there. Nothing to do, lousy schools, ignorant, narrow-minded, racist, backward people...that's what you could expect if you lived there full time. I hated it; I was a fish out of water there, not only among my peers, but among my relatives (they were the typical ignorant, backward types, too). I live in a small city now. It's not exactly a progressive place, but it sure as hell is a step off from Redneck Land.

by Anonymousreply 25June 16, 2015 3:21 PM

I couldn't imagine staying in such a tiny town. Where is the industry for real careers?! Where are the educated people? Where are the gay men? The good restaurants? Nightlife?

God, I am currently in a city of around 250k and it is the smallest place I have ever lived and I am definitely feeling it.

by Anonymousreply 26June 16, 2015 3:37 PM

How many of you in very small towns are out? And if you are, are you the "token gay" in town? I'd be interested in hearing about your experiences.

by Anonymousreply 27June 16, 2015 3:53 PM

[R20]

Brattleboro, Vermont Actually very gay friendly and fun little town. We're about 3 & a half hours north of New York City. You can take the Vermonter train out of NYC and stop off right here. We even have a train station ! It's good enough for Whoopi Goldberg who has her own mini-farm retreat here too. You can occasionally see her around town. Beautiful scenery, lots to do outside and then there's the Connecticut River and nearby Lake Spofford for swimming.

Offsite Link
by Anonymousreply 28June 16, 2015 5:30 PM

R26, I think as you get older, you don't need the excitement as much. I grew up in a very small town and could not wait to escape from it. I enjoyed 20 years of partying between relationships living in a huge city. Once I hit 45, I was just burned out on the partying, the traffic, so many people, etc. Many of my party buddies have died. Of the remaining, only 1 still needs all the excitement. But, he just turned 45, decided to do an all nighter over the weekend. He looked like death warmed over the next day and didn't get laid, so it is catching up with him.

by Anonymousreply 29June 16, 2015 6:33 PM

[R29]

Sounds like you've matured. Sorry about you're friend. (I hope) he gets it together. The older was get, the more pathetic we come across if we're still trying to keep up with the (much) younger.

by Anonymousreply 30June 16, 2015 6:38 PM

(R21) indeed, love Sacandaga. You live schroon area year round?

by Anonymousreply 31June 17, 2015 12:28 AM

Summerville is a lovely town, R18. So cool to know another person from the low country chimes in on this site 😊

by Anonymousreply 32June 17, 2015 1:02 AM

I don't.

by Anonymousreply 33April 11, 2021 8:14 PM

“I live in Vermont. The entire state is small-town-rural.”

As an outsider, the parts I’ve been in are popular destinations for people like me from Boston and nyc pretending we are in twee rural America. I was only doing it for my now-ex at the time.

Manchester Village is entirely a shopping mall where every charming little cottage is an outlet for a brand. It’s poisonous.

by Anonymousreply 34April 11, 2021 8:29 PM

Do you live in the cunt-ry too?!

by Anonymousreply 35April 11, 2021 8:51 PM

I live in small town Iowa (population around 2,000) It has one small grocery store, a bank, a gas station, a post office and a grain elevator. The nearest larger town is 10 miles away and has a population of 6,500. The nearest small city (Des Moines) is 90 miles away. Minneapolis is 120 miles away. I hate it more and more, and will move shortly, once I retire. There is nothing charming about it. The lack of a hospital or medical facility is a huge concern.

by Anonymousreply 36April 11, 2021 10:03 PM

Is rural quiet or a bustling city preferable for retirement?

by Anonymousreply 37April 12, 2021 3:45 AM

I was born in a small town. I will die in a small town. How shitty.

by Anonymousreply 38April 12, 2021 10:35 PM

Bump

by Anonymousreply 39May 20, 2022 10:47 PM
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