NOTICE:
SMALL TOWN SEEKING MORE RESIDENTS. EXTREMELY AFFORDABLE COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE DOWNTOWN AND TAX BREAKS FOR BUSINESS OWNERS. BUTCHERS, BAKERS, CANDLESTICK MAKERS, AND MORE NEEDED. SKILLED WORKERS WITH UNMATCHABLE WORK ETHICS ARE ALREADY HERE READY TO WORK. BEAUTIFUL “FIXER-UPPER” RESIDENTIAL PROPERTIES IN TOWN AND MULTI-ACRE TRACKS JUST OUTSIDE THE LIMITS. GREAT SCHOOLS WITH SMALL STUDENT-TEACHER RATIOS. IDEAL FOR INDIVIDUALS AND FAMILIES SEEKING LESS TRAFFIC, SHORTER COMMUTES, MORE COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT, AND MORE PEACE AND QUIET.
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I grew up in a small, industrial town in Southwest Virginia that today has a population of just over 1,000. For years I begged my parents to move somewhere else – somewhere bigger – anywhere bigger would have been better in my mind. I wanted to go places in my lifetime, and I didn’t want my life story to be that I grew up in Podunk America.
Twenty years later, here I am driving three hours to spend 10 minutes with a high school friend who just lost her father to cancer. I could have sent a card, but I couldn’t not go. I had to show her how genuinely sorry I am for her loss. He was a figurehead and a role model in our community – a principal and a football coach – and most importantly my high school friend’s dad. In my mind this was not a big sacrifice of my time. On the drive I couldn’t help but wonder if I would have made the friends like that had I went to high school in a major metropolis. Maybe…but likely not.
After I went to the visitation I stood on Main Street and waited for my mother to meet me for lunch at the Fieldale Café (best sweet ice tea, pinto beans, hush puppies, and fried okra I have had in ages, by the way). Strangers walking by struck up at least three different conversations with me as I waited. I felt comfortable. I felt safe. I felt at home.
Albeit a very small downtown (we’re talking five shops in a row), every shop was filled with businesses. Cars piled into the free parking spaces and happy, friendly faces quickly filled the café tables. It struck me that this could be the last thriving downtown in Small Town America. A Jack Johnson song popped into my head: “Where’d all the good people go?”
They’re still here. Right here. In Small Town America. Come join them.
-Melissa
