I've noticed that small towns are definitely different from the bigger cities I've grown up and lived in all of my life. I'm used to anonymity, walking into a store or restaurant and not knowing anyone. I'm used to working and basically being with just my immediate family during the week, and making plans to socialize with others on the weekends. I'm used to doing my own thing and being alone, but not lonely. And that was okay with me because that's the way it's always been.
Here in Atlantic, every day life offers subtle yet very noticeable differences to me. Here are a few examples...
-- We make plans on weeknights to go over to friend's houses for dinner. Dinner plans in the city were usually reserved for weekend evenings.
-- When I go for groceries I usually run into someone I know. We visit and actually make time for each other to catch up and get to know each other better. I hardly ever ran into someone I knew at the grocery store in the city, and if I did it was usually a quick, "Oh Hi!" and we were on our way.
-- When I drive around town, people in other cars wave at me, or do the 'steering wheel finger wave'. In the city I'm in my own world while I'm driving, as is everyone else, and I would only occasionally get waved to by immediate neighbors.
-- When I ask directions to someplace, I get the directions that include descriptions like, "Turn left on Main Street by the house that Mamie Johnson used to live in until her son and his new wife bought it and fixed it up." In the city it was much less colorful, just a simple, "It's on the corner of Main and Elm."
-- Dinner is Supper and Supper is Dinner. Not sure of the difference. I've had Dinner all of my life, never Supper.
-- People hold doors open for you and help you take packages to your car. You're on your own in the city.
-- When you need a service (Auto Mechanic, Electrician, Heating/AC guy) and ask about where to go for the best results, you will get the name of a company, the phone number, the address and the first and last name of the person you need to talk to. And they want you to tell them that they sent you, because the service person is the next door neighbor's cousin and they will make sure to take care of you. In the city, you look up a company on the internet and hope they do a good job.
-- People here think nothing of driving an hour to go to a shopping mall in Omaha or Des Moines. In the city, if it's not convenient, people won't go.
I'm loving my life here and I'm adjusting to the small changes that to me are good changes. I'm taking more time to get to know people and talk with them instead of rushing off to my next errand. I'm trying to learn to actually look at the people in the cars around me and even wave. I love to hear about the people of Atlantic who used to live in certain houses and the stories that surround them. I'm making an effort to use and support local businesses who have history in the community with so many families. Yes, it just keeps getting better. :)
