I love small towns....

The town in southern Illinois my grandparents live in. The bar/restaraunt in town will make you one to go if they know your local. Go in there and Grandpa has to do his walk around and say hi. Stops at damn near every table. Used to be every table.
And when you sit down the bar tender puts 1 drink and 3 beer chips in front of you. And tells you who all of them are from. And then it is your turn to buy rounds to repay and pretty soon the bar phone rings and it’s grandma. She doesn’t want to talk to grandpa, just checking he made it ok and hasn’t left yet because it’s been a few hours.
 
And when you sit down the bar tender puts 1 drink and 3 beer chips in front of you. And tells you who all of them are from. And then it is your turn to buy rounds to repay and pretty soon the bar phone rings and it’s grandma. She doesn’t want to talk to grandpa, just checking he made it ok and hasn’t left yet because it’s been a few hours.
You been there huh?
 
I love taking folks through the country in IN who have never been. Folks are amazed at nice, genuine people, great food, and reasonably priced beer. Redman and I put CPO on some vitels last fall that he is still talking about!!!
This year I will have to take you up to our local Jewelry store and gun shop. Scott the owner is a hoot. Nothing like going in and seeing one person looking at an engagement ring while someone else is checking the trigger pull on a model 29 Smith & Wesson!
 
The little cafe near the farm, just writes down what you eat and keeps a tab for locals. A friend of mine who eats there a lot was in the city and is so used to just walking out when he's done eating that he did just that. When he realized what he had done he went back, apologized and paid his bill.
In my younger years i could run a tab at the local tavern. Yeah i pretty much did the same thing when i was liqoured up. i knew the owner and the manager wich was his daughter. they would just call me the next day and tell me to swing in to pay my bill.
 
This year I will have to take you up to our local Jewelry store and gun shop. Scott the owner is a hoot. Nothing like going in and seeing one person looking at an engagement ring while someone else is checking the trigger pull on a model 29 Smith & Wesson!
That is the place right across from the corner cafe, right?
 
I grew up in Summit Park Utah. We were the 4th home built. To make a telephone call you picked up the phone and make sure nobody else was on. The operator would then connect you to one of the 3 others in the system. Our phone number was J4. I attended school in Park City, population approximately 1,200.
From there we moved to the big city of Springdale, Utah, population 250. Hurricane High school graduation class was the largest ever at that time. 81 kids. Talk about culture shock when I went to Los Angeles for college.
 
Small towns can get you into trouble too. I was about 12 years old and my uncle took me to his parents farm to hunt pheasants in south central Nebraska. We hunted Friday and Saturday and did ok. Sunday morning he is checking his watch all the time. Finally he says ok, let’s go hit this field. We limited out in about 300 yards. We get all done and I said “why didn’t we hunt that the past 2 days?”

He said: “John and his wife head to church service from 9 until 10 in town.”

Needless to say when I told my dad that I never got to go hunting with my uncle again. In a small town people know what you’re doing before you do most of the time.
 
:love:

you guys are killing me with this thread, love it !

Az has one, one room school house, that is still operating, and it has only one 6th grade student this year.

I attended a one room school house, but it is gone now. Each grade ( 1 thru 8 ) set in a different row ( or a combination of grades in a row depending on the year and number of students in each grade ) and the 7th and 8th grade students helped the teacher, teach the younger students.

Other things you fellows have mentioned like the party telephone line, which we had. Two long rings and one short ring, was us. ( I think I am remembering that right ) But I remember this like it was yesterday, an old lady about two miles from us, listened in on every call, to every home. I remember my grandmother saying, "get off the phone Helen".

MNELKNUT. thank you
 
:love:

you guys are killing me with this thread, love it !

Az has one, one room school house, that is still operating, and it has only one 6th grade student this year.

I attended a one room school house, but it is gone now. Each grade ( 1 thru 8 ) set in a different row ( or a combination of grades in a row depending on the year and number of students in each grade ) and the 7th and 8th grade students helped the teacher, teach the younger students.

Other things you fellows have mentioned like the party telephone line, which we had. Two long rings and one short ring, was us. ( I think I am remembering that right ) But I remember this like it was yesterday, an old lady about two miles from us, listened in on every call, to every home. I remember my grandmother saying, "get off the phone Helen".

MNELKNUT. thank you
April, is that the single-room schoolhouse in Strawberry?

We have a cabin in Pine, Az. where for years there was
no alcohol was served or sold.
Now there is one market that sells beer, and one bar.
Everything else (bottled liquor) you still have to drive
18mi. to Payson, Az. 💥
 
:love:

you guys are killing me with this thread, love it !

Az has one, one room school house, that is still operating, and it has only one 6th grade student this year.

I attended a one room school house, but it is gone now. Each grade ( 1 thru 8 ) set in a different row ( or a combination of grades in a row depending on the year and number of students in each grade ) and the 7th and 8th grade students helped the teacher, teach the younger students.

Other things you fellows have mentioned like the party telephone line, which we had. Two long rings and one short ring, was us. ( I think I am remembering that right ) But I remember this like it was yesterday, an old lady about two miles from us, listened in on every call, to every home. I remember my grandmother saying, "get off the phone Helen".

MNELKNUT. thank you
Lots of single room schoolhouses around here. Last one I think was in operation was 1993. My grandma taught at a country school, the only foreign language option was German because her mother immigrated here from there and most everyone in the area is German so most kids knew at least some.

I never attended a country school, but my family in the Sandhills of Nebraska rented a house in town 40 miles from their ranch just for the kids to go to school. There’s parts of this country that still amaze me.
 
April, is that the single-room schoolhouse in Strawberry?

We have a cabin in Pine, Az. where for years there was
no alcohol was served or sold.
Now there is one market that sells beer, and one bar.
Everything else (bottled liquor) you still have to drive
18mi. to Payson, Az. 💥

yes sir

and the wife is off to 6:00 bingo at the local grange hall.

Love it, good for her. I had forgotten about bingo. I remember bingo at the church, after the Sunday service.

She went alone--you dont gamble ;)
 
I was hunting in NM this year and my rental truck had the low pressure tire light come on. I changed it as it was very low and I feared heading flat. Later that day I discovered a small tire store in Reserve NM. The owner checked it and found it was only low on air and didn’t actually have a leak. He remounted it and refused payment as he “didn’t fix anything”. What a great guy!
 
Grew up and still live in small town Iowa. Used to be about 800 residents but back in 2008 we had an f5 tornado then 2 weeks later a flood. I believe now we have around 500 residents.
 
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