small towns

[Los_Control]

Thought this was kinda cool. Just a different atmosphere living in a small town.

While we miss out on some of the cool stuff a city offers, we make up for it in other ways.

We have a yearly parade to celebrate kids.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I dunno sometimes I think the world needs a little normalcy. Even though I am a Grumpy old man & not participate in this sorta thing. I think it is cool to see it go on.

I think they need a Dodge in next years parade.

I laugh at the fire truck ... We do have a Hotel 4 stories tall on the edge of town. This truck is just used at parades, car shows etc...

[TodFitch]

I am unable to see any of the photos (or possibly links to photos) in your post. . .

[Los_Control]

Thanks Todd ... lets see if I can fix that.

 

[Los_Control]

[Los_Control]

hope they show now

 

[Sniper]

They do, nice pics

 

[kencombs]

2 hours ago, Los_Control said:

hope they show now

 

Yep, now I see 'em twice!  Love small towns.  I was born in  a small town and still live just a few miles from there, in a big city of 20k or so.  I've worked in Phoenix, NYC and other big spots and don't miss being their at all!

[Tooljunkie]

I enjoy my small town. Even with so many people moving here. 

[cheesy]

1 hour ago, Tooljunkie said:

I enjoy my small town. Even with so many people moving here. 

Ditto

[T120]

I love small towns, travelled through, and spent time in many over the years. I recently watched a movie titled, "Lucky", starring the  late actor,Harry Dean Stanton... a movie not to everyone's taste to be sure - but,I rather enjoyed watching it. ?

[RobertKB]

I lived in a small town once for a year. Couldn’t wait to leave. I’m a city boy and lived in a few different ones. Small towns are just not my thing. To each their own. 

[Dan Hiebert]

Yep, small towns are awesome!  Every small town we've lived in has a kids' day parade, with good turn outs.  Big cities didn't have anything of the sort that wasn't commercialized.  We've lived in both, and I can appreciate big cities and don't mind going to one on occasion, but as RobertKB notes, to each their own.  I just don't like the rat race in big cities.  Kinda neat that here in Maine the State's biggest city (Portland, 60K, 4 hours away) is still smaller than the "big cities" where we lived in other States.  The population of the nearest "big city" up here in The County is only 8K.  Everything we need, just maybe not so many options.  Also kinda neat that "let's go into town" requires planning.  

[cheesy]

 I grew up outside of a small town in Wisconsin. I lived in Chicago for three years and since 1978, I will go no closer than O'hare airport. I now live outside of a small town in rural Illannoy. I don't get to spend as much time as I like there because I'm still jetting all over the US. But I'm always glad to get back.  We have a very active Lions Club and American Legion. There is also micro brewery that is community oriented. Kind of spendy but the food a brew are worth it. I do wish we had a hardware store, though.

 

A few developments have gone up in the few years east and north of us. What I have taken some smug enjoyment in is folks moving 'to the country' then getting bent about the trains, crop dusting, Dairy Air, and harvesting.

[Plymouthy Adams]

if they don't like dairy air they can kiss my derriere.......sad part is these clowns soon become the larger portion of the areas and press for change....often the newer built houses and developments are the higher tax base for the community so they tend to get the attention/favor of the the county gov. and you get the the pressure to change....as in clean up your act.....grandfathering used to mean something but it is slowing loosing out solely because of the bigger chunk of county revenue is drawn from these newly established often gated communities.

[Tooljunkie]

Some new neighbours want street lights down my road. Hydro of course had to ask everybody’s opinion. I said go ahead, but if you put one up in front of my house  be ready to replace the bulb daily. 
 

i grew up in the city,and i prefer it to be dark at night. 
 

kind of part of the charm. But other new neighbours asking permission to goose hunt in my back 40 was a big suprise. Said go ahead. 

[keithb7]

Nice photos. Thanks for sharing. Maybe someone could define small town. 5,000 and under people?

My town of 100,000 could be considered small by someone who lives in a town of 1,000,000 +.

 

Small town USA to me is quaint, favorable and attractive. I like visiting your small towns. It's seems its rarely far to drive from a small town to a larger one with all the big city luxuries. An ideal week for me might be driving in the USA. On back roads only. Jumping from one small town to another, while driving a vintage L6 Mopar.

Sounds like trip in my future! 

 

[Los_Control]

Going by the census for my zip code, 7900 people or 13 people per square mile.

Lot of rural area with farms & ranches, there is a state park outside of town with a 500 acre lake, many live near the lake.

So maybe 1/2 that number actually live in town. Abilene is is about 1.5 hour drive and go through 3 other small towns to get there.

 

I have lived in rural areas and cities before, I always preferred rural, but needed  cities to provide work & a income.

When I became disabled, sucks but I lost my house and tools, everything we owned in Albuquerque ... basically homeless and we hung in for 3 years but last 2 years we lived with inlaws in Washington. Took 5 years to get social security disability going. So I had 5 years back pay coming to me. I had to make a plan.

 

I was going to pay cash for a house so no mortgage, I had a price in mind what I could spend and leave enough for other needed items.

Just simple math for me why I live in a small town. We were going to spend more for a house, we fell in love with this one.

Small towns there is not a large real estate market, more homes for sale then being sold. My house started on the market at $42k, 2 years later was down to $28k, I offered $25k cash and they did not hesitate... sold! They kept all the utilities on, gas, water, electric, property taxes ... it was their parents house left to them and costing them $$ to keep it up while sitting empty.

 

House had a pretty new roof, new dual pane windows, storm doors, new hot water tank, gas range had never been cooked on. Garage with a carport. Large back yard.

Not the best house, going from homeless to something you can afford, not a bad house. $25k for a move in ready house? Property value is lower so taxes are lower.

Property tax would be $1200 a year. Being disabled my tax is $400 a year. This is what I can afford & maybe set a few $$ aside when I retired at 48 years old.

 

Moral of the story, Always think safety when working .... or you too can be a homeless bum living in the middle of nowhere in a $25k house and damn happy you got it 

 

[Plymouthy Adams]

The smaller townships that are blessed with a post office as is ours is a very small patch of dirt and if you sneeze you have missed it....but the community that is serviced by the post office....make most think Elko is good size..it is not....land lots are a bit bigger in town...on my block....two houses face one street and 2 houses and 2 churches face the other, one church has a small parsonage....I have but two neighbors on the other side of the street from myself.....very quite for the most part.  The other evening we sat out on the patio by a fire....we had three trains pass on east side of us in about 2 hours and only had two cars pass the house.   I know we a bit out of the shopping loop but to me it is well worth it. 

[Los_Control]

Something for me to deal with, I am in town, I am a few blocks from the 150 year old courthouse, I live on the same street. the police station is same area along with the jail

I do live on a major city street. Sometimes it is 15 or 30 cars a day that pass my house. Fine with me.

 

My original plan was to buy a house  with 2 or 3 acres. They sell for $50k The owner / farmer dies A new farmer buys the 100 acres farm land.

The new farmer then separates the house, barn, out buildings and sells it as quick as possible for tax reasons.  They keep the 100 acres of land.

 

Just saying I have seen some livable 3 bdrm houses on 2 or 3 acres with a barn & outbuildings for sale for $50k.

They were all sold when came to town ... I now know could never take care of that acreage.  Again happy with what I have.

 

[keithb7]

$25K for a house, on land, that is habitable, to me is incomprehensible. Around here the lower priced detached homes, within city limits with a small piece of city sized property is in the $500,000 Canadian funds ($384,000 US Funds) range. I don't know how young people can get into the housing market here. My older son and his wife settled into a 3 bedroom condo. They bought it about a year ago. My younger son and his wife, we built a nice private suite downstairs here for them. So they can live independently, yet still save cash for their first mortgage some day.  Between you and me...My wife and I enjoy them being here so much, we hope they'll just cohabitate with us indefinitely. Heck when they are ready to have a family, we could switch places. Wife and I could head down to the suite. They take over the rest of the house. Maintenance. Lawn mowing. Snow clearing. Everything. I'll build a detached garage with 2 hoists! Heck, a suite for me up top the new garage would be ideal! Wife could come live above the garage with me if she wanted, or stay in the suite in the house! Lol.

 

The value of my home here today in this market is crazy . Yet it matters little. For if we sold it we'd have to spend all the proceeds to get something else half decent around here to live in. If I sold it and moved to a cheaper area, I would indeed be living alone. Momma would stay right here where our sons and their wives are. So maybe, just maybe, someday I'll man-up and build the 2 hoist shop I dream of, right here where we live today.

 

 

 

 

[Los_Control]

On 9/29/2021 at 11:26 PM, keithb7 said:

$25K for a house, on land, that is habitable, to me is incomprehensible.

Yeah I get it, real estate is crazy everywhere. Parts of Texas is extremely crazy.  The further away from a city, the lower the property value.

I should add that the average home sales in my town is $98k.  I just live on the wrong side of the street  Have run down rental homes on each side of me.

Strange all the houses on this side of the street built in the 1940's, other side seem to be in the 1970's.

 

Then what I call livable, I know some people who would not even consider it .... as a remodel carpenter I have seen worse.

The kitchen has the original cabinets, counter top, farmers sink, The vinyl floor is 1980's harvest gold, the paneling is 1970's, carpet is 1990's, addition with hardwood floors is 1960's. Just showing a few pics of what it was when we took possession. Dirty, dated, needs lots of love.