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To give folks directions to my shop I say, "You know, right past the place where those weird old folks sell corn in the summer!" Kinda cool when most people know exactly where I mean. At the school open house...I got 2 sign jobs. At the Mars Foodland "Hey Jill! Why is your hair NORMAL this week?" At the Fireman's Inagural Dinner, when they are reading off community service awards, the MC says over the microphone "Yeah, we are getting a new truck in next month...We know how you love to do Vynull Jilly" At the CofC meeting (I'm the secretary) "When are the Leatherheads coming back to town?"
Small town life...ya gotta love it. Love! Jill
-------------------- That is like a Mr. Potato Head with all the pieces in the wrong place. -Russ McMullin Posts: 8834 | From: Butler, PA, USA | Registered: Jan 2001
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I love our small town, lived here for 40 years.......we have only one stop light where two highways cross, but I bet within the next five years there will be a couple more added. I dread that day, but know it's coming.
-------------------- Ace Graphics & Printing Camdenton, MO. USA
-------------------- John Byrd Ball Ground, Georgia 770-735-6874 http://johnbyrddesign.com so happy I gotta sit on both my hands to keep from wavin' at everybody! Posts: 741 | From: Ball Ground, Georgia, USA | Registered: May 1999
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I'm known as Kitty Corner Kelly - the local bar is kitty corner from me
-------------------- “Did you ever stop to think, and forget to start again?” -Winnie the Pooh & A.A. Milne
Kelly Thorson Kel-T-Grafix 801 Main St. Holdfast, SK S0G 2H0 ktg@sasktel.net Posts: 5496 | From: Penzance, Saskatchewan | Registered: May 2002
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I've never learned the street names in my small town, so directions are always in relation to where someone lives...."two blocks past Old Man Smith's house"...or "a little bit this side of the cotton gin".
If someone asks for the corner of Third and French Street I'm lost.
By the way, Third Street is the edge of town.
-------------------- Chapman Sign Studio Temple, Texas chapmanstudio@sbcglobal.net Posts: 6306 | From: Temple, Texas, USA | Registered: Nov 1998
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The closest place to eat is a combination car wash/tractor repair/bait shop/burger joint...and that's ten miles up the road...and makes the best food in the world...
or if the only bank around typically runs out of cash on Friday's...kind of like the gas station and gas on Tuesday's...
but it's a really nice small town when people just leave their farming equipment in their pasture out by the road so whoever needs to borrow it can just stop by and get it instead of feeling guilty about asking.
-------------------- Pat Whatley Montgomery, AL (334) 262-7446 office (334) 324-8465 cell Posts: 1306 | From: Wetumpka, AL USA | Registered: Mar 2001
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my town is so small, i have lived on the same street for 53 of my almost 54 years; in 4 different houses.i was the tourguide at the museum and knew everyone that came,they'd stop just to talk.my dad built 6 of the seven houses on the street.my dad was the magistrate most of his life, and now my brother is the magistrate.everyone knows the brown-eyed welshes. you can know who someone is by their features, jill will varify that.lol. i, sadly am moving across the main road, only a mile away, but still leaving my street.small town..love it...fids
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We live in a town of 3,200. When my daughter was going to college she worked as a bank teller in town during summers and vacation. She was talking to a co-worker about why she was in college and her friend said she HAD to go to college to find a husband. (She's from an old family here as is related to most everyone in town)
Joe, Makin Chips and Havin Fun!
-------------------- Joe Cieslowski Connecticut Woodcarvers Gallery P.O.Box 368 East Canaan CT 06024 jcieslowski@snet.net 860-824-0883 Posts: 2345 | From: East Canaan CT 06024 | Registered: Nov 2001
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my town is so small that both city limit signs are on the same post.
-------------------- Jimmy Chatham Chatham Signs 468 stark st Commerce, Ga 30529 Posts: 1766 | From: Commerce, GA, USA | Registered: Nov 1998
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The college story reminded me... When I went to college, it was my first experience with "big city people". My friends and I went to check our mail one day on our way t o lunch and I got a statement from my bank. When I opened it a note fell out. It said "Hi, Jane, how's school? Say hi to Carol". (Carol was another girl from my town going to the same university.) My new Chicago friends couldn't get over that!! "That's from your BANK!?!" Hey, I used to go in and give my piggy bank to the bank president for safe keeping!! I LOVE small towns!
-------------------- Jane Diaz Diaz Sign Art 628 W. Lincoln Ave. Pontiac, Il. 61764 815-844-7024 www.diazsignart.com Posts: 4102 | From: Pontiac, IL USA | Registered: Feb 1999
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my town isnt so small anymore, when i first moved there, the main road thru town only had a traffic light on the state highway, now there are 7 traffic lights and they (need)wish there were more.
I knew everyone in town back then, now there are more people living in one Neighborhood alone than there were in the whole town back in the early 70's
Biggest problem was a total lack of planning bakc before the construction boom. Now the town sucks to travel around to anywhere.
Best story I have is when responding to a fire, I was the officer on the truck and I told the guy driving, "its out where the old fireworks factory was." The fireworks factory burnt down in the 60's, the guy driving was in his 20's and this happened only 5 years ago. Boyy did us oldtimers(im not that old) have some explaining to do when we got home.
-------------------- Harris Kohen K-Man Pinstriping and Graphix Trenton, NJ "Showing the world that even I can strategically place the pigment where its got to go." Posts: 1739 | From: Trenton, NJ, USA | Registered: Jun 2001
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A buddy of mine got tired of big city life here in L.A. and moved to a small town in Missouri, pop. = 35. The only paved street is the highway, and no streets, including it, have names, except one - an inbred family lives out thar so it's called "Cook Road". He noticed there were no mailboxes and asked at the General Store about mail delivery and was told if he wanted mail to take out a P.O.box - so he got #3. I guess 33 of the others aren't on anybody's junk list.
I delivered to a small mountain community a few years ago where anybody can put up any number or name they like, if they want one, no sequence necessary. Some have a family name on them, one has a neon beer sign in the window so that one is known as "Budweiser". One house I delivered to turned out to be "the one next to the dumpster" and this is how the Post Office and fire department knows them, or by the color "Oh, it must be the orange door place - you know, next to the wood fence."
I worked for a guy once who treated Los Angeles like a small town; he'd send me out by saying something like "Get on the freeway and go to where the old Shell building used to be." THE Freeway? In L.A.? or "It's on Broadway - just go up there and turn left - ya can't miss it." Bet ME, Gambler. Once he sent me to 350 broadway with a pattern to paint the address on the transom. I checked west = no 350, so I went east - no 350, so I looked at the pattern = 305... and this guy wasn't even Lenny!
Posts: 1859 | From: / | Registered: Nov 1998
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I too am a firefighter here, and the worst part emotionally about small town depts is its usually someone you know that you're going out to help.
Hey Penny, I would love to trade a patch/badge with your hubby if their dept does that. We also collect and/or steal (hey, when opportunity knocks! right Peter Schuttinga?) vol. dept plates, I have traders as well. please email me
-------------------- Tim Rieck Signs Halfmoon Bay, BC Posts: 736 | From: Halfmoon Bay, BC, Canada | Registered: Sep 2000
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Although my shop is in Sharbot Lake (pop 600), Home is beautiful downtown Mountain Grove, population 98. So far from civilization, we don't get Saturday Night Live 'till Tuesday at 3. I was the last postmaster - when I moved my shop to the bright lights, the post office ceased to exist. Same address for all my 49 years, but I have to admit, I don't know all the neighbours pets & livestock by name, but I used to! I think it's cool to know & have known 5 generations of my neighbours' families, & hopefully I live to know a couple more. TR
-------------------- Rodger MacMunn T.R. MacMunn & Sons C.P.207, Sharbot Lake, ON 613-279-1230 trmac@frontenac.net Posts: 472 | From: Sharbot Lake, Ontario | Registered: Nov 2003
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Well.... when you came to Kingsland, GA for my meet.... you got lost (and HOW beats me)... and you asked anyone in town.... where is " John's " place??
And, now, I am in Central Florida......... and only Tiger is popular here. Go figure.
-------------------- John Smith Kings Bay Signs (Retired) Kissimmee, Florida Posts: 816 | From: Central Florida - The Sunshine State | Registered: Jan 2000
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I always enjoy it when someon comes in for some signwork and I remember them when they were a small child and was friendly with their grandfather.
I enjoy knowing each store front by it's history, remembering what preceded that business and before that and before that....
I enjoy the friendly waves from knowing almost everyone in each car that passes.
I enjoy the social life in the grocery market.
I like knowing places by their geographical features, like "13 turns" or "bird sht rock"
-------------------- The SignShop Mendocino, California
Making the simple complicated is commonplace; making the complicated simple, awesomely simple, that's creativity. — Charles Mingus Posts: 6713 | From: Mendocino, CA. USA | Registered: Nov 1998
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What y'all said- aint nothin like life in a small town. For a number of years I had a shop on a small island off the North Carolina coast- pop 2500. One day there was a car wreck right in front of my shop. I knew the drivers of BOTH cars, the cops that came AND the wrecker driver...
-------------------- Jay Nichols ALPHABET SOUP
~the large print giveth and the small print taketh away~ Posts: 176 | From: SW Florida | Registered: Mar 2002
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I LOVE living in a small town! Yarrow is about perfect! Population is 1100 fine folks. ALthough we've been here less than a year it feels totally right already.
When we were moving in I went down to the local deli (two doors down) for some grub (wonderful food there!) I was greeted warmly and they even knew my name. Turned out they knew we were buying the 'Braun house' The Brauns hadn't lived in the house since the mid 60's. We bought it from the Remples who were the third owners since the Brauns. She recognised my Giggle Ridge shirt and knew we owned that business.
We were only in the house for two days when another stranger came calling... He had heard that I was 'the man to see' about a building across the street which he wanted to renovate. It was my first creative job in our new town and I wasn't even looking for work yet.
Our neighbors are great and there for any assistance we might need in an emergency. It sure makes me sleep easier when I am away on one of my frequent road trips.
-dan
-------------------- Dan Sawatzky Imagination Corporation Yarrow, British Columbia dan@imaginationcorporation.com http://www.imaginationcorporation.com
Being a grampa is one of the the most wonderful things in the world!!! Posts: 8738 | From: Yarrow, B.C. Canada | Registered: Nov 1998
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