Small Town Livin'

I grew up out in the country, and I didn't appreciate it nearly as much as I should have. I had all that wide open space to run and play. I had sunrises that I never saw because they happened prior to noon. I had sunsets that I never saw because I was probably reading. :)

When I moved out of my parents' house for college, I got pretty hooked on small city life. If I wanted Burger King (which I did, frequently, in those days), I could be there in less than ten minutes. A Polar Pop was just a couple of blocks away. Hobby Lobby was right there! I declared I would always live close to everything. It was the very best.

And for about twenty years, I lived in that small city - not loving the questionable neighborhoods, but loving the convenience of being close to everything.

And then we moved to Kokomo, which was just a rearranged version of the same life. Some things were closer. Some were farther away. But in general, it was the same.

And then we came here to Grabill, and I had no idea what to expect from small town life. It was an odd feeling from someone who is FROM a small town, but never lived IN the small town.

So far? I love it. I mean, I really, really love it.

We're just a short drive (in a couple different directions) from areas with stores and restaurants. We're less than a half hour from the proper city part of Fort Wayne, with all its shopping and restaurants. It's convenient. It's the closest we've ever lived to a large city, actually.

But we're in the small town. We can get everything we need, pretty much, within walking distance. And we do a lot of walking.

A couple of funny stories about that, actually...

Ryan and I came back from walking to some errand the other day (in the middle of the day, when it was pretty hot) and one of our tenants said to us, "Y'all do WAY too much walking." LOL!!! We love walking and have done a lot of it for our entire marriage, but we sometimes forget how strange that is for others looking in!

***

I picked up a tenant from work and she asked if I'd gone to the post office to get the mail. I had absolutely planned to walk there earlier in the day, but it was one of those days that just kept falling apart in schedule, so it didn't happen. I said "I haven't but I'll walk down there as soon as we get back." She said, "Or we could just drive there on our way home."

I cracked up inside because that truly had not occurred to me! I wanted to get back home to ditch the car and walk to the post office!

***

So clearly, we love our walking, and we love the quietness of the little town.

We love hearing the train blast on its way through - multiple times a day.

We love walking to the hardware store, and I particularly love it that the hardware sells honest-to-goodness butter churns.

We love walking to the post office to get our mail.

We love walking (occasionally) to the ice cream store for a summer treat.

We love quick trips to the grocery store for random supplies we didn't get on grocery day.

We love meandering through neighborhoods, checking out the pretty houses and picking our favorites.

We love hearing shouts from the occasional ballgame at the ballpark.

We love the pretty trail with all the wildflowers and the horses next door.

We love being within walking distance of the coffee shop!

And we love all the things we have yet to explore - like the little shops, the other ice cream store, the walking trail to the next town, and a couple more restaurants we haven't gotten to just yet.

It's a sweet little town, and I think this kind of livin' suits me just fine.

And here are a few glimpses of our small-town-life adventures: