There are things that happen in small towns that can’t occur in
a crowded city. I have friends who prefer the city life and can’t
understand what the attraction is to living in a place where it’s
not unheard of to be stuck behind a tractor occasionally. It
doesn’t bother me.
There are things that happen in small towns that can’t occur in a crowded city. I have friends who prefer the city life and can’t understand what the attraction is to living in a place where it’s not unheard of to be stuck behind a tractor occasionally. It doesn’t bother me. I’d rather be driving slowly behind farmer John than stuck in five lanes of highway traffic surrounded by frustrated commuters.
Not a day goes by that I don’t see people I recognize around town and sometimes it takes me twice as long to run errands because of all the time spent chatting. I love that. I think we’re all on a first-name basis with at least two or three clerks at the grocery store and the bank.
Even though our population in Gilroy is steadily rising, there is still a small town feel. Last Saturday my family attended the annual Christmas parade downtown and our son marched with the Cub Scouts (after having spent the entire morning selling See’s Candy in front of Ace Hardware). We stood in front of Sue’s Coffee Roasting Company at sunset with many familiar faces and watched the children of our community march by with beaming smiles.
Dance teams, cheerleaders and a few floats tossed candy to spectators. And no parade is complete without the high school marching band. They were great!
I spotted my neighbors across the street after the parade had ended and we crossed over to their side for the tree lighting ceremony/countdown. At that moment, I couldn’t imagine wanting to be someplace else. It was a really enjoyable night and as we walked down Monterey Street towards our car, we ran into Steve Ashford in front of Ashford Heirlooms and talked for a while about his “Wednesday night movies.”
Last summer Steve set up an outdoor movie screen behind Happy Dog Restaurant. Well, good news … Steve has bigger and better plans for this coming summer and I can’t wait to attend! Only in a small town can you bring your lawn chairs and sit in a parking lot to watch old movies on the backside of an old firehouse.
A Christmas parade isn’t the only thing that a small town has to offer. This is a community bursting with good and caring people. I consistently see and hear of people, neighbors and strangers rallying together to lend a hand for those in need. It’s so refreshing to see people doing good and decent deeds with generous hearts. Whether it’s pooling funding for the deceased or ill, or physical labor to help with a repair, someone is always stepping up to do what needs to be done. I see good Samaritans all over the place, helping to push a car that’s run out of gas, helping an old woman with her groceries and volunteering for public events.
These are all great examples that are part of the foundation of a flourishing community, but my favorite thing about small town life is how we are all somehow connected by family or friendships and what drives us to make that connection upon a first introduction.
“You look familiar,” … “Do you know so and so?” … “Did you go to school with my son?” … “Was Mrs. Whoever your teacher at El Roble School? Well, that’s my daughter in law.” These are typical conversation starters spoken over a half loaded shopping cart. You don’t have this kind of conversation in a big city post office while standing in line for stamps.
In fact, I’m sure that a person would be mistaken for a lunatic if they were “overly friendly” in a public place in the city and determined to unearth the “connection.”
That would be highly inappropriate. Finding the “connection” is an unexplainable and thoroughly enjoyable phenomenon that only occurs in small towns, and the funny thing is there’s almost always a connection. I have no idea why we do this when we meet people but we’ve all done it and most likely will again.
Those questions will start popping up when you’re out wine tasting and being social or standing in line at the DMV. It happens to me frequently and when the connection is made someone always says, “It’s a small world” and I always answer, “No … it’s a small town.”
Lydia Eden-Irwin and her husband were both raised in Gilroy. They have three children
collectively. Lydia can be reached at ed*****@ao*.com.
