Small Town Life: Don't knock it till you've tried it

Never once in my childhood, teen years or throughout college did I picture myself living in a small town. Even when I peered far in the future when youth would have faded and my body would have been begging me to settle down, even then I didn't picture a return to a city with under 100,000 souls, preferably 1,000,000. Big cities have all hours nightlife, funky niche businesses that sell only pudding or hemp shoes, heavy activism and most importantly, lots and lots of strangers.
In a town the size of Hattiesburg with its 45k pop (124k metro wide), the longer you spend there, the easier it becomes to feel claustrophobic, to have regular haunts and see the same faces day in and day out. After five years in the Burg, I began to crave the newness that only a big city can offer to a Mississippi girl. And then life happened and instead I found myself living in Laurel, Miss., population 18k on a good day and after two years of making myself comfortable, I don't regret the decision one bit.
Why not? Turns out, small town living has its unexpected perks, and I'm sure I haven't discovered them all yet.

Only in a small town can you:

1) Leave a vehicle parked for two weeks straight because everything from green tea to fine art to staple guns is located within a one-mile radius.

2) Put a $25 haircut & wax (as opposed to $45+) on a tab because I left my checkbook in the car I never use.

3) Call George at the liquor store and ask him to chill a bottle of Chateau St. Michelle, I'll pick it up at 7, thanks.

4) Watch a mid-day concert at the bank where the bank president is rocking out on guitar and vox.

5) Join half a dozen civic organizations and not be miserable alone because everyone else did it too.

6) Gossip like it's fact.

7) Make a ripple with little or no resources.

8) Say 'I'll be there in 10 minutes' and mean it because traversing the whole town can be done that quickly.

9) Finally work on that book you've been meaning to get around to, and have some extremely quirky characters to fill it.

10) Get told 'you're not from around here are you' but in a nice way.

11) Develop your twang.

Small town living may get a bad rap, but I recommend it to anyone before, after or between filling your craving for city life.