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There’s no doubt in anyone’s mind that life in the big city is different from what people experience in very small towns – or in no town at all.
Even so, there are probably a lot of things we city people don’t really think about being common (or the opposite) in a place very unlike our own.
So if you’re curious (or you’re writing a book) about what it’s really like out there in the middle of nowhere, here are 17 experiences you just won’t have near the lights of a city.
17. My aunt calls is her “mormon supply closet.”
The extent of our pantries and freezers.
We can’t just “run to the store” to pick up that forgotten ingredient or spur-of-the-moment craving.
But if we’re well-stocked, we can whip up just about anything!
16. It’s someone with bad news or someone who is up to no good.
When you hear a car door slam in the middle of the night, something is wrong.
15. It can be scary until you identify them all.
The amount of animal noises at night.
14. Or when you see them on the lake.
Waving at people when you see them on the road.
13. Small town festivals are some of the best things in the world.
Small Town Texas here
Shitty Internet
Friday Night Lights Ghost Towns
The smell of the rain
Country Road parties
Driving for an hour and not seeing another car
Small Town Festivals
Knowing everyone business and everyone knowing yoursSnakes are your friend
Dead Coyotes hanging from fence posts
The sky at night is inspirational
12. Fox sex seems to be particularly fun.
The scream you hear in the middle of the night isn’t a woman being murdered.
It’s just foxes shagging.
11. And if you have a garden or flowers you’ll understand pretty quickly why people hunt them.
Seeing Deer isn’t a special occasion, those fuckers are always showing up.
10. It’s like living in opposite world.
In the city, you ignore the sirens and listen for the gunshots.
Out in the country you ignore the gunshots and listen for the sirens.
9. Best to just walk away, son.
Oh man I saw a bobcat the last time it was snowy and cold, I still get shivers when I think about that beast. He was huge!
And he just stood there smoke coming out from his nostrils in the cold night air, right beside the road, staring me down, like what the fuck you gonna do son?
I drove off first, he was definitely the alpha male in that situation.
8. It’s a more specific version of “drive safe!”
“Watch out for deer” when saying goodbye is another way of telling someone you love them
7. The sound of silence.
I’ve been living in a busy street of Milan to move to Switzerland in a small town near the mountains. The silence in the night was something weird and actually annoying my first nights there.
So I’d say total silence around you at night.
Also nature smells : grass or animals for example
Oh and having actual animals in town like cows or horses.
Oh and… ok I’ll stop there and let the others talk
6. Sounds like a utopia right about now.
This doesn’t go for all small town, but the one I live in there is no law enforcement.
We fall under the jurisdiction of a neighboring town but it’s like 45 minutes away.
So the people out here just deal with incidents on their own.
To be honest though, it’s pretty rare that any instances occur.
5. No one freaks out over dogs barking!
Wildlife is wildlife… Don’t call bylaw for: moose, coyotes, wolves, deer, skunk, raccoon etc.
Dogs bark. Your 4 lb chihuahua may not be loud but it’s 100% more barking than my 80 lb husky mix.
When it snows, road will be plowed. It will NOT be a dry, black stretch of road but it WILL have less snow on it.
4. The stars in the country are like nothing else.
The dark.
In a city at night you can read a book outside. In the country on a cloudy or no moon night. You can’t see anything.
Not like it’s kinda hard to see, but it’s so dark you might as well be blind; the stars and gravity are the only way to know which direction is up.
Also a clear night sky in places that get truly dark like that is something my vocabulary can’t describe.
3. You have to be able to drive.
Its basically impossible to live if you can’t drive, I live a few miles out of the village so I have to get lifts to work, to go see friends and everything. The only bus only leaves the village every 2-3 hours to go into the city and is ridiculously expensive.
But it is gorgeous and can be so peaceful, i often take my dog up the hill behind my house, there’s no roads and only a couple of other houses and its so quiet and relaxing, i can lie there for ages on a nice day. I also have a horse and its great to go for a mental out-of-control gallop through the fields and the forests.
2. You’d best go ahead and stop.
When a road sign says “Last Gas” for however many miles
It means it.
1. A whole new level of boredom.
How small it really is.
When I graduated in 2014, my class was 14 people. And we were one of the largest grades at the school, the grade below only had 6 people, the grade above me only had 4. I originally grew up in a hamlet, population 20 people and then moved to a village where I went to school, roughly 300 people.
We have one bar, one grocery store that closes at 6pm, a carwash, a bank(in the neighboring villager 15 minutes away) post office and school in town. Everyone else is either oilfield workers or farmers.
And it’s butt fuck boring, for fun in the summers we used to bike down the highway for hours to no where and then turn around and bike home.
Some of these didn’t surprise me, but there were a few that I’d definitely never considered!
Are you a country mouse? City mouse?
Let’s trade secrets in the comments!
