Small Town

[salmonchaser]

Love my town;
26 kids graduated from High School.
23 “graduated Jr. High, *8th grade” one of those our Grand daughter.
We celebrate Memorial Day quietly. IT’s hard on Catherine. She was in Afganistan 2012-14. Made a decision to send a guy who was “short” on a mission. He didn’t make it.
My neighbor gets it.

 

[DrMike]

I grieve for Catherine. Those choices weigh on those who must send others into harm's way, without a doubt. No Memorial Day in Canada, and it is hard on my wife not being able to be home to visit the graves of our families. We do phone and speak with some of our relatives who do visit the graves.

 

[Vince]

I’ll be saying a prayer for Catherine if you don’t mind.

Heck, even if you do mind, I’m gonna do it anyway. My best to you both and your neighbor seems like cool dude.

I graduated 264 out of 268. They let a lot of us out of reform school that year.

Vince

 

[wvbuckbuster]

This reminds me of John Mellencamp's song "Small Town" I too live in a small town, on the same street my whole life. Veterans memorial wall on the courthouse lawn with names listed who didn't come back. One being my mom's younger brother. We have one stop light. I like it here. Dan.

 

[salmonchaser]

We don’t even have a stop light! Closest stop light is 15 miles, in La Grande.

 

[DrMike]

We don’t even have a stop light! Closest stop light is 15 miles, in La Grande.

Sounds like my hometown--450 people, 1 stop sign, no stop lights. There were two gas stations; only one today. Good place to grow.

 

[salmonchaser]

Yep, one gas station, sometimes runs out of fuel. No stop signs either. 600 people +/-

 

[KinleyWater]

Same. All we had was a caution light that was amber in two directions, red in two. Had to leave town to go to middle and high school - combined less than 350 students. That town had a couple of stoplights, though . Great place to grow up, but a terrible place to live - lest my nostalgia should blind me to history.

I can say that it isn't Catherine's fault; it is the nature of things. And, while true, I know that doesn't really help. I don't think in this life that there is anything we can say or do to "make it better" but we can at least stand together and share the burden.

 

[salmonchaser]

It would seem that things will get more complicated for the kids in small town America but what they learn is working together. Our high school doesn’t have a track yet they have kids participating in every event. I attended a track meet today hosted by Eastern Oregon State University. I think there were 8 1A schools represented. The entire student body of those 8 schools wouldn’t equal the graduating class of the larger willamette valley schools. Didn’t matter which school won the event everyone cheered for a great race.
Granddaughter going 15’9’’ in the long jump.

 

[grry10]

I feel so sorry for Catherine and she is in our prayers. I live in the country and the closest town is 3 miles away. The population is 430 and it has a Post Office, a restaurant, fire station, a grade school (K-6), and a gas station (locally known as "The Mall". The county provides police protection. The community is great about celebrating holidays and once a month we have a community meal that is put on by our few businesses and free will offerings. We've also established a foundation to help local families in-need and for the betterment of the community.

 

[Rol_P]

I will ad Catherine to my prayers. I am not a Veteran but have great respect for those who are.
I miss posting on the forum more regularly but my shooting/hunting activity is minimal these days. Hoping to get back in it in 2026.

 

[clearwater]

We don’t even have a stop light! Closest stop light is 15 miles, in La Grande.

I grew up in the big city, we had the only stop light in 3 counties. And they turned it off on the weekend.

 

[Firebird24]

We moved to a small town 17 I think years ago. Since then they added a high school, then two jr. high schools and one stop light and need another one. Added a grocery store and last summer McDonald’s and little Caesar’s found us.
The population has doubled.
There used to be big green fields with fat
Black cattle and I could hunt birds about anywhere.
Nw there are condos and apartments, “affordable housing” and outdoor water rationing in the summer.
I hate my town now and would leave if we could afford to. . .

 

[salmonchaser]

Oregons land use laws are protecting our piece of heaven to some extent. But our population is still growing, just much more slowly then you experience. I’ve seen that kind of growth in other parts of Oregon however. Great mule deer hunting is now condos and golf courses kind of thing. I guess we got to put people someplace.

 

[diverdown]

Reminds me of when I first moved to small town Florida back in 1992. 9000 people which really wasn't a lot in our size town. Two Traffic lights. A caution light on US1 where our main highway (two lane) met it. You could actually lay down on US1 in the summer and never worry about a vehicle coming by. (Rolled up the sidewalks at 8PM.) Now almost 30,000 people, very bad attitudes, and no highway improvements. People drive like it's the Indie 500 and give you the one finger salute if you're not going at least 15MPH over the speed limit. Time to move.