Armed Polite Society
Main Forums => The Roundtable => Topic started by: Monkeyleg on August 20, 2012, 02:38:38 PM
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Over in the Politics forum, in the thread about Assange, there's a little bit of discussion about small towns (with Tallpine bragging about how small MT towns can be ;) ).
With all of the travelling I've done, I've seen some really tiny "towns". The smallest town I ever stayed in, though, was in Ontario on the north shore of Lake Superior. I can't remember the name of the town, but I do remember it had a name. The Ontario police had the road blocked because of some trouble between indians and the railroad a few miles ahead, so I had the choice of either staying in this small town, or riding four hours back to Thunder Bay.
The "town" was a diner and a very small motel. I got my room, and then looked for a phone to call my wife, as I always do on cycle trips, just to let her know I'm safe. There was no phone service. They had a ham radio, and I was able to talk to some guy who said he'd call my wife and explain the situation.
I had dinner, washed my bike, then settled in to watch some TV. There was only one channel, though. It was a nature channel, and the show was about some kind of beetle. To make things worse, the show was in French. So, I went across the road, sat on the shore of Lake Superior, and watched the sun go down.
I don't know if a town can get smaller than that.
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I don't know if a town can get smaller than that.
Bealville, CA. It consists of a plaque.
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Well, where I grew up there were apparently 6 stores, but of course this was in 1900 or so. By the time I came along there was just a little 12'x20' post office with a wood stove and a sign by the road announcing that you were here. I waited for the bus on the porch of the PO. Now it's gone, the sign is there and zip code 22722 is no more.
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The closest one to us has 1 stop and rob, 1 bank, i pizza joint, 1 bar, 1 ice cream place, and 1 volunteer fire station.
Population is several hundred.
Lord, but I love living in the country!
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Lots of little towns around here that don't really exist anymore. They still show up on the map but there is nothing there. Some died natural causes some were killed off. Alluwe was flooded when Oolagah Lake was built to supply the Port of Catoosa. The town was moved but "New Alluwe" never really took off. Picher was a lead and zinc mining town that was killed by it's own toxic success.
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Vermont is just one big small town.
If that makes any sense.
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Do these places have phones?
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This beats your small town
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beaconsfield,_Iowa
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Do these places have phones?
Public pay phones or home phones?
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Sugar Tit, SC is a store.
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Sun, Michigan was close to where we used to live in Newaygo. One building used to be a store and a gas station, but is a residence now. A Christian Reformed church and a dozen houses. That's it.
Surrounded by muck farms.
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Lots of little towns around here that don't really exist anymore. ...
Same thing in Montana.
Back in the homestead days 1910-1930, quite thriving communities grew up of which now there is hardly a trace.
Even the little towns that are left are mostly just a shell of their former selves: the school (which serves a large area of ranches), the bar(s), the PO, and maybe a gas station. Everyone drives 25-100 miles to shop. The remaining town nearest to us also has a second hand store (used to be a restaurant) and a saddle maker. Several fine old buildings stand unused and borderline derelict :(
There used to be a little town on the railroad/river just down the road from us. Our old time ranch neighbor remembers taking a wagon load of wheat down through our place to sell and get a winter's worth of city goods. Now the railroad is gone and there is just a ranch down there. The old section house was a residence at one time but now it has gone to ruin also. The fellow that owns the land will say "over there by the dance hall" but the dance hall burned down decades ago ;/
Last year the flood washed out part of the old RR grade upstream and started a new channel, washing out the county road and flooding the ranch yard. So the old town would have been hit pretty hard if it still existed.
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I always figured that if you can count the number of stop signs or stop lights in a town on your hands, you know you are talking about a small town.
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I posted a similar post not so long ago about small towns. It was about the Outer Banks of North Carolina. The far southern end.
I share the sentiment, ML. You have to spend significant time even to understand the "Hoi Toiders" there. Dialect of English that has been lost.
The Outer Banks isn't what it was. Virginia Beach isn't what it was.
I want to go back but I fear when I do it won't be the same.
Oh, and "Hoi Toiders" equivalates to modern "High Tiders". =D
My dream is to go back and get a Master's in fisheries science from VIMS. We'll see.
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Where I am now isn't a town, not even close to being incorporated, it's a community if you have to call it something.
- Two boat launching facilities with "stores" attached in which you can buy ice, candy bars, vienna sausages, bait, marine gas, and that is all.
- On motel with five rooms.
- One real estate office/gift shop (yup, they sell land and hand made crafts, husband and wife team).
- One convenience store (only place to buy beer, milk, eggs, cheese, bread, etc.) also sells bait, ice, and marine gas.
- One boat shop (repairs, storage, used boats for sale)
- One seafood market (local catch has to be sold somewhere)
- Five restaurants, three of which serve booze, the other two you bring your own booze) all owned by locals, because the folks here apparently don't like to cook.
No stoplights, half the roads aren't paved (sand and oyster shells). Nearest grocery and liquor store is 10 miles away, nearest actual town is 18 miles away.
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Where I am now isn't a town, not even close to being incorporated, it's a community if you have to call it something.
- Two boat launching facilities with "stores" attached in which you can buy ice, candy bars, vienna sausages, bait, marine gas, and that is all.
- On motel with five rooms.
- One real estate office/gift shop (yup, they sell land and hand made crafts, husband and wife team).
- One convenience store (only place to buy beer, milk, eggs, cheese, bread, etc.) also sells bait, ice, and marine gas.
- One boat shop (repairs, storage, used boats for sale)
- One seafood market (local catch has to be sold somewhere)
- Five restaurants, three of which serve booze, the other two you bring your own booze) all owned by locals, because the folks here apparently don't like to cook.
No stoplights, half the roads aren't paved (sand and oyster shells). Nearest grocery and liquor store is 10 miles away, nearest actual town is 18 miles away.
That sounds...ideal.
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Where I am now isn't a town, not even close to being incorporated, it's a community if you have to call it something.
- Two boat launching facilities with "stores" attached in which you can buy ice, candy bars, vienna sausages, bait, marine gas, and that is all.
- On motel with five rooms.
- One real estate office/gift shop (yup, they sell land and hand made crafts, husband and wife team).
- One convenience store (only place to buy beer, milk, eggs, cheese, bread, etc.) also sells bait, ice, and marine gas.
- One boat shop (repairs, storage, used boats for sale)
- One seafood market (local catch has to be sold somewhere)
- Five restaurants, three of which serve booze, the other two you bring your own booze) all owned by locals, because the folks here apparently don't like to cook.
No stoplights, half the roads aren't paved (sand and oyster shells). Nearest grocery and liquor store is 10 miles away, nearest actual town is 18 miles away.
I count seven businesses, not including the restaurants. If everyone in town is a business owner, that means the restaurants have 1.4 customers each.
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I think gunsmith lives in one of those "wide spot in the road" towns; 200 people except for 3 weeks of the year, when it jumps to over 50,000...
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I can't beat that, but I came close a few years ago on my way to Montana. Around noon-ish I started looking for a place to get lunch. None of the Interstate interchanges had any signs indicating the presence of the usual fast food suspects, but there was a sign at one that promised "FOOD" so I took the exit.
At the top of the ramp, my only choice was a left turn. That took me across the highway, across a single railroad track, and into the "town" -- which was one, short block long. There was a general store (closed), and a cafe (also closed), and maybe five or six houses. No food to be had, so I did a U-turn and headed back to the highway ...
... only to find that, in the short time I spent reconnoitering the town, a train had arrived at the grade crossing. And, given that we were "out west," it was a TRAIN. In fact, I think it was the mother of all trains, because I could have eaten lunch, showered, shaved, gotten a haircut, and had my boots shined in the time it took that sucker to clear the crossing. But that one-block long street was THE only road available, so I had no choice.
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... only to find that, in the short time I spent reconnoitering the town, a train had arrived at the grade crossing. And, given that we were "out west," it was a TRAIN. In fact, I think it was the mother of all trains, because I could have eaten lunch, showered, shaved, gotten a haircut, and had my boots shined in the time it took that sucker to clear the crossing. But that one-block long street was THE only road available, so I had no choice.
Sounds like my kind of luck.
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I count seven businesses, not including the restaurants. If everyone in town is a business owner, that means the restaurants have 1.4 customers each.
Huh? I'm confused.
Let me put it this way, the house is owned by folks who used it for a place to go when they went fishing. They never got mail here, I have no mail box. I went to the local post office and they didn't know how to find my address. Next stop is the "911 Office" (which I'd have thought was part of the Sheriff's Dept, but that's what they call it around here) in town to see what they have listed as my address on the map. Then I either have to dig a hole and put in a mailbox or rent a PO Box. When I had the phone/cable hooked up, they asked what kind of truck I have and the guy drove around until he found my truck. Seriously.
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It's funny, reading this thread reminded me of when I was a kid... I grew up in a suburb of Cincinnati. My grandfather had a little two-bedroom cottage on the banks of Craig's Creek, near Warsaw, Kentucky where we spent many weekends fishing, swimming, and boating. I remember going to the 5 & 10 Store, the feed store, and other little places with him and my dad. I got my first Buck knife at that 5 & 10 store, and fired my first shot ever out of a Marlin 39 at that cottage. I have that rifle now. I thought that Warsaw was about as small a town as you could get, with a population of around 1,800. Guess I was wrong, huh?
Last time I was there was when I was 15. My grandmother died, and my grandfather sold the cottage, then sold his house, and moved to Florida. But, I looked up some information about Warsaw on-line last night, for old time's sake. There's now a major casino across the Ohio River from Warsaw, and the Kentucky Speedway is about five miles from town. Looks like the little town of my childhood grew up...
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Perfection, Nevada. Pop. 14.
Be careful around the graboids. ;)
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Last time I was there was when I was 15. My grandmother died, and my grandfather sold the cottage, then sold his house, and moved to Florida. But, I looked up some information about Warsaw on-line last night, for old time's sake. There's now a major casino across the Ohio River from Warsaw, and the Kentucky Speedway is about five miles from town. Looks like the little town of my childhood grew up...
There's a drag strip down by the riverside now
Where my grandma's cattle used to graze
Now the grass don't grow and the river don't flow
Like it did in my childhood days
Let me put it this way, the house is owned by folks who used it for a place to go when they went fishing. They never got mail here, I have no mail box. I went to the local post office and they didn't know how to find my address. Next stop is the "911 Office" (which I'd have thought was part of the Sheriff's Dept, but that's what they call it around here) in town to see what they have listed as my address on the map. Then I either have to dig a hole and put in a mailbox or rent a PO Box. When I had the phone/cable hooked up, they asked what kind of truck I have and the guy drove around until he found my truck. Seriously.
To make things confusing we live and pay taxes and are registered to vote in one county, but our mailing address is in another county :lol:
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When they implemented 911 addresses here they got a few of the smaller roads a little screwed up.
Mapquest and Google maps can't find my house. One puts it 4 miles north and the other puts it 3 miles west.
The old street address will find it on either one. On the rare occasion they get called local EMS gets it wrong about half the time unless one of the home town crew is on duty.
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Mapquest and Google maps can't find my house. One puts it 4 miles north and the other puts it 3 miles west.
That might be a good thing, ya know ;)
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When they implemented 911 addresses here they got a few of the smaller roads a little screwed up.
Mapquest and Google maps can't find my house. One puts it 4 miles north and the other puts it 3 miles west.
The old street address will find it on either one. On the rare occasion they get called local EMS gets it wrong about half the time unless one of the home town crew is on duty.
Some mapping algorithms are better than others.
I don't live in the sticks. I live in a 'burb. We had a bad wind storm last year that damaged a lot of trees. I had already made arrangements for a tree company to clean up the damage at my place but they hadn't gotten to me yet. One Saturday morning I was in the garage when a ratty-looking older Ford pick-up roared into the driveway, and an equally ratty-looking guy got out. I was already at Condition Orange as I walked out and asked him if I could help him.
Ratty-lookin individual: "I'm here to cut your trees."
Me: "Who are you? I didn't call you and I have no idea what you're talking about."
RLI: "I'm ___ and you hired me to clear your tree damage."
Me: "I did not hire you, and I have no idea who you are or what you want. Who are you looking for?"
RLI: "I was told to come to 11 ____ Street."
Me: "Well, this isn't 11 ____ Street. In fact, this isn't ___ Street at all. You're about two miles from where you need to be."
RLI: "But my GPS says I'm at 11 ___ Street."
Me: "Take a good look at the number on the mailbox on your way out. Now ... leave. You're in the wrong place, and I have work to do."
FWIW, we have a long driveway. At the street, my wife's GPS says we live at our address. When her car is parked in front of the garage, it says we are at 11 ___ Street.
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Ain't there a town in Montana or Wyoming that is currently up for sale?
Something like a couple hundred thousand bucks?
Pine?
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Ain't there a town in Montana or Wyoming that is currently up for sale?
Something like a couple hundred thousand bucks?
Pine?
Garryowen - it's basically just a museum and gift shop.
And he wants a lot more than that.
Might be some others ... =|
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Garryowen - it's basically just a museum and gift shop.
And he wants a lot more than that.
Might be some others ... =|
That's a great name for a town !!!
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That's a great name for a town !!!
From the old song that the soldiers used to sing, of course.
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From the old song that the soldiers used to sing, of course.
Still do sometimes....
http://www.1cda.org/Garryowen.htm