Slow Down

"We aren’t in any hurry and you can’t make us." ~ bigedthebad

No Bull!

"Leave gates how you find them—they are open or closed for a reason." ~ lighted_is_lit

"This is very specific. I won’t forget it." ~ jackof47trades

"It really is so important though!" ~ Dancersep38

"Like really important!" ~ unzinc

Yes, Everyone Knows Each Other

"One time I played a gig in Wisconsin and the dude at the bar says, 'Hey you're not from around here huh?'"

"I said 'How could you tell, my accent?'"

"He said, 'No I just never seen you before'."

"Mind=Blown" ~ DrJawn

"My in-laws' family hails from a tiny Idaho town.

First time I was there with my then-girlfriend, a random old-timer 'downtown' introduced himself and said 'You must be Peggy's granddaughter's boyfriend'."

"He was right, so I asked him how he knew."

"'Well, she said you'd be coming, and you don't look related to anyone here, so... you must be him'." ~ Hititwitharock

Where Your Food Comes From

"Grew up in a very small town in Oklahoma. One 4th of July, was at my inlaws in rural Kansas. My wife’s cousin came up from Orlando, FL with his wife and their 10 yr old son."

"We all went for a walk in the early afternoon up to the barn. The driveway was lined on both sides by corn fields."

"The 10 yr old boy asks, 'What’s that?' pointing to the corn. His mom sort of looked stumped and I said, 'That’s corn'."

"The kid looked at me like I was an idiot and said, 'That’s not corn! Corn is yellow!' Then it hit me that he had no idea where corn came from and neither did his mom."

"I said 'Look it’s corn!' As I went and grabbed an ear and pulled the husk open to reveal the yellow ear of corn inside. That kid looked at me like it was magic. He was blown away."

"I had no idea that there’s a huge number of people that think food just comes from the store and don’t know much beyond that." ~ rylokie

"We had a group of kids come out to our farm on a field trip…the looks on their faces when potatoes magically appeared from the ground was priceless!"

"So important for kids to learn where their food comes from." ~ Timely_Cat_

And Everyone Knows Your Business

"Being in the country has more privacy but far less anonymity." ~ Schu0808

"That's the deal breaker for me. I've lived in medium towns all my life. Never cities and never small towns."

"I always had anonymity, which I treasure."

"I don't want anyone knowing about my business in the detail I'm told small town people know about each other.

"When I go out Friday nights, the only people who know what I do are the people I do it with and tell later."

"That's it. And that's how I want to keep it." ~ throwaway387190

No Sirens Doesn't Mean Silence

"How much noise there is from bugs after dark." ~ Crabser116

"I lived in the country for a few years and I enjoyed the sounds of thousands of insects at night."

"It made me feel like I was somewhere with a relatively healthy ecosystem, which I was." ~ dartfrog11

"Where I'm at we have loud a** frogs instead of bugs and one minute there'll be a cacophony of frogs and then all of a sudden they just stop."

"Every single frog goes silent."

"It stays that way for a while then they all start back up at once."

"It's downright unnerving. I always wondered if those frogs knew something I didn't."

"I live in an area where you are less than a mile from true, unbroken wilderness, you casually see bears, mountain lions and bobcats and the neighbors call each other to warn of predator sightings."

"You hear things screaming, hooting and howling at night and you have no idea what or where they are." ~ Tru3insanity

"It can actually get insanely loud in the spring and summer."

"The winter gets eerily quiet at night. You can hear a wind chime from a neighbor a hundred yards away." ~ downbleed

Red Solo Cups

"Just because a party is in the middle of the woods or a field doesn't mean the police won't break it up." ~ SamuelDoctor

"Unless the cop is throwing the party." ~ Visible-Ant1949

"I don't know what rural area you’re talking about, but in my area of Arkansas you’d have to set off a small nuke to get an unprompted appearance from the cops." ~ Whiskeywiskerbiscuit

Hello Darkness My Old Friend

"It gets dark. Very dark." ~ bretty666

"This isn't just darkness."

"This is advanced country darkness." ~ zombie_penguin42

"Oh, country darkness, this really bothered a city friend who grew up in big apartment towers. His first couple of nights in my remote rural/farming area really bothered him."

"He thought 'the nearest people are a mile away, so who is going to know if the criminals break in?'."

"In reality there's no criminals, and no people in that darkness. Just crickets, possums and coyotes."

"In my humble opinion way more peaceful and reassuring than a huge apartment building with 5, 000 strangers under one roof." ~ Thunder_bird

"This!! Omg so much this! You will never know darkness like country darkness."

"There’s something so eery about stepping outside and seeing nothing but pitch black woods." ~ big_ickslap

Common Knowledge

"Don't walk behind a horse, don't touch random metal fences unless you want to get a shock, and everyone you meet either cares too much or couldn’t give a sh*t about you."

"Oh also, no matter how kind a middle-aged woman seems, remember that she's 100% gossiping about you to the other aunts and asking people to pray for you." ~ 1_3A7_W0rM5

"Also do not f'k with cows/bulls."

"They’re cute but will absolutely stomp you dead." ~ leahlikesturtles

All For One And One For All

"If you start a fight with someone in a small town bar you actually just started a fight with the entire bar." ~ degeneratesumbitch

"Don't pick fights or run your mouth to people in small towns that you live in if you just moved there. Chances of you seeing that person again are 100%.

"Getting on people's bad sides in small communities cuts you out of a lot a lot of opportunities in the future."

"Keep your head down, mind your own business and be friendly to everyone." ~ Brancher

"And some of those country boys can throw down in a scrap like you wouldn't believe." ~ FlaccidWeenus

Wildlife Is Wild

"Coyotes are not like dogs—stop feeding them." ~ MikeHuntessHarry69

"Don’t feed any of the animals, except maybe birds."

"Squirrels have sharp teeth people, they will f'k your hands up."

"All those sounds at night are normal."

"Be alarmed if there are no sounds, that’s when sh*t is about to get wild." ~ 30dirtybirdies

"No doubt. If you go out and it's already quiet, be very wary."

"If you're out and it suddenly gets quiet, get back inside ASAP." ~ libra00

"Wait, why? What is it that I should be afraid of?" ~ Cleeecooo

"Usually it means there's a predator around, like a mountain lion."

"In the former case it's probably not near you but that can change rapidly. In the latter case it's probably nearby and may be stalking you." ~ libra00

Small town life really is different.

There are benefits, there are deficits.

It's not for everyone.