The Wake

Growing up in a small town does interesting things to a person. Small towners are a different breed. It is especially obvious in the years following high school. I came from a town in northern Minnesota of 900 people and graduated from a class of 80. After attending one of the largest universities in the nation and living in a major city, I realized how different my fellow townies and I compare to your average college student.

First of all, in a small-town high school cliques don’t really develop like in other places. Of course you have your different groups, but there aren’t enough kids to have defined cliques. And often you have gone to school with many of your classmates since elementary school. Due to this, small town teens’ identities are less defined. I fit in with the skater kids, the smart kids, and the athletic kids and others. Often they are the same kids. This causes small towners to be more well-rounded. It allows small towners to fit in with a wider variety of people, to deal easier with a variety of situations; growing up in a small town provides a better chance at defining one’s unique ID independently.
Another thing with small towns, from a teen’s point of view, is that there is nothing to do. You’re lucky if anything is even open at 9 p.m. Either you drive a long way to get someplace bigger, you do nothing or you get creative. A majority of my time was spent sitting around, in cars, on curbs, at the Dairy Queen … just loitering. You really realized the extremity of this when you’re sitting around for 30 hours straight, for reasons that I don’t know how to explain.

This time and lack of activities allows plenty of time for drugs, drinking and general trouble making. An important aspect of a small town is that law enforcement can be sparse at times. When you’re in a rural area and it is easy to avoid the eye of time.

A favorite pastime of mine is hitting mailboxes with beer bottles from a moving vehicle. But I don’t see this as a bad thing either. Separation from what society deems right and wrong while often avoiding punishment allows an individual to develop his or her morals based on life experience; plus there is nothing like the sound of a bottle hittin’ a mailbox at high speeds. Though many us could be looked at as deviants, I feel we are very morally grounded, even if it’s in our own way.

Things in small towns aren’t all great though, contrary to popular belief. Not only because there is nothing to do, but also because of the fact that often there is poverty and drug problems. I’d say the negative aspects are based on citizens who never escape. And it is not easy to get out. Besides low income and, on a related note, poor schools, small towners are in a bubble, cut off largely from the outside world. This is a main cause of prejudices and in general creates ignorance of the bigger issues of the world. This bubble and lack of diversity within makes leaving scary, especially when moving to a city. In the city everything moves so fast, people are so different, there is no private space and you are invisible. It is an intimidating place for a small-towner.

Even if you make it out of your town for some reason, something draws you back. I love my small town when I’m here. And it’s not till I get back that I realize why I left. Nevertheless, I still feel a connection. And I believe the small town creates its own subculture. The differences in development and the lack of assimilation into the outside world keep small-towners separate. Many never escape its grasp, but I’ll take the bad with the good. No matter what anyone says, small towners are the coolest people around. Regardless, next time you’re driving up to your cabin and you park your car next to a group of townies, don’t forget to hit that remote lock, because even though the community largely depends on your money, that won’t stop us from snatchin’ the nice shit out of your shiny car.

Jim Forrey is a Voices guest columnist and welcomes your comments at .