Being neighborly, becoming involved in community affairs and being helpful are attributes of small town living and they can be successfully brought to the city. Knowing most of the residents, getting involved in local activities especially sports, supporting local causes, and more leisurely living also are part of urban life.

Former small town residents will have no problems in adjusting to life in the city if they don’t try too hard at first. Take time to get acquainted with the new environment and when you find areas where your small town enthusiasms will fit the city needs, get involved.

It all comes down to what’s important, and what’s not important in a persons life. Most people live where they live, where they were born to live, where they’ve moved to with their parents, or where they’ve found work, or where family cares have led them to live. 

Little thought is given to what differentiates city living from small town living unless asked to choose one over the other. Most people in small towns have their own homes with yards and gardens. Cities have these too, although there are lesser apartments in small towns than in cities. At least that was once true, but now HUD houses are in small cities as well as in rural areas. And these make living for the underprivileged easier, in whatever location.

But, when dealing with living in cities versus small towns, distinctions must be made as to how other people fit into either location. There are few differences, actually. Most cities are nothing more than pockets of small neighborhoods with their small town values. Although what cities have over small towns are more availability of advantages. Better choices of health care, entertainment, better selection of churches, and believe it or not, more privacy.

Past experiences is what has gone into making a composite picture of small town life, and nostalgia feeds into it and allows it to be perpetrated and passed on. But those small towns often are non-existent today unless there are viable means of their upkeep. What passes today for small towns are suburbs, and there are vast differences between small towns and suburbs.

Suburbs are areas outside of cities that take on the look of small towns but are up-scaled and prosperous because their owners commute to town to work. On the other hand, small towns are hangers-on from former mining or railroad towns where industries once were, and often are no more. These are often now poverty- ridden and the the people often are mostly welfare recipients, or older folks living on social security.

It is possible that what is substituting for small town life - in thought at least - is nothing more than quiet time in which to meditate, time to spend alone in the garden, having friends to share good times with, and having a life devoted to a more carefree life. These are all good causes but many people will be hard-pressed to accurately describe where and how these are best lived, or where they are found.

In an attempt to get a better handle on what small town life is supposed to be, or has been, how about these quotes? What do they say?
 
“Fame is only good for one thing-they will cash your check in a small town.” That cynical quote is from Truman Capote, the Novelist and Playwright (1924-1984.) Hidden within those words, however, is a positive notion about small towns. At least a positive note by one former small town boy. The bankers know you and will, without hesitation, cash your check. That may not work for all citizens however, not those who are known for check-bouncing. The same thing happens in cities!

“There’s a lot more business out there in small town America than I ever dreamed of.” Sam Walton from Arkansas, (1918-1992) knew small towns and knew precisely what they needed and made his knowledge of them work for him. He was the master-mind behind  the  WalMart chain. Shopping at WalMart is one small town habit that is also available in cities!
 
“A small town is a place where there’s no place to go where you shouldn’t.” That quote from Burt Bacharach tells us something about the character of small towns. There’s no hiding places. Well that may or may not be true, since outside of towns are hills, valleys and more hills and more valleys. If not that, lots of open flat countryside. It must have been the open space kind of town he was talking about.

“It’s passionately interesting for me that the things that I learned in a small town, in a very modest home, are just the things that I believe have won the election.” This quote by Margaret Thatcher, British Politician and Prime Minister, tells us small towns are honorable and law-abiding places. It says they are places that care about their country. She may be right. But take heart. That quality is also transferable to the country.

“To read the papers and to listen to the news, one would think the country is in terrible trouble. You do not get that impression when you travel the back roads and the small towns do care about their country and wish it well.” Certainly Charles Kuralt American radio and television Correspondent and Journalist, (1934-1997) loved the small towns he visited. And the country, city, town, loved him and watched his Sunday Morning road show faithfully.

Maybe the differences between small town and city, as gleaned from the four quotes, is that in the country there’s an openness and a lack of pretension that’s not found in the city. That would take a well-seasoned city-slicker to undercover that fact; and it would take an equally seasoned country hick to know it’s all hog wash.

There’s as much pretense going on in the small town as in the city, but the difference is in their style, and in the way it is presented. And equally well, there’s as much honesty and genuineness in the city, as in a small town. And if it seems as if there’s more crime in cities than in small towns, that’s understandable, more people live there.