I grew up in Southern California. Specifically in a suburb of Los Angeles. Although cliche, it is true that there is a lot of people, a lot of traffic, a lot of houses, etc.; but great weather! Then about 5 years ago (5 years already!) #1 and I moved to New Jersey.
We now live in a town with a population of ~3600 people (compared to ~193,000 in the Cali suburb). We don't even have a grocery store, so we have to go to the next town over. Now it is only a couple miles, but still.
The other day I decided to go to a big kids consignment sale. It was in another town maybe about 15 minutes from our house - population ~ 20,000. I got there and it was packed. Tons of people and the line to check out had about 30-40 people waiting in it. And this was on a weekday in the late morning. I quickly strolled around and left. I was not going to wait in that line just to buy used kids clothes/toys/books.
As I was leaving I was thinking to myself, too many people, too many crowds. I guess I am getting old. Then I thought no I'm getting rural.
I love this and I look forward to being a ruralite with you when I move later this year. ;)
ReplyDeleteI thought you would like it. It reminded me of your post the other day talking about your neighbors and the differences between Hollywood and Santa Ynez.
DeleteHaving grown up with both of you in the same suburb, and now living in a a "city" with a population of 6700 (our entire county only has 140K and that's in 2500 square miles) I can relate to this post. We have one small market in town (about half the size of the old Trader Joe's on Foothill), one gas station and one pizza place. That's it for commerce in our fair city. I have to dodge horse poop on the streets and water from the pasture watering systems when I go for a run. Yesterday we had to take a detour because some cows were loose on the road, and it's not uncommon to get "screamed" at by sheep when you're out and about. The "real" store is in the next city, and we actually use the phrase "going into town" to describe heading over to St. George. What a trip.
ReplyDeleteThe cows and sheep made me laugh.
Delete#1 said I should have mentioned that we do not even have a stoplight. But as far as commerce goes, we do have 3 sources for alcohol, one liquor store and two restaurants. LOL Priorities?