Small Town Girl

Okay, the new book I'm reading is called The Mighty Queens of Freeville by Amy Dickinson.  I'm enjoying it immensely! It's about a mom and her daughter and the small town the mom is from where they live. In this small town are all the mom's family, all of them. Now, I chose this book because it sounds a lot like where I grew up! And yes, the majority of my family lived within two miles of each other. It was great and it wasn't. I've never fully escaped. Hubby and I have lived there twice and the last time was for six years before moving to where we are now. I am definitely a small-town-girl. But I do enjoy being in New York City, not LA but NYC. Shhh, don't tell my hubby... LA is his city of choice. Anyway, Bug and I and hubby enjoyed our small town life while it lasted and didn't really want to go but we needed to be closer to hubby's job. Buglette never got to live there with us... she came along after we moved. 

My parents still live in my childhood home; the home they built when I was nine. I think if they ever want to leave my brother and I will have a complete meltdown. Neither one of us can live there right now but the thought of not having 'home' to go to would do us in. The town has changed a little over the years... more houses were built, more shops popped up, small-town politics wreaked havoc for about a year and my family came and went. My uncle is the church's pastor, my father an elder. My grandmother has lived in the same house for years and years as well. My aunts and uncles all live there except for one set. Even some of my cousins never left. As a teenager I could never get away with anything... if a relative didn't see me doing something then someone who knew me or my family did. I knew this instinctively so I kept my nose pretty clean. I can go anywhere there now and run into someone who knew me when I was little. It's a little irritating to my hubby to hear someone say my first and then maiden name! I think he got used to it the last time we lived there after, like, the tenth time someone would say, "oh, you all are part of the (insert my maiden name here) family. I think he may have even felt like his identity there was wrapped up in who my 'influential' family was. But he was a trooper.

As kids my brother and I could ride our bikes the mile and a half to the market to get ice cream and then head to the pool. Or we could walk to the golf course to take golf lessons, walking that mile. I always felt like we had a great childhood there; I certainly can't let my daughters ride to go get ice cream here, now, in the world we live in. Sad.

So, the Mighty Queens of Freeville is a lot like my childhood and a little like my present! Read it and we'll chat! Anyone out there grow up in a small town too? I want to hear your stories! I'll be telling you more!