<p>in my little town people dont have to pay for trash/recycling out of there pockets its taking out of there taxes(meaning no extra charge)and they can also get newspaper disposal for no extra charge(if they didnt it would become a huge massive pile) I LOVE IT and we also live by the sea but its all hilly and annoying to get to the beach…so i dont go on a regular basis…but i love it…i can walk right into town get drinks and snacks post school from the local deli(which its adress is on the corner of my block and the towns main street(my block really only has a few houses plus a park then its town…)</p>
<p>Today in my little town-that-turned-to-suburb the sky is also brilliant blue and there’s a pleasant breeze moving the leaves… which are not glowing and golden but bright green and still firmly attached to the branches that gave birth to them. There is, however, a hint of fall in the air. Only supposed to hit 80 today! My daughter just called, she and her friend arrived safely for a college visit at a small school 3 hours up the road. They’ll call again before leaving. So now I have a few hours off from worry (and the whole day off from work!) Think I’ll take a cheap novel and some iced tea out to the hammock and enjoy the best season in Texas.</p>
<p>New England is beautiful today. Brillant sunshine, warm temperatures. Trees are starting to turn here south of Boston, but haven’t peaked (or fallen yet from the trees). I keep saying that there won’t be many more ot these days, but I keep being proven wrong. Am working, H is off, S is working 2-6 at his PT job. Everyone left to play golf. May skip out a little early.</p>
<p>its gorgeous in the nor’east…I LIVE on long island…i love it…</p>
<p>
In my town we can throw away whatever we wanted no matter how big and it is free because of ample dump space. You can also take whatever you want to down to the dump and its free. We also don’t have to waste our time recycling either, because it all goes to the same place. Living in the city is sweet.</p>
<p>Fall in New England is just about perfect and today, it is perfect. I do not live in a small New England town, in fact, I live in a large New England town, but I absolutely love where my house is located. It is in the middle of the woods and you travel down an unpaved road (about 1/4 mile of twists and turns) to reach my house. The leaves are changing, the temperature is perfect, and the sky is a perfect shade of blue. I have my pumpkin on the front porch, but still need to get my mums. Days like this just make me happy to be alive. Two of my three children have called today to say hello so what more could I ask for (ok - I want #3 to call). I love New England and never want to live anywhere else (and this is from a Southern transplant).</p>
<p>It is definitely New England’s day today! I wonder what this thread would look like in March (aka mud season). I know I wouldn’t be logging on to say how perfect it is and how much I love it :rolleyes:.</p>
<p>It’s beautiful here too.</p>
<p>And since it’s Columbus Day, many high schools have the day off, though most colleges are in session. </p>
<p>So I imagine lots of prospective freshmen are visiting colleges today–and perhaps falling in love with a postcard picture perfect image of campus on a warm, sunny fall day with the trees in glorious color.</p>
<p>Marite,
Back in college and grad school, my hubby used to play music on the street in Harvard Square as well :D. That is all part of the scene there and I love that area too for different reasons than here.</p>
<p>Soozie:</p>
<p>It just tickled me as a way to build a college fund! We went to see The Queen. and outstanding film.</p>
<p>You may have put money in my kid’s college fund once or twice (but nah…this mother wasn’t along in the hootenanny)!</p>
<p>I have come to adore my little town. It was not always so. </p>
<p>We live on what the marketers like to call “the third coast,” which translates to the edge of Lake Michigan. If you’ve never been to this wonderful fresh-water sea, you should add it to your must-visit list. The only place I’ve been that has beaches to rival those we have here is the Kona coast.</p>
<p>No, you can’t see to the other side…it’s water all the way to the horizon. Add in the gorgeous fall colors, set off beautifully by the native white pines and the clear, blue sky, and it’s hard to beat.</p>
<p>Even our winters are beautiful: it usually snows just a bit every day (“lake effect”), so the snow stays perfectly white. And because we have so much snow, our town is amazing in its ability to keep the roads clear. It’s only in the early spring, when the snow melts and the detritus and mud are revealed, that things aren’t very pretty. But soon thereafter, the flowering trees and the bulbs are in full bloom, and we’re back to down-right pretty.</p>
<p>Our little town is growing–too quickly according to some–but just enough to dilute some of the insularity that was present when we moved here.Our neighborhood is delightful: a true neighborhood where we know each other and each other’s children and dogs. Our public school system has responded to the challenge of Increased Diversity (racial and socioeconomic) beautifully, though there are some who wish this had never become an issue. Our S received a fine education in the context of a high school where almost half of the population had parents for whom English is not their first language. I feel that he is well-equipped to go forth into this much smaller world.</p>
<p>I feel very blessed. And I’m happy that so many of you feel the same way.</p>
<p>A city girl all of my life, I recently remarried and got a little town second home in the bargain! Who knew how much I could love a small town! In my little town the temperture is about 75 degrees year round on the coast, where we have beautiful sandy beaches and rocky beaches too. Just a few miles inland it’s much warmer and there are farms and wineries. We buy fresh eggs from farmers who have become friends. Fish comes from the pier with amazing variety. A bigger local farm has a full range of produce and churns it’s own ice cream. Every drive is breathtaking. And most amazing, a great little college town less than 10 miles away with great bookstores, ethnic restaurants and the energy of youth!</p>
<p>It was beautiful in New England today!</p>
<p>I realized the other day when I was walking home from my bus stop that our wedding colors are the colors of a day like today – the bright yellows and oranges against the blue, blue sky.</p>
<p>Cambridge is not such a small town, but sometimes it amazes me that I live so close to Boston but still have such a lovely leafy environment just outside my apartment building.</p>
<p>Today was a real pretty day here in my small town in Pennsylvania. The leaves are just starting to turn orange and red. I love our town and the way the roads are kind of narrow and windy and go up and down hills. I like how when you’re on the top of a high hill you can see a couple of rows of the Pocono mountains in the near distance. I bought some apple cider at the store and am looking forward to my older son coming home and getting excited about it. He likes cider season. This will be my eighth graders last trick or treat year since there’s always a football game on trick or treat night and he’ll be in marching band next year. I can’t decide if I’m happy about that or not.</p>
<p>Sunday will be the annual halloween parade and my son will march with the middle school band. I’ll sit with some girlfriends and we’ll yell out to everyone we know and try to collect some candy to munch on if we can grab it quicker then the little kids. Through the years my kids have marched with girl scouts, boy scouts, HS drama groups and ms and HS marching bands. Seems funny to have just one of my kids to keep track of now. </p>
<p>(And for the record, we have curbside recycling twice a month and trash pick-up twice a week. )</p>
<p>I spent the weekend in Rock Springs,Tx - population maybe 1200. Made my reservation with Kenneth who said I had to give him a short name to write down. Said he didn’t want to use up his pencil too fast. The room in the old section was $45 dollars including Governor Goodhair’s portion. It was quiet and clean. Flush toilets and a window unit. Kenneth doesn’t take credit cards. He needs everything simple “cause he’s never been to school”. Kenneth’s the owner. </p>
<p>I was down with my sister’s boys , Huey and Louie, in the remotest of the Hill Country to ride the Holy Trinity of Texas Roads. 3 twisty serpents that often bite and never disappoint. We road lots of dirt roads, too on our giant pig enduros . The country was magnificent. The most fun was fording clear cold water streams of 100 feet in width, water splashing over the windscreen, washing the caliche dust off the lower half of my all black hard-used BMW . My bike looked something like a jersey cow about to domino only not as fast.</p>
<p>Several streams have their aquifer fed headwaters in these hills and we crashed and bobbled our way around most of them. It saddens me to say that I can’t do what I could do only a year ago on a bike. I may have to stop soon. My decisions seem to be based on an earlier model of myself. The model I have now is more designed for the speed of the couch, but I still ride like Tommy Lee Jones drives in Men in Black. </p>
<p>I got knocked down by a bump gate . You hit a bump gate with your truck and it swings open, the way it is weighted causes it too close. There is no standard bump gate design or weight so on gate three I hit it with the bike going about ten WHACK and it sprung open and I made it through. Almost :eek:. It swung back with malice, big heavy pipe gate caught me on the mirror and drug the pig-bike down with me under it. The nephews couldn’t control their laughter or their camera phones. My lower leg took a well recorded beating but it was a minor price to pay for their amusement. I’m sure I am on some Jack-Ass Blog by now. I’m here to serve. </p>
<p>We saw porcupines (!) , a legion of deer, red tailed hawks, squirrels (and just a shout out to Scooter, may he rest in peace as his directional ambivalence cost him dearly), a bobcat and 149 acres for sale West of Barksdale but I’m not sure yet if it goes to the live water. </p>
<p>I’ll lay awake tonight dreaming of my two room limestone and cedar cabin on that stream. No little town. Twenty miles of bad road in from anywhere. Completely impassable months of the year. Not a doctor in sight. Just cool water and a sweet grass pasture. I’ll bring Dakotah, Skippa, and Christmas down and we’ll go completely to seed together. The wife can come too if she wants. She’ll be welcome. </p>
<p>I imagine myself laying on a blanket of soft grass, listening for hours to the wind in the oaks and pecans, the mesquites and the junipers then dialing in the river channel to hear the little set of rapids. I fall asleep every day in the sun, waking up under a milky sky. I don’t need a little town anymore. I’m done. Y’all can have the rest of my share. ;)</p>
<p>SplashMom…the thing I loved the most about the small towns I visited in Tennessee were the rocking chairs placed on the sidewalks along the storefronts…like an invitation to sit down, relax, and tell stories of the day!
(I don’t remember the name of the one we liked the best, but it was not too far from Kingsport and it had a patriotic stripe down the middle of the main road through the town?) My daughter still talks about how much she loved Tennessee and it was because of those small towns…and the cute baseball boys who were so nice to her :)</p>
<p>Alumother–what a lovely tribute to our part of the world…if we can imagine it, it is real?..</p>
<p>Can you take more Californians. We are awashed in them along with undocumented.</p>
<p>Curmudgeon - Hope you are recovered from the injury but never from the daydreams. I don’t even know what a pecan tree looks like:).</p>
<p>It’s so nice to read about all of your hometowns! I took a much-needed break from the Cafe yesterday so didn’t see this til this morning. My ‘little town’ isn’t as little as it was the first time we lived here but in the part of town where we live, which is the older part of town, it still has that small town feeling. We even have wildlife - birds, raccoons, possum, bunnies, pesky squirrels (red, black and grey varieties), chipmunks, and the occasional coyote.</p>
<p>The weekend, and yesterday, were beautiful, 72 degrees, and it was Thanksgiving here in Canada so it was perfect to be able to spend some of the time outside. We had 3 of our 4 Ds home for the weekend, boyfriends, various and assorted other relatives and friends, and had 18 for the turkey dinner. It was great being able to sit out on the deck between stints of cooking and food prep, relax, throw a ball for the dogs to chase, chat with our guests. We live right on Lake Ontario so it was gorgeous watching the many sail and pleasure boats out on the sparkling water. The pool is closed for the season but the kids took advantage of the hot tub in the evenings.</p>
<p>Our downtown area is full of nice shops and restaurants, little cafes, bookstores, a performing arts center, the main library, a marina, and is bustling, especially on nice days. Many of the shopkeepers put out bowls of water in front of their stores for the town’s many dogs. There are benches all along the main street so people can stop to chat or rest. Our town is known for its gorgeous summer flowers, planters and hanging baskets which the town maintains. We have many parks, public pools, hiking trails, bike paths, and many, many arenas (this IS Canada!). As big as hockey is, soccer is bigger, and we have the largest soccer club in North America, with more than 10,000 kids playing each year.</p>
<p>The public school system is wonderful, public transit is good, and we have weekly pick-up for trash and recycling. It’s rare that you go out for a walk or to the mall or grocery store when you don’t meet several people you know. My Ds have complained about this numerous times when they’ve come with me to the grocery store and I stop on every aisle to talk to someone. 
To top off our great ‘little’ town, we’re a 15 minute drive to downtown Toronto so have access to all the amenities which a large city provides.</p>
<p>We’ve lived in several places, both in the U.S. and Canada, and this is our favorite. It’s also where we’re staying, because I refuse to move again!</p>