Small town, just like me

J. Kevin Tumlinson

Not to steal John Mellencamp's thunder, but I was born in a small town. I've spent my whole life, with various side trips here and there, living in a small town. I even graduated in a town so small that it isn't even on its own road map. So on the subject I'd consider myself an expert, and it's my expert opinion that small town life is the only way to go.

I've lived in the “big city” off an on, and I'll freely admit that there are advantages. Convenience is something you get used to real fast. When you can buy groceries, get a haircut, get a cup of coffee and fill up your gas tank all within walking distance of your front door you tend to frown on the idea of driving twenty, thirty, forty miles to do the same thing. Plus, there are always those stores and businesses that are just not available anywhere but in the busiest corner of a bustling city. You don't see too many Starbucks on the corner of Main and Joe's driveway.

There's something sort of poetic about life just south of a booming metropolis. The pace is slower, the people tend to be a little more laid back, and there's this sort of quiet acceptance that life is ok. I'm not proposing that everything is all “Norman Rockwell” in every small town in America , but there really is this sense of local pride and basic respect that runs as an undercurrent in most small towns.

I believe that my personality has, in large part, been shaped and honed by growing up among open pastures and miles of woods and the sound of birds and rustling leaves in the morning. There's a certain level of sensibility that becomes instilled in you when you've watched wise old men play solitaire to pass the time, or when you've had coffee with a friend on the front porch in the early morning. There's a certain level of common sense that comes to you when you've worked beside a man, dropping miles of fence posts into the ground and tending to livestock. If I had to say what the biggest influence on my life has been, it'd be a toss-up between the valuable advice of my dear grandmother and the constant re-centering I've experienced by living in a small town.

I won't say that all small town living is the pristine image I'm making it out to be. I've had my share of bad times in small places. Rumors can run wild and conjecture becomes an excuse for violence some times. And there are those who are so bored or discontent with their lives that they become bitter and cynical and tend to strike out in one way or another. But the amazing thing about these negative qualities is that small towns share them in common with large cities. That kind of thing can be seen anywhere.

I wouldn't trade my time in the city for anything, though. If nothing else, it has taught me that there is a part of me that will always be small town. Before I left I would have said that this was a burden, something be burned out of me if possible. But once I came back, I realized just how much I loved it here, and how I had yearned for it the whole time I was gone.

Living in a small town doesn't mean you live a small life. In fact, it may be the fullest sot of life you could live.

J. Kevin Tumlinson is the Editor for ViewOnline Magazine at www.viewonline.com . He is a Houston Baptist University graduate with degrees in English and Communications. You can reach him by e-mail at kevin@viewonline.com . He wants to marry an L.A. doll.