Small Town
Hi folks. Here it is Christmas and I’ve not written for a while, my apologies but nothing has grabbed my attention lately. Actually there have been things but mostly not useful and I’d like to keep this site useful and relevant. (If somebody told me that I’d tell them “Good luck with that.”)
I spend a couple of hours each morning in a small town filling in for the postmaster. I know, I know, but it’s not as exciting as it sounds. When I say it’s a small town I mean in the last census the population was 14. That’s not a misprint. That was 2010 and it has changed I’m sure, but not by more than a couple of people either way. There is a town square and four, maybe five north/south streets that are two blocks long and a couple or three east/west streets that are about five blocks long.
We have a business, the local co-op and the post office, with less than nine post office box holders. There is also a part-time repair shop and that’s pretty much it. The streets are gravel and I can stand on the sidewalk out front, the only sidewalk in town, by the way, and it’s only a block long and could use some repair. Anyway I can stand there and see virtually every house in town.
When I say “Small town” on RuralSeniors.com this is the kind of town I’m talking about, sort of. It’s actually smaller than the several hundred person population I really think of but it serves the purpose of proving some of the points I make about living in a small community with little or few services. The nearest grocery store is 20 miles away as are gas station, bank, restaurant, pharmacy, hospital and so on. So transportation is pretty much a daily consideration. As it happens in this case nearly everyone in town has a vehicle and can travel as needed, but not everyone.
Most citizens are retired, though not all. There are probably, as near as I can figure, four or five people under 65 years of age. The school bus stops for one 4th grader and that’s about it. Schools are also 20 miles away. The nearest towns close by (say five to 15 or 20 miles away are all in the 100 to maybe 250 population bracket and have no more services than this town. There are three towns of 2000 or so people within 25 miles and these all have “full services”. The nearest towns with any box stores or fast food chains and the like are all 80 to 100 miles away. Those are cities of 20,000 to 30,000 people.
Hmmmmmm. I had intended to put some more about transportation for Seniors because I have fleshed out a plan, sort of. Will get to that after the first of the year.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!………………..Kirk