Town and City
I live in a small suburb, which is neither town nor city. I have been to a big city, Dallas, Texas, and a few small towns. I have also been through downtown Little Rock. I visit family who live in small towns. Little Rock and Dallas are exciting, but the small quaint towns are charming. There are many differences and a few similarities.
When you drive in a city like Dallas, there is likely to be a traffic jam. It seems to be an eternal rush hour. Driving in a small town is less stressful except for the pedestrians. There is almost always someone walking. Also, there may be little “fairs” that take up a whole street.
In a small town, nature comes through more, whereas in a city, there are only a few designated parts where trees and shrubs and such can grow, and there are the roadside trees. At night, without all the lights as are in the city, you can see millions of stars on a clear night. You can’t see stars as well in the city because of the lights, but these lights allow safety. If you were alone in the middle of nowhere in a town, where there is usually sparse light, it is easy to be surprised.
In the city, since there are so many large buildings in the same vicinity, space is limited, especially living space. In a city you may have to live in an apartment. There is no room for many houses. There is plenty of space in a town for a house. In a town, everyone knows everyone. All the children likely go to the same school, and most or all church going families attend the same church, likely the only church for miles. In the city, since everything is so close together with many streets leading to the same place, it is easy and usually not a long route to point B. In the town however, especially in the outskirts, many places are far from another place.
Stereotypes of city and small town people are often funny. People in the city are seen as rough, tough, people who are used to pick pockets and mugging. People in a small town are thought of as the “townspeople” of many plays like Our Town, or especially in the south as “hicks” or “hillbillies” or “rednecks”.
The air in the city is often polluted from all the factories which also creates a smell. I don’t remember how it all smelled. There are hardly any factories in a small town, so the air is cleaner. The factories in the city also made for loud machinery noises. In the town, there are more natural sounds. Perhaps these sounds also exist in the city but there is so much other sound that drowns it out.
Jobs differ in cities and towns. In cities, there may be a relatively larger selection. In a small town, jobs only include such work in the field of agriculture. In the city you can be a lawyer, doctor, and other high positions. Many live in a small town but commute to a large city to make a living.
Thus far, I have mentioned only contrasts. “Are there any comparisons?” Yes. People live in both large cities and small towns. Despite the stereotypes I mentioned earlier, people are essentially the same whether they grow up in a ghetto of a large city or the secluded sheltered community of a small town. While the same, we are all, as individuals, different. No one should be judged by where they live, whether it be large city or small town.
An example. Two men enter college. They both graduate top of their class. Both make large amounts of money working for a fine company. They never move from their original homes. The only difference is one has to commute from his small town home. They came from different styles of living, but both were brilliant people who lived well.
The big city to me is a site to behold. The huge buildings shimmering in the afternoon sun is quite breath taking. However a lake at night with the stars reflecting is something God had made before man even came up with the plans for the first hut. The earth was all the same before man touched it. Now that we have touched it, we have developed these different styles of communities. Large cities and small towns are only two. As I said I live in a suburb. It can be described as a small town seeing how the whole neighborhood knows each other. But we lack many small town things. We used to have a small grocery store and other small stores including a barbershop, but that was all blown away by the tornado, and now all that is left is the dairy bar. I think small towns have a wonderful innocent charm. Large cities are exciting and boisterous. Both are magnificently wonderful and dangerous. As I told a friend once: everything has pros and cons.
March 11, 1999
