Okay so, I know tv exaggerates, but whenever I’ve seen anything relating to a small town in America, there’s always a true sense of community & “outsiders aren’t welcome” vibe, I know that’s just tv, but I’ve seen it SO often I’d like to understand the reality. Even the idea of there being “outsiders” seems different to me. They’re also far away from other places.
For reference, in my country (UK) towns/villages are like 5-10 minutes away from eachother & we (sadly) aren’t very close knit.
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No. TV very much exaggerates it. You know who small town people hate WAY more than outsiders? Other people in their small town.
Depends how isolated the town is.
Will vary wildly between areas, obviously. I grew up in a small town of about 400-500 in South Carolina that revolved around the local churches and was very distrustful of white people. Growing up, it was made abundantly clear that I, as one of the “different” residents was not appreciated by many. Not all, obviously – but enough that I don’t really feel any reason to step foot there again.
I suspect there may be other places across america that are either racially, ethnically, culturally and or religiously homogenous enough to accomplish similar things.
Id like to add that the TV absolutely exaggerates things. There was no shadow council of townies conspiring to raze my house, or anything of that nature. Just general distrustful attitudes and the occasional barb
This really depends on the town and the region. There are many rural small agrarian towns near me, but a lot of their economy depends on tourism, so, outsiders are absolutely welcome.
Some are some aren’t. It depends on the community and the age group. If their are a bunch of families with kids. Then they will be closer. If its a bunch of old people and the town is dying. Then yeah to a point. Its just the nature of towns. The fewer the people the more you have to be aware of your actions cause people talk vs a major city of millions where you can be rude all day and never see them again for the rest of your life.
I used to teach US culture in the UK, the average American would get the same impression from your television. We’re shown that Britain is a nation of twee little communities where everyone knows everyone and strangers are immediately noticed and become the talk of the town. Even stories set in major cities the character seems to know everyone they run into.
The short answer is isolation and sense of community vary immensely but TV reliably exaggerates. Overall life in the US is a lot more similar to life in the UK than British audiences realize.
I grew up in a small town surrounded by forests and farmland. Everyone hated everyone and wanted to be left alone. So my experience says no. lol
It’s true for my small hometown.
There’s some pretty isolated towns in the northwoods but people are usually pretty friendly
I live in a small town of 8k.
I know everyone on my street, and the next street over, and three more streets around me. Part of that is because we all go to the same community church.
But I have never seen the “outsiders aren’t welcome.” We’ve had people move in from many different places, and they’re always welcome. Some have quickly become really good friends.
Depends on which small towns you go to. Some legally small towns are contained within larger metro areas. Personally I grew up in an Alaskan fishing community that you have to fly or take a boat to get to. The community about 2200 in the winter time is pretty tight knit.
Much like the communities of the UK different folks will have differing experiences for what they consider tight knit and how nice it is to be in said community, especially if you are not part of the in group.
This really depends. My husband is from a real small town, everyone knows everyone and all their business. The first few years that I would visit half the girls were just straight bitches to me since I was an “outsider”, most of the guys were nice and a few people didn’t seem to care either way. It was definitely weird vibes the first few years but since I didn’t have to see them all the time I didn’t really give a shit. I’m sure it’s situation dependent on how this goes with each town and person.
It depends very much on the area. For instance in the suburbs around major cities there are many small towns that are like a square mile or 2 that are actually pretty “close knit” in the sense everyone knows each other but don’t really give a hard time to outsiders. These areas are densely populated even though divided into small municipalities. In rural areas, especially in the American South, outsiders may be less trusted. In these areas the distance between towns is often much greater than 5-10 minutes. You could be talking a 30 minute drive from one town to the next town proper.
Isolated? Mostly. If the small town is more than an hour away from a city they are generally pretty isolated, but if they’re less than an hour drive from a city they are effectively suburbs of that city.
Close knit? No.
All the small towns I’ve lived in had a much weaker sense of community than the majority of the cities I’ve lived in. Americam small towns have a very “every man for himself” mentality.
“small town” is more of a vibe than an actual, defined thing.
So the existence of small isolated towns is accurate but the fact they they largely dislike outsiders is not. I’m sure there are towns that don’t like outsiders but that would be rare. Most Americans, especially small town Americans are very friendly and welcoming people.
I’ve moved to several small towns throughout the US. And I’ve found that the welcomeness is more depending on the State/region culture then it is with the small town.
It depends on the town.
In my current town, people don’t really care about outsiders. Everyone is pretty much welcome as long as you don’t go on a crime spree. A lot of the towns up here aren’t close knit.
In the town my boyfriend’s dad grew up in, everyone knew everyone. Outsiders were welcome. I just had to be more careful as everyone in that town would gossip about me and my boyfriend to his grandmother.
No.
Yeah it’s common for people in small towns to know at least all the families in the town and be fairly close knit. I wouldn’t say it’s universal though. As far as outsiders go, usually people from out of town are looked at simply as “people from out of town.” It’s a pretty neutral view overall.
The perspective can switch for small scenic/tourist towns. People there can get annoyed with tourists pretty quickly since their streets aren’t usually built to accommodate a lot of people. Pinedale Wyoming sort of has this problem. Then you have out-of-staters that have a bad reputation for buying up property around town and making the place a bit more expensive. Usually it’s Californians people complain about although folks from Texas and Colorado might have a bad reputation in parts of Wyoming for doing the same thing.
Yes and no. The Internet exists. The isolation isn’t quite there anymore and even before that, they had TVs and went shopping in the closest bigger town. I also hate the assumption of everyone being close knit. People talk, but there’s a lot more desire to protect yours. I’ve lived in apartment buildings in a major city that were closer than the ultra small town I grew up in.
I moved to a village in rural SW Wisconsin with a population of 857 (then. The population has decreased now). There was a true sense of community among those whose families had lived there for generations. Less so for those whose families had not. There was an ‘outsiders not really welcome’ feel.
I have heard people talk about growing up in their small towns as close knit communities and I have heard stories about how no one talked to one another but tolerated their neighbors in their farming communities. There are hundreds of small towns and these have to be all different.
Sometimes, you get lucky with a solid, close-knit group of neighbors
There are 1000’s of towns, so some are more like that and some are nothing like that. A lot of that has probably changed, too, with shifting demographics, shifting economics, shifting ease of transportation, etc.
Americans are friendly. If it’s a small town- they are going to love your accent and are apt to strike up a conversation with you. If you have a heavy accent- that might be challenging LOL. My Aunt and Uncle did an American road trip and they loved the wide streets, the diners, and the people. They said that so many people had never met someone from England. They especially loved the smaller towns. Enjoy.
One time on a road trip I parked in a random neighborhood in Arkansas to rest for a bit. After about 10 minutes people from multiple houses came out on their porches to stare at me with their hands on their hips and a cop showed up.
So at least in some places, yeah.
Almost nothing is ever just as tv makes out. It’s almost always exaggerated to some degree.
As far as small towns being isolated, It depends. My bestfriend grew up 20 miles from the nearest town, and they were not a friendly group. If you were the wrong color, or didn’t fit the farmer stereotype, you were not treated nicely.
This was Wyoming
I lived in one small town that was over 35 miles away from the city, it was pretty close knit, to the point you couldn’t get hired at most places without being related to someone, but people would be nice enough to you.
This was Colorado
Currently I live close to several small towns (like one stop light places) very popular tourist destinations, and they’re all close to one another, not far from major towns and a metropolis (Seattle). People are kind, and fairly welcoming.
This is Washington
America is a very big place with a varied history. The east coast is very different from the west coast, and the south is very different than the PNW and those are different from the Rocky mountain/ great plains region.
It very much depends on location. There are small towns that are like the horror movie stereotype; my wife and I once stopped in a small Georgia town where people were actually peeking out at us from behind window blinds, and our car was getting the big stare from people in the street. Other small towns, especially resort areas and popular retirement towns, are friendly and open because nearly everybody comes from somewhere else. It’s like families — there are healthy ones and dysfunctional ones.
Where I grew up cows outnumbered people. We had two stoplights in the whole county. Any town with more than 150 people was a decent size and probably had at least 2 bars and a church. There were many places with two bars and a church with less people than that…. basically two bars and church was the foundation of most towns.
Everyone knew everyone. Outsiders were definitely spotted quickly. The weekend tourists making the 3hr drive from Chicago for our State Park stood out like a sore thumb. We affectionately referred to them as FIBs. It hasn’t changed much in 30 years except the bars no longer serve Heilemanns & Schlitz.