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Casino Workers Share The Saddest Moments They Have Ever Witnessed

Casino Workers Share The Saddest Moments They Have Ever Witnessed
Photo by Carl Raw on Unsplash

Make no mistake--casinos are not set up for you to win.

In fact, they often rely on their customers having no self-control in order in order to make the most money possible.

So sometimes, when people get addicted to gambling and spend their entire life in the casino, they make some poor choices. And people tend to witness their poor choices.


Reddit user SKBMeh asked:

"People of Reddit who work in a casino, what's some of the saddest moments you witnessed?"

Here were some of the answers.

Trigger warning: Suicide.

Humanity Go Bye Bye

"Former poker dealer at a casino."

"An older gentleman started to have a heart attack at the table. I called the floor person for assistance with the call button. Paramedics are rushed in etc. all within minutes. I'm this instance I am instructed to keep the game rolling by the floor person as he whispered in my ear."

"Two hands are dealt and played and a player at the table requested the heart attack guy get moved somewhere else as it is disrupting the game. Another player asked to have his chips picked up and call for the "open seat" because "we have a wait list.""

"I was disgusted."

– Colddeck64

Capitalism

"There were these two middle aged Greek or Cypriot ladies who were ALWAYS on the slot machines, every day when I started my shift they were they and they were there when I finished 10 hours later. And still there in the same clothes the next day oftentimes. They were SUPER nice and always polite to the staff. One day they hit the jackpot and win big, I think it was either £15k or £45k, it was a good few years ago now."

"Everyone was overjoyed for them - except the managers obviously. Well the managers then gave them free meals at the restaurant and an open bar tab until every single penny of that money was clawed back into the casino."

– H0vit0

Life Ruined

"We used to have a woman who would be on the blackjack tables for five days/nights straight. Her husband would call and tell her that her kids wanted her home. Her boss actually came to the casino to try and get her to leave, she was missing work. I don't know what happened to her but she's probably ruined her life."

"We also had a few regulars commit suicide and a few go to jail."

– jackie0h_

Lack Of Basic Self Care

"Former valet at a casino. The amount of daily regulars who drove barely functioning vehicles full of trash, roaches, and rats who would actually valet their car and go gamble away any money they had to their name was honestly depressing."

"The saddest I remember was a 90+ year old lady who drove a 91 corolla and when we got in her car we realized she had no power steering fluid at all and her steering wheel would barely turn. I have no earthly idea how her frail arms could turn it. We went and bought her some before she left that evening."

– thatryanguy1

Gone Too Far

"It's been about 15 years, but I worked in one for about 4 years.The one that stands out was a woman who came from the country to the "big" city to get X-Mas gifts for the whole family (including young kids who still believed in Santa and all of that), but spent all of the Christmas money at the casino before going to the mall."

"Also, a few years later I went back to visit, and when talking to one of the pit bosses about who was still there and what not, she told me one of my old regulars, who was actually nice and likable (a rare trait in that business), had recently committed suicide as a result of gambling too much."

– perpetualmotionmachi

New Career

"In general, people who come for the first time and are super nice and friendly, they don't care about winning or losing much just came to have fun. They come back a few more times, then after a few years they're regulars that don't smile anymore, they don't laugh, they don't count their wins, just their losses, and sweat every comp point they earn and act like gambling is their job now and the focus of their life. I've seen more than one person have this happen to them. The other saddest thing is when a regular stops coming in and their spouse comes out and tells us they passed, we're almost family with some of our regulars and it hurts to get that news."

– inflammablepenguin

Priorities Out The Window

"Grandmother, mother, and daughter heading to the casino by car from 2 hours away. Mother had a postcard to get a free cast iron pan for showing up. Daughter is more than 8 months pregnant. One hour away from the casino daughter starts to have labor pains. Mother won't stop and take her to the hospital, she's gotta have that ($10) pan. They arrive at the casino an hour before the promotion was going to start. Mother raises all hell trying to get her pan but the workers for the promo haven't arrived yet. Daughter ends up having to be transported by ambulance to the hospital. All over a $10 pan."

– Mustang321321

Hard Loss

"Worked in a casino for about 7 years and the one that has always stuck with me was when a kid (18/19) came with his friends and lost $100 playing blackjack. Then he was sitting there, looking dejected and watching his friends win. He left and came back with another $100. I could tell from the way he was acting he probably didn't have the original $100 to lose so he definitely couldn't afford to lose another $100, so I asked if he was sure he wanted to play. He nodded his head and solemnly said yes. Unfortunately he lost that money too."

– Steffany_w0525

When Death Takes A Holiday

"I did casino security for 3 years before I became a police officer. Had a Code M (medical) early early one morning, around 4 or 5am. Old guy in his 80's passed out and fell out of his chair, wife sitting next to him. I was the first to get to him, did a quick assessment and found he didn't have a pulse, immediately started CPR. The old lady looked over and said "oh he does this all the time, don't worry about him." Between chest compressions, I told her he wasn't breathing and she just kept playing her slot machine. She didn't miss a spin even when the paramedics took him away. I saw her again the next night and asked how he was doing. With the straightest face ever, she said, "oh he never woke up. I'm sure he's in a freezer by now"... and went right back to the same machine she was playing the night before."

– JaCrispy1990

Heart Is Where The Home Is

"I worked as a blackjack dealer in Kansas City. I got in the elevator with a middle-aged couple and noticed she was becoming hysterical because he just gambled away their house payment. They were going to lose their house. Pretty sad."

– PeterPipersPecker

Addicted

"I used to work in a buffet at a casino. The casino had two areas, the higher end progressive slots like spynx machines on the left wing of the casino and the cheaper older slots like wolf run or others on the opposing wing towards the food court. People who would often frequent the cheaper slots were people who would turn up at one particular part of the month when they got their Social security or welfare checks. These people pretty much threw their monthly allotment into these machines. Many of them had little rituals that I can only describe as religious or spiritual. they would do hand waving over the screen or rubbing the machine as if it was a deity that was to be pleased in order to release a blessing."

"Gambling addictions are bad. please get help people."

– Deleted User

Drug Habit

"I watched someone OD right in front of me. Went from coherent to a gibbering mess on the floor to needing CPR and an ambulance, all in the span of about 10 minutes."

– DieselTheGreat

Where Are Your Parents?

"So late, and I don't work in a casino but I'm currently staying at a resort in Vegas. Night before last I saw the saddest thing I've seen. There was a little boy, no more than FIVE sitting on the steps leading into the casino, holding a stuffed animal, just staring into the casino. It was 1230 am. Only thing I can figure is that his parents left him there while they gambled. We pointed him out to a worker."

– NoHoney_Medved

Nothing's Gonna Stop Him

"Working as software developer in gambling industry. So basically there is video (security footage) of a armed robbery on one of my bosses previously owned casinos."

"Guy was gambling at the automatic roulette machine when the intruders stormed in. He crouched and was keeping close eyes on them and continued placing bets from crouched position for the duration of the robbery."

"It was funniest and saddest thing I ever saw."

– mihiic

On And On And On

"Not a worker but I once watched a man lose $15k in under an hour at the roulette table. He kept getting dropping about $2k-3k at a time. He would lose all of it on a couple of spins and get up and get more."

"My wife having never played just looked at the people around us during one of his trips to get more money and says "Someone should stop him." The Croupier just looks in her direction and says "He's been losing like that for the last 6 hours""

"That was 5 years ago and my wife still talks about it when people bring up gambling."

– Deleted User

Turn Back Around

"About 3 days before christmas this guy went up to one of the slot machines and slammed the jackpot of about 6000 in like 5 minutes. I went up and was kinda blown away, saying how fucking awesome it was, how lucky he is, etc. the dude never turned around. I thought he might’ve been deaf or something so I tapped him to give a thumbs up or something. He turned around and he seriously looks like he’s dead. Like there is no expression, no light in his eyes nothing. I stutter but give him the thumbs up and he just nods and looks back to the slots and just fucking begins feeding the money back. Not as over the top as most posts on here but that fucking lack of ANYTHING in his face when he looked at me still unsettles me."

– flargbiter

I Had An Accident!

"A friend of mine worked security at a casino for a few years after college and he told me that they had a big problem with senior citizens who did not want to relinquish a machine to go to the bathroom. Their fear was that they would play for 3 hours and someone would come sit down behind them and get the jackpot. This led to several incidents of old folks pissing/shitting themselves at the machines because they didn't want to get up."

– RunsWithPremise

Couldn't Take Any More

"Former Blackjack dealer."

"Dealing the overnight shift was like a party every night. When I started to deal during the day, it was a different story. This A-hole in a suit was bragging to the other players at the table how he was there playing with his clients money. Not sure what line of work he was in, but I was just like WTF. Trained for roulette after that"

– advicest

Still Around

"Worked as a dealer for about six years, so a lot of what I've been reading I've seen happen myself. You become numb to it because it happens so often. People staying for the entire 8 hour shift, people who get a huge score ($10k+) and continue to play until they lose it all back. My favorite was having regulars come in during the summer and tell me about how gorgeous the weather is... but they're choosing to be in a smokey casino at 2pm on a Wednesday."

"The one moment that sticks with me though is when there was a kitchen fire in one of restaurants in the casino and the building was literally starting to fill with smoke. So much so that they closed all the table games and had the dealers evacuate the building. As we left, and the smoke alarm was sounding, there were still DOZENS of people sitting at slot machines, continuing to play."

"It really made me sad and ultimately was the moment I realized I had to quit. Being around that much depression on a daily basis takes a toll on your mental health, and I just couldn't do it anymore."

– HowWasItDetroit

Please Care About Your Family

"I worked at a casino as a dealer through college. A lot of incidents were pretty sad, especially with regulars that you liked. One regular would tell me about his middle school age kids, and then I would realize the next week or so later that he was missing their school plays/recitals etc because he was at the tables. I remember working an overnight one Christmas Eve and begging him to go home when 6/7am rolled around because his kids would be up and opening presents."

"Other times just people screaming at you for "stealing" their mortgage payments from them that month. Then seeing them back again the next day."

– 1ppikiokami

The house always wins. So make sure you're not caught off guard when the chips are down.

Do you have similar stories? Share them in the comment section below!

Old Wives' Tales People Still Believe For Some Reason

"Reddit user the_spring_goddess asked: 'What is an old wives tale that people still believe?'"

Close up of an owl tilting their head to side, looking bewildered
Photo by Josh Mills

The old wives' tales.

They are the stories of legend.

I think we all need a big DEEP Google dive though.

Where did they originate?

WHO ARE THE OLD WIVES!

You don't hear about them as much anymore.

It's like science and logic are suddenly a thing.

But they sure are a good way to keep your kids and their behavior in line.

Redditor the_spring_goddess wanted to discuss the tall tales we've all been fed through life, so they asked:

"What is an old wives tale that people still believe?"

"Wait an hour to swim after eating."

What a crock!

So many summer hours wasted.

I want revenge for that one.

Say Nothing

Giphy

"An undercover cop has to tell you he's a cop if you ask him."

LonelyMail5115

"Pretty much most advice when it comes to cops are old wives tales. I’m not even a cop but most of the advice you hear is pretty off."

I_AM_AN_A**HOLE_AMA

Say Something

"That you have to wait 24 hours to report someone missing."

Severe_Airport1426

"I really think this one is important and should be the top regardless. As it’s a piece of advice that needs to be relearned and the only way to do that is through awareness."

crappycurtains

"This used to be true. I think they changed it after some guy named Brandon went missing back in the '80s or '70s. You used to have to wait 24 hours if the missing person was an adult because they had 'a right to be missing' and then everyone realized that was stupid and stopped doing it."

AlbinoShavedGorilla

Body Temps

"That drinking ice cold water after eating oily foods will solidify the oil and permanently remain in your body. I informed my coworker that if your body temperature ever reached that point, you’d have bigger problems than weight gain."

chriseo22

"Oh, I have a cousin who 100% believed this. One of those guys who believed every early 2000s internet rumor and old wives tale. One night I chugged a big glass of ice water after dinner and he started freaking out and saying my guts were gonna harden."

"I sarcastically told him to drive me to the hospital if that happened. Obviously, nothing happened and the next morning I said something like 'Thanks for being on standby in case my guts filled with hardened oil.' He just walked off muttering under his breath."

apocalypticradish

Arms Down

"When I was pregnant, I was told by young and old alike that I should NOT raise my arms above my head or exert myself in such a manner because it could cause cord strangulation to my unborn sons and daughters."

Fatmouse84

10 Years Actually

Unimpressed Uh Huh GIF by Brooklyn Nine-Nine Giphy

"Chewing gum stays in your stomach for 7 years."

REDDIT

"I remember accidentally swallowing a piece of gum when I was a kid in like 1995 and just accepting my fate like welp, gonna have this in my stomach til high school I guess."

Gecko-911

I was so afraid to sallow my gum when I was young.

This tale is haunting.

High/Low

Hungry Debra Messing GIF by Will & Grace Giphy

"You can tell the sex of the baby by how you carry."

LeastFormal9366

"Pregnancy certainly wins awards for the most old wives tales. So much absolute BS was repeated to us by everyone we talked to."

IllIIIlIllIlIIlIllI

The Cursed

"If you’re a woman and you wear opal jewelry but opal is not your birthstone (October), you’ll never be able to have children, or will be widowed, or just generally have bad luck or something. You can counteract this by having a diamond in the same piece of jewelry as the opal, though."

"I have a nice opal ring that my parents gave me years ago, and I’ve had other women give me this 'advice' unprompted more than once when I’ve worn it. I have absolutely no idea where it started, but I’m pretty sure this little chunk of silicate rock has no concept of what month I was born in, let alone of how my reproductive organs work."

SmoreOfBabylon

Stay In

"Going outside with wet hair will make you get pneumonia. Or an earache. Or maybe arthritis. Depends on which old wife you listen to."

"Jokes on them - I haven't blow-dried my hair in decades and usually leave the house with wet hair in the morning. On winter mornings, the tips of my hair get frozen. No ear infections or pneumonia or arthritis yet."

worldbound0514

Dreams and Facts

"You never make anyone up in your dreams you've seen everyone in your dreams somewhere else before and never make anyone up entirely."

"How would you possibly prove that to be true? My partner adamantly believes this and tells me this 'fact' whenever I have a dream about someone I've never met before."

mattshonestreddit

"My late wife used to tell me that before she met me she would have dreams of standing at an alter on her wedding day but could never see the guy's face, no matter how hard she tried. After meeting me the face was filled in with mine. Don't know if it's true but one of those things I like thinking of every now and then when I miss her."

Darthdemented

Cracked

Getting Ready Episode 2 GIF by The Office Giphy

"Some people still believe cracking knuckles causes arthritis."

Choice-Grapefruit-44

"There's a doctor (Donald Unger) that cracked his knuckles a couple of times a day for 60 years, but only on one hand, just to prove it. Both hands remained exactly the same."

MacyTmcterry

I love my knuckles.

Do you have any tall tales to add to the list? Let us know in the comments below.

lottery tickets
Erik Mclean on Unsplash

A lot of workers daydream about some day winning the lottery and being able to say goodbye to their job.

Far too many workers are unhappy with their job duties, workplace dynamics or company culture.

But with a taste for luxuries like housing and food, they keep plugging away, year after year.

However not everyone feels that way about their job.

So what are these compelling careers?

Keep reading... Show less
Therapist talking during session
Photo by Mark Williams on Unsplash

Some people stand firmly stand behind their beliefs that everyone would benefit from therapy and that therapy is life-changing.

It's because of the totally life-changing truth bombs their therapist had dropped during their sessions.

Curious, Redditor anonymiss0018 asked:

"What is a little bombshell your therapist dropped in one of your sessions that completely changed your outlook?"

Communication Issues

"'If you don’t have these problems with any other person in your life, why do you think you’re the problematic person in this one?'"

- maggiebear

"I love this. I have a 'friend' who I always seem to run into misunderstandings with. Every time we had a conversation, it somehow turned into a debate even if it was me talking about my day. The conversations were never easy."

"I always evaluate myself first and take into consideration his critiques. He was very good at convincing me that I was contradicting myself or wasn't good at communicating my thoughts."

"I NEVER had this issue with ANYONE else in my life. I kept trying to figure out where the miscommunication was coming from. In the end, I just minimized contact and now I don't run into this issue."

- chobani_yo

"I read this quote somewhere once (and probably have it a bit wrong): 'It's a waste of time arguing with someone who is determined to misunderstand you.'"

- Reddit

Emotional Regulation

"'You can’t control your emotions, but you can control what you do with them.'"

"At the time, I was a young adult who had learned zero healthy emotional regulation skills (only suppression and shaming) growing up, so this blew my mind."

- lil_mermaid

Tough Relationships

"'It sounds to me like you are trying to convince yourself to stay with your girlfriend. I'm not so sure it should be so difficult.'"

"At the time he said this, I remember it was like he said, 'The earth is flat.' I thought he was crazy when he suggested relationships don't need to be difficult. But eventually, I started to realize I was trying to change myself to stay with this person rather than just being who I am."

"It took me three more months to finally break up with her but from that day on, I vowed to never again abandon myself just to be with someone I had convinced myself was better than me."

- metric88

High-Stress Situation

"I was at a high-stress time, and I asked her how people live like this."

"She replied, 'Oftentimes they have cardiac events.' She said it as an urging to care for myself as much as possible."

- KittenGr8r

The End of Alcohol

"I was struggling with my alcoholism, and we were discussing how I had been cutting back."

"She asked what I would consider success, with regard to my drinking."

"I said I wanted to get to a point where it wasn't interfering with my daily life. I wanted to just be able to have a glass of wine at holiday dinners or family gatherings."

"She simply asked me why. Why was it important for me to drink at those times?"

"It was as if she'd turned on a light. Alcohol had always been a key ingredient in every family function, for my entire life. When I smell bourbon, I think of my uncle. When I smell vermouth, I think of my dad. Alcohol ran through almost every happy childhood memory."

"But, even more than that, I was very afraid of the explanation I'd have to give when family and friends asked why I wasn't having a drink. I had tried to quit before but failed. What if I admitted my problem, only to fall off the wagon?"

"When she asked why I didn't want to completely quit, it was the first time I saw that last part of the big picture. I'd be willing to drink myself to death in order to avoid being scrutinized, or judged for possible future failures."

"That was the day I quit. I've been sober since May 6th, 2017. 2,407 days."

- sophies_wish

Acceptance vs. Enjoyment

"'Accepting something doesn’t mean you have to like it.'"

"That took away a lot of my inner conflicts about situations because I could accept a situation without expending energy internally fighting against the injustice of it."

- alibelloc

Emotionally Immature Parents

"You are not responsible for your parents' emotional wellbeing. They are independent adults who have been on this earth for many more years than you."

- SmokedPears

Not So Lazy

"'Why do you think you're lazy?' Then she listed off all the things she knows I'm doing for my family, my job, and my life."

"It kind of blew my mind when I struggled to come up with an example."

"She also described family dysfunction as water. Some families are messed up in a way that everyone can see the huge waves across the surface. Others are better at hiding it, but there's still a riptide that you can't see unless you're also in the water."

"It made me realize that trying to keep the surface from ever rippling doesn't erase what is happening underneath."

- flybyknight665

The Harm in People-Pleasing

"'Why do you make people more comfortable when you are uncomfortable?' when talking about people pleasing and fawning."

- ERsandwich

Agree to Disagree

"'Stop trying to get everyone to agree. When you need everyone to agree, the least agreeable person has all the power.'"

This really changed my outlook on planning family events."

- freef

Grieve and Start Anew

"For context, I had a major TBI (traumatic brain injury), seizures, strokes, and all around not a fun brain time when I was 28."

"They said, 'You have to grieve the loss of yourself.'"

"Most people wanted me to go back to how I was. The f**ked up truth is that part of my brain is dead. The person everyone (including myself) knew died. I needed to grieve the loss of myself."

- squeaktoy_la

Multifaceted Identity

"They told me that my job and career is just a way to make money; it's not my life or identity. That took a lot of pressure off me."

- unfairpegasus

Breaking the Cycle

"They validated me."

"'You always talk about not wanting to do to your daughters what your mom did to you. You worry about it so much in every interaction you have ever had with them."

"But your children are 19 and 21 now. They are happy and healthy and they trust you because you’ve never abused them in any way. So I just want to validate for you that you really have broken that cycle of violence."

"You did that. And you should be proud of it. I’m proud of you for it.'"

- puppsmcgee74

The Grieving Process

"I was constantly bringing up how I felt like a completely different person after my mom died... like there was a marked difference between before and after her death."

"But once, she was asking about my hobbies, I got really into describing all the things I loved to do or at least used to do before I got into a deep depression."

"She was like, 'Wow, you seem very passionate.'"

"And I just sat there like, 'Well, I mean, I can't change what I like to do, they're still fun to do.'"

"And it's like she knew when to take a step back, because it was like, wow, I may be super depressed about my mom passing, but I'm still me. I'm still my passions and those don't go away."

"I don't know, maybe it only makes sense to be, but it really started getting me back on track."

- Hannibal680

Sharing the Load

"I've never really had friends. I've had colleagues and classmates and housemates and people who have hung out with me, but I never really felt close to any of them."

"And I did that thing you see on here sometimes; I stopped reaching out to see if I would be reached out to, and I wasn't, which I took as confirmation that they didn't really want me around, or at the very least, that they wouldn't mind my absence."

"I was talking to my therapist about people I'd been close to in college, and she told me to pick one and talk about him. So I did. After I shared some basic stuff like his name and his major etc., and a couple of anecdotes, she asked me what else I knew about him."

"And I couldn't answer. It wasn't really a broadly applicable bombshell, but she said, 'What else?' and I started crying because I realized that for as simple as the question was, my inability to answer spoke volumes."

"I've never had good friends because I've never been a good friend. I'm withdrawn and reserved and I always made others do the work to drag me out, without ever extending my own friendship in a meaningful way in return. If I wanted to have meaningful relationships with other people, I would have to build them."

"I'm still working on this, but I'm trying to make more offers and extend more friendliness to others in my daily life."

- Backupusername

The discoveries in this thread were incredibly touching and profound; it's no wonder these were lasting concepts for these Redditors.

It's important to keep ourselves open to inspiration and insights from others, as we have no idea how their experiences could help us, or how we could help them.

Aerial view of a church in a small town
Sander Weeteling/Unsplash

There's something comforting about living in a small town.

It's characterized by close communities where neighbors know each other by name and there is an abundance of kindness extended to others.

Gift-giving is a commonality, as is the sharing of recipes, and people going out of their way to help each other in a time of need.

The pace of living in small towns is also a striking contradiction to city life, where crowds of people go about their busy lives without much interaction.

Curious to hear more examples of what small town living is like, Redditor official_biz asked:

"What's the most 'small town' thing you've witnessed?"

These are positive examples of a tight-knit community.

Live Updates

"We have a village Facebook page. Every time the ice cream man drives into the village, the entire page goes ballistic. People send live updates of where the van is and which direction he's heading. The ice cream man has started accepting DMs so he knows which streets to go down."

– PyrrhuraMolinae

Brush With The Law

"I’m from a town of less than 2,000 people. When I worked at the grocery store there people would often drop off stuff for my family members because they didn’t want to drive all the way down to our house. I no longer live there but recently got a call from my daughter. She had been stopped for speeding and handed over her license and insurance which happens to be in my mother’s name. The officer goes 'Hey, you’re Donnie’s granddaughter! I ain’t gonna write you a ticket but I’m telling Donnie when I see him tomorrow cause we’re going fishing.' She replied 'I think I’d rather have the ticket.'”

- Reddit

Roadside Catchup

"The traffic on the 'main street' of my town is so sparse, two drivers going opposite directions can stop and talk to each other for a few minutes without causing any problem."

– anon

When things go wrong, people take notice without incident.

Bank Robbery

"A guy robbed a bank and everyone knew immediately who he was and the teller got mad at him."

– AlexRyang

"A local bank was robbed and one of the tellers told the police to bring her a yearbook from about ten years earlier and she would be able to point the robber out. He had been in the grade before hers in school."

– Strict_Condition_632

Wise Woman

"When I worked at the bank in town there was an older lady that had worked there through 5 mergers."

"She knew everyone, there was a young guy yelling at me one day. She walked out of the back and he immediately quieted. She went off about telling his grandmother that he was treating young women like sh*t. She also said that if he didn’t straighten up not one girl in town would ever marry him she would make sure of it."

– ilurvekittens

Intoxicated Local

"Town drunk was paralyzed and used a motorized wheelchair to get around. I was driving home one Saturday night and said town drunk was passed out in his wheelchair doing circles almost directly in the town square. Had to call his brother who came and picked him up on a rollback truck. Strapped him down and drove off into the cold dark night."

– DoodooExplosion

Grazing Over To The Bar

"In my former small town, there was an older guy who'd lost his license after getting a few DUIs. Every day, he would ride his John Deere lawnmower to the corner bar around 3PM and sit around watching TV and sipping his beer well into the night. Then he'd head the couple miles back home on his mower. He even had a little canvass shell he put on when it rained or got too cold."

– brown_pleated_slacks

It's not surprising how small town people behave differently than those who are from metropolitan areas.

Welcoming Committee

"I lived in a small town. When I moved there, people would ask, 'Whose house did you buy?'"

–MoonieNine

"Move to a small town. 30 years later, you are still the new guy."

– impiousdrifter

"I lived in a small town for most of my childhood but I wasn't "from there" because my grandparents weren't from there."

– raisinghellwithtrees

"Worked with an older guy, relative of the owner of the business, he was 73. I asked him if he was a local, he said 'no his parents moved here when he was two.'"

– realneil

A Busy Day

"Lived in a town of about 5,000: A woman walked into the DMV on a Friday, saw that there were 3 people ahead of her and left to come back another time when they weren't so busy."

– KenmoreToast

Who Let The Dogs Out?

"My dogs got out while i was working. the police called my niece's elementary school (she was a 5th grader) to get her to round them up and take them back home."

– mediocrelpn

"There was a small kennel behind the police station for runaways. They called us saying they had our dog, and moments later our dog showed up home. He broke out of jail."

– Worried_Place_917

While life in a small town sounds appealing, I don't know if I can ever live in one.

I'm so used to life in big cities, I think it would be quite unnerving to adjust in a neighborhood where everyone literally knows your business.

I would be paranoid.

And I'm sure the same could be said of life in the big city.

Would you consider making the switch to life in a different setting?