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People Reveal The Dirtiest Hotel Room They've Ever Stayed In

People Reveal The Dirtiest Hotel Room They've Ever Stayed In
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One of the things I honestly miss the most about being a child is how blissfully unaware I was of just how filthy some places are. As a child I never got onto an airplane and wondered what that smell was. I don't recall a single time I walked into a hotel room, a friend's house, a restaurant, etc and ever contemplated how sanitary it was - or wasn't.


And then, somewhere along the lines, my innocent childhood blinders fell off and I could see everything. Everything. The sorts of things you can see when you gain germ-vision are just ... just ... whyyyyy?!

Reddit user Latterwatercress asked:

What was your "They didn't clean this hotel room very well" moment?

Some of these people absolutely did not need to be germophobes to be able to tell their rooms weren't cleaned. I'm not talking about one little bug or a layer of dust. You're about to enter an article full of bodily fluids, sh*t tons of literal sh*t, and at least one potential homicide. Honestly, we're all over here questioning whether any hotel room we stay in ever again will really be "clean."

Yup. Now we're traumatized. Our hats are off to you hotel workers who have to clean up after guests. Apparently the human animal is truly a horrific beast. (Some responses have been edited for clarity and language... especially the poop stories. Obviously.)


Reddit user Latterwatercress asked:

What was your "They didn't clean this hotel room very well" moment?

Some of these people absolutely did not need to be germophobes to be able to tell their rooms weren't cleaned. I'm not talking about one little bug or a layer of dust. You're about to enter an article full of bodily fluids, sh*t tons of literal sh*t, and at least one potential homicide. Honestly, we're all over here questioning whether any hotel room we stay in ever again will really be "clean."

Yup. Now we're traumatized. Our hats are off to you hotel workers who have to clean up after guests. Apparently the human animal is truly a horrific beast. (Some responses have been edited for clarity and language... especially the poop stories. Obviously.)

Hanging Undies

Giphy

When I stretched out on the bed and looked up at the ceiling fan, there was underwear hanging on the fan blades - both male and female varieties.

They must've been moist, so the previous hotel guests placed them there to dry. In any case, the cleaning staff apparently never noticed the undies hanging from the fan.

- Back2Bach

Poop or Cigar?

Just a literal log of old sh*t that falls out from the covers. I don't think the staff actually cleaned the bedsheets. Happened when I went on vacation as a kid with my family.

We just checked in to the room and me and my cousins wanted to make a bed sheet fort and when we pulled the covers from the bed and u-ntucked it from the mattress, out rolled the ashy brown log. To be perfectly fair, it could have been an old cigar, but we didn't want anything to do with it either way. My family screamed at the staff for awhile and we left the hotel.

- Wiknetti

Dirty Vegas Room

Las Vegas, summer 2012, we got our room from some online travel site. We go to Vegas, we're in one of the nicest rooms in The Luxor. The morning after we get there, the manager knocks on the door, says something like we shouldn't have been able to book the room or some sh*t? Apparently since it was EDC that meant it was a 'special weekend.' I don't know if this is anywhere close to the true story or not, because my friend is kind of a stupid little ass who never admits fault. Either way, we have to leave.

EDC is huge. We can't find a room. There is a little shitty motel just off of the strip, it's room rental is literally a head shop. It's $80 for the night.

We go in the room, there's one bed, the bed is so stained with semen that it is clearly used exclusively by sex workers and never cleaned. Nothing against sex workers - everything against people who don't clean up after themselves! There are three giant mirrors on the ceiling. The floor is gross, everything looks unkempt - but we have literally 0 other options and it's late.

My friends talked me out of sleeping in the bathroom. But my logic was that at least the hookers at some point used soap in the bathroom.

We all slept on the floor, my friend who was driving us most of the way home didn't even sleep in the room he paid $30 toward. He slept in the car.

The TV was clearly moved so that they could have sex on the stand at some point because I moved it to sleep on something that wasn't the godawful shag carpeting I assume is full of crabs or lice.

We were so screwed with literally no where else to stay, that we slept in room, went back to the Luxor an showered the second we could. I threw away my clothes I slept in.

My friend laughed at me as I tried to figure out a way to sleep without my arms or hands touching the ground, but said that he understood why.

- Tianoccio

Belated Honeymoon

Last December, my wife and I took a very belated honeymoon (about 10 years late) to Disneyworld. (She's a big fan, I am... accommodating.) We stayed in the Contemporary and when we got to the room, the cleaning staff had left rags everywhere and had stashed the cart and bag of trash in the bathroom. Nothing horrifying, but I dropped a lot cash for this. I went to the front desk to get somebody to get the trash out of the room and the guy at the front desk said "What? That sucks." I was like, man, get your manager please. Then I got the apology and a free meal on our meal plan.

- Words-Words-Words

Poop Pile

When my son was really small he had some medical issues, and he pooped in the bed when we were on vacation.

I felt terrible about it but called the front desk, told them, asked if they could send someone sooner than later to clean it up, and if I had to I'd pay extra. I totally understand that cleaning up feces creates a health hazard. I offered to pay extra if I had to or hire someone to come in and get it done. I really couldn't at the time and needed to concentrate on my son.

They said that wouldn't be needed and this was no problem.

Anyways, went out for the day. Returned end of day, open the door and the place smells much worse than when we left. I approach the bed and it was made, but looked a bit lumpy in the middle... Looking around the room everything else was done, garbage taken out, towels replaced, etc. But pulling back the sheets, there was the whole reason I called the front desk in the first place, still there, horribly.

I don't know if they just didn't tell the person who cleaned the room or what was up and they somehow just missed it, adjusted the bed as was but never pulling back the sheets? I have no idea, but they missed it.

So I called down, alerted them, they felt bad and couldn't explain it, we ended up with a new upgraded room as I'm sure they felt bad. But man I don't know how they missed that on the cleaning even without a heads up.

- Billbapapa

Not A Murderer

Giphy

It's a little long, but worth it.

Well... About 20 years ago my girlfriend at the time (now Mrs) were about to leave for a concert out of town early the next morning and carpool with a friend to the show (about 8 hours drive). We decided to get a hotel room to be closer to the people we were riding with.


We went to the front desk of the University Blvd Holiday Inn and got a room (on the cheap). We opened the door and found that the room was absolutely trashed with beer bottles and clothes still littering the room. Obviously, we didn't want a trashed room and went back to the desk where they gave us a different room. The second room was actually clean and we proceeded to celebrate finding a room, then getting some sleep.

We left early the next morning and made it to the show. Afterwards, we opted to make the brief drive from the show to a city on the coast about an hour from the show to meet up with friends for a few days on the beach. We may have extended that stay a couple days, too.

After about 5 days we returned to our city and went about our lives. Several days later one of my friends pages me that my grandmother has been trying to reach me for a few days. So, I called her up. .

I was NOT prepared for her response. She was screaming and carrying on. Well, apparently the police had been actively looking for me as part of several MURDER investigations. See, that first room we went into had more than clothes and malt liquor everywhere. There were a couple stolen guns, wallets from robbery/homicide victims, clothes with blood on them and lots more evidence of plenty of crimes.

The desk clerk had never fixed the registration in the books and had me as the last person in the room. Come to find out that the maintenance person for the hotel had been letting his homies stay at the Inn without permission. One of those cronies was apparently a pretty infamous gang banger. When I went in to sit down with the police, it was pretty quickly figured out that I was NOT who they were looking for and I was let go.

So... they didn't clean the room.

- WayL0st

Loaded And Loaded

I worked at an extended stay hotel for one of the major brands. One day a nice Japanese couple checked in to their room. Wife, husband, young child. About an hour later the husband comes down and begins to explain that he was pulling out the sofa bed for his child, when he realized that somebody had forgotten their bag of used heroin needles and their LOADED GLOCK, under the mattress. He calmly placed the gun and the bag of needles on the front desk as I rushed into the back office to get our GM as I was not equipped to handle the broken English conversation that was about to go down. I called the cops to come claim the weapon and was conveniently tasked with showing the housekeepers how to properly inspect the sofa mattresses. I don't work in hotels anymore.

- JasonWaterfalls26

The Poo Cruise

This was our room on a cruise many years ago.

First evening of a three day cruise. I'm fifteen. My brothers are younger. My mum is the only adult on the trip. Because I'm a teenager, like hell I'm going to spend time with my family. I find a guy my age and sing karaoke with him.

When it gets late I get back to the cabin. My mum is suffering from mild sea sickness. Brothers are asleep. I'm left with a top bunk. Great. I climb up, without turning on any lights so as not to wake my brothers. I spread open the blanket and...

It looks like poo. It can't be poo. I turn on the small mounted reading light, and yeah it's poo. Mostly dry. Three distinct piles on my snow white sheets.

I climb down. Mum doesn't believe me at first. When she goes to see for herself she tells me she's too sea sick to go to the reception, so I can take her bed and she will sleep in the chair.

It's f*cking poo! If they missed that, what else did they miss? But it's late, I'm so so so tired, I'm an awkward fifteen year old. Last thing I'm going to do is talk to someone. I resign myself to sleeping in the chair and prop my feet against the vanity desk. Now the light is on, because mum had to see the poo for herself.

As I lay in the chair staring at the ceiling I see poo. In the ceiling. I start to laugh. It's too absurd. I turn on all the lights and there are brown stripes in the ceiling! That's not all! If I look closely, it's also in the carpet. Faint, because they got most of it out, but it's there.

Mum says we'll sort this out in the morning.

I'm too angry to sleep!

I go to the information/reception alone. (Before cell phones, and it didn't occur to me to use the cabin phone.) I have to wait, the man at the desk is helping a drunk passenger. When it's my turn, he doesn't believe me. I get angry, which makes him believe me even less. He's condescending towards me. He goes on to say how every cabin is cleaned between trips and nothing like that has ever happened.

Well it happened now. To me. I threaten to throw all the soiled linen into the hallway and he finally agrees to come with me. We have to wait a bit for another staff member to take over the desk, and he's scoffing and puffing. He really doesn't want to do this.

I show him the poo in the bed and on the ceiling and floor, and now that I'm looking at the backside on the chair it's smeared into it as well.

The man is reeeeeaaaallly dismissive. He calls the cleaners, who come and change our sheets while me, mum and my sleepy brothers wait in the hallway.

They find poo in the shower as well.

They clean up the cabin, and the receptionist briefly blames the previous cleaning crew, but that's all we get in the way of apologies.

We don't get an apology, we don't get a new room, we don't get complimentary nothing. We go to sleep in the same room.

Except me, because I'm angry, shaky and full of adrenaline from having argued with an adult.

- Jellorage

Youth Group

Giphy

I've worked in the hotel industry for many years in corporate sales.

A few years ago I got a call from a Director of Sales at a hotel who was upset at one of the groups we had booked into her hotel. It was a youth - religious group (read cheap, low-rates, and pretty un-supervised).

Many of these groups like to bring in their own food and coolers and snacks to keep meal costs down. Totally fine.

What's NOT fine is deciding to make grilled cheese sandwiches with the iron & ironing board.

So of course this group checks out on a Sunday, and in check all of the business travelers on Sunday night... and they wake up Monday morning to freshly press their suits & dress shirts for their important business meetings, only to have the irons leave giant iron sized grease stains all over their suits as they get ready to go to a conference or important meetings.

So this hotel not only had to replace over 100 irons & ironing board covers - but comp rooms & pay for dry cleaning (or in some cases reimburse) for a ton of expensive business clothes.

Needless to say, that "youth group" wasn't invited to stay with our hotels ever again.

- RoadRage000

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?