People Describe The Most 'Small Town' Thing They've Ever Witnessed
Reddit user official_biz22 asked: 'What's the most "small town" thing you've witnessed?'
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.'”
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?
We all have to come from somewhere, but some of us are more willing to go back to visit our hometowns than others.
In all honesty, it's easier to put the past behind us than to reminisce.
Redditor drax3012 asked:
"What is your town infamous for?"
Segregated Schools
"Being one of the last cities in Texas to desegregate schools (1995). We also have a big bike race."
- Pie_Investor
101 Dalmatians Reference
"Mine has the largest working fire hydrant in Texas, but it is also a gift from the '101st Dalmation' movie being released."
- Inevitable_Cook2294
Rampant Racism
"The town I grew up in was infamous as the town the farthest north with an active KKK chapter. Secondary claims to fame: About 70% Polish immigrants and the fact that the leader of the American Nazi party was the Republican nominee for the house a few years ago."
"Those last two are kind of paradoxical if you think about the irony of Polish immigrants mainly supporting the Nazi party."
- pesky-pretzel
Trending Debt
"Being the first major metropolitan city to go into bankruptcy and receivership."
"Oh, and for a mayor who stole money from the taxpayers, cheated on his wife with strippers, and may have also killed a stripper."
"Oh, and we are also infamous for eight-mile, AKA the street that now has a bunch of weed dispensaries on it."
- BumpyDenny93
Terrible Traffic
"Infamous? It's generally thought of as racist with really bad traffic and hot weather."
"But in reality, it's not that racist, and the weather is OK, but yeah, the traffic is actually even worse than people think."
- Slimetusk
Those Fall Parties
"Oktoberfest... the Canadian version."
- HampsterGriffin
How Tragic
"A big ship that sank on her first go out."
- punkerster101
Myths Born Overnight
"Drunk hillbillies having a gunfight with aliens."
"No, seriously."
"I don't really have an inside scoop. It was 13 years before I was born, and 30 years before I lived here."
"Locally, it seems to be a humorously shameful anecdote. There is a 'festival' every year, but it serves as a showcase for small businesses/gospel singers/politicians/etc from the area."
"Personally, I'm a big fan of all things supernatural and cryptid. And I probably believe more than the average person... but this story."
"Probably horned owls and moonshine."
- darthjenkins
Random Shoes
"Well, not just the place I'm from, but random feet in sneakers washing up on shore. Has been happening for decades now."
"Thought to be a result of people who died in the ocean, their bodies eventually coming apart, and the buoyant sneakers keeping their feet afloat to wash up, but there are of course some much creepier theories."
- Youpunyhumans
Somewhere in the Midwest
"More cows than people."
- sleepyJoesBidet
An Introvert's Nightmare
"The happiest place on earth that packs you in like sardines."
- boopcorgi
An Extrovert's Nightmare
"It's so boring, even introverts are moving away."
- Omasrealaccount
About That...
"We kinda started the Civil War…"
- JDubya_Rx
A Haunting Education
"Our schools(allegedly) were modeled off of prisons in the 1960s, and a lot of ghost stories. So many that a book was made just listing all of them."
- Global_Box_7935
Dark Days
"Largest mass execution in US history."
- universeforinfinity3
Not every town has the darkest history, but it must be rough to have grown up in a town with an infamous past.
At least those who are aware of the history will be less likely to repeat it.
Most towns have a story to tell.
After decades of Dateline NBC, 20/20, 48 Hours and ID Discovery... what town is left without a story?
There is always a moment or a person of infamy.
It's tragic, but true.
Scandal makes the world go round.
Redditor AndyBales wanted to hear the small town tales that left everybody shook, so they asked:
"Redditors who grew up in small towns, what was 'the incident?'"
My towns are dull. But I have a feeling dull is good.
Scraped
Yard Work Dog GIFGiphy"It was hushed up, but the former sheriff of my hometown stole people's lawnmowers and sold them for scrap for close to a decade. Weird place."
Power_Wiz_IV
In the Woods
"A light shining into the sky a couple times from out in the woods. Police went out to check it, found a man no one knew in a cabin no one knew of, LOADED with guns and ammunition. When asked why he had so many, what he was doing shining a light into the sky."
"He was sending a beacon to the aliens because they told him to shine a light to guide them, when he had things ready for them…. Yeah."
IDontEvenCareBear
BAAAHHHHH!!!!
"'The incident' involved sheep..."
"A flock of sheep kept on the town green migrated through a broken fence into the adjacent cemetery. The sheep became known as the 'Lamb-scapers' because they did a better job of manicuring the cemetery grounds than the maintenance person."
Back2Bach
The Scandal
"Guy in my high school knocked up the daughter of the local fitness center owner. The owner offered him a car to leave his daughter alone and not be a part of the baby’s life. He accepted the offer and took the car. Once she gave birth, they ran away together in the car."
"The fitness center owner found them, torched the car, and threatened to kill the guy. They fought and the baby daddy won. This apparently garnered some respect from both men and now everyone seems like a happy family."
LessGoooo
The Stash
pulp fiction art GIF by hoppipGiphy"A wealthy couple were brutally murdered in their home by an adult daughter and her boyfriend. It was rumored they had a ton of money stashed in the house."
bemest
Money is always the root of evil.
Down the street...
Will Smith Smh GIF by The Academy AwardsGiphy"A guy robbed the bank then ran to his home to hide… that was down the street. Took the cops an embarrassingly long time to get him."
Wenissucker
Bianca Piper...
"Small town in Missouri. Bianca Piper, it was 2005, supposedly she went for a walk after a fight with her mom and was never seen again. I was a junior in high school and skipped school that day. My friends and I freaked when we saw cop cars and helicopters out EVERYWHERE. Thought they were looking for us. Everyone here has always said her mother had something to do with it."
thallemeyer
The Giggler
"The 40something drunk man who broke into the high school dressed as batman to prank scare the high school classes by staring in the windows then running away giggling uncontrollably to appear somewhere else on campus and scare a different class. There was an hour and a half long lockdown and he ended up found and arrested."
quietcopse
At the Bottom
"A little girl had a seizure (or hit her head. Nobody knows for sure) in the YMCA swimming pool, went unconscious, and drowned during a youth swim team practice. My sister and her friends were also on the team. They saw her at the bottom of the pool and thought she was just messing around. Lifeguards and instructors weren’t even paying attention."
broshley
WTH?!
Okaay What GIF by ABC NetworkGiphy"Some cheerleaders pooped on a pizza at cheer camp and blamed the rival high school's cheerleaders. George Bush (president at the time) even spoke about it."
Alicesblackrabbit
Lord, the scandals of a small town.
People Break Down The Biggest Scandal To Ever Rock Their Small Town
Scandals and gossip are the bread and butter of small towns, where nothing much really happens, and any small faux pas can turn into a misstep everyone in town will remember for the next decade.
Sometimes, though, truly remarkable things happen in small towns. Whether it's a spectacular crime such as a murder or a politician embezzling town funds, or simply some bizarre event that nobody could explain, it'll definitely end up in the local paper.
There's not much to do in small towns, after all.
Reddit user meepmeep_4 asked:
"What was the biggest scandal in your small town?"
Murder and Mayhem
"Probably the Brown's Chicken Massacre, where 7 people were murdered at the restaurant over a robbery. Case was cold for 9 years until the girlfriend on one of the murderers went to the police that he had confessed to her. He and his friend were eventually convicted through DNA and a confession."
Sex Ed Failed This Guy
"Back in the 80s, during my senior year one guy in my high school class got 4 girls pregnant in a month long period. None of the girls were his girlfriend. The guy and his family left town during the middle of the night soon after that."
Classic Fraud
"Mayor and several city councillors were taking kickbacks and bribes from demolition/construction/cleaning companies for clean up contracts after a hurricane, funded by FEMA."
"The companies would give the mayor and city councillors like a couple grand, then the company would get FEMA funds in the tens of thousands to clean up/destroy a hurricane damaged property, only the address given to FEMA and listed on the contract were fake, or already cleared, so the companies got paid to do nothing."
Maybe DARE Wasn't the Best Idea
"DARE officer selling drugs that were evidence."
"Ha! There's an officer in my town who did the same thing. Spoke at DARE things but then gets busted selling weed from the evidence locker."
"Buddy's uncle got busted by our very small town DARE officer with a LB of weed in his trunk. At his court appearance his charges were for a half LB, since his jail time was going to be the same (not his first intent to distribute charge) he had his lawyer inform the judge of the discrepancy, which launched an investigation and a conviction of the DARE officer."
Medical Ethics Violations Across the Board
"There was an anesthetist, who worked at our local hospital and another hospital in a different town. He was rather well known among other doctors and known to be good at what he was doing. He only had a small problem with being addicted to pain killers and anaesthetics."
"So to feed his addiction without getting caught he shot up part of his patients' drugs before injecting the same needle into his patient."
"Thus went unnoticed until it was discovered that over 60 of his patients got infected with hepatitis. And that he was the source for it."
"He was fired and his license revoked as far as I know. But the hospital's image still suffered quite a bit."
From Tragic to Worse
"I'm from a very small town in Canada. Very quiet, nothing big ever came up and it was a fairly tight-knit community. One day, and explosion went off in an apartment building. A 23 yr old, single mother (who also happens to be a quadriplegic) was killed instantly."
"The case was eventually solved, the explosion was a gift-wrapped piped bomb left by her former financial adviser. He squandered hundreds of thousands of dollars from her and was convicted for it, he was then released on bail and then left the bomb."
"Wild sh*t."
Killer Doc
"I’m originally from a down called Hyde, a few miles outside Manchester. Unfortunately, Hyde is famous for Harold Shipman, the once trusted GP who killed elderly patients by overdosing them with diamorphine. My grandma’s neighbour (Jack) was one of his many victims. (Side note: he also did my mum’s ultrasound when she was pregnant with me!). RIP Jack, you were a wonderful man."
"Harold Shipman has the highest confirmed body count of any serial killer on Wikipedia. There are worse monsters out there, but they're war criminals, terrorists and democidal governments..."
Very Comic Book Villain
"Was outside on my driveway playing basketball and multiple helicopters flew overhead. My friend in another neighborhood over texted me saying they evacuated all of the houses on her road and there were fbi or bomb squad agents or something there. Later found out some guy on the street tried to taint the town's water supply with blowfish venom and kill everyone."
Smuggling, But Not What You'd Expect
"I love in a Canadian border town. This police officer, nice as hell, that my grandmother cleaned for would gift her things, and seemed to have alot more money than your average cop. She would get wine, cheese, and other things. The most gifted item however, was cheese."
"Now, at the same time, there was a pizza place down the street from my house. The owners lived a couple doors down, and I was friends with their son, and the parents were pretty cool as far as neighbours go."
"They also had alot of money, for owning a pizza place in decline. After a bit, things got serious. I would see undercover police sitting at the end of my street in my way home from school nearly every day. They weren't very incognito, but neither were the pizza place owners."
"Eventually though, things came crashing down. A whole bunch of cops and restaurant owners were taken to jail in the largest cheese bust the town has ever known."
"That's right. Cheese."
"The price of cheese in Canada is ridiculous, so a few members of the police department decided to use their abilities to smuggle it across the border."
"They would go across, buy all the cheap, good quality stuff they could get, then use their badge to get back across, as the border patrol and cops all know eachother, so the chance of them paying duty was 0%."
"Anyways, that was the big scandal in the town. You can probably look it up if you search for cheese smugglers, or cheese scandal."
Zebras on the Run
"A group of zebras escaped a local, legal habitat and have been roaming the suburbs. It’s been weeks and they still haven’t been caught."
While most people think of small towns as boring places where nothing ever happens, they're often the place where the weirdest and most tragic stuff happens.
The rest of the world may just never hear about it.
As much as there is an allure of living in small towns, there seems to be just as much mystery.
There is a sense of security in knowing that someone has your back.
But on the same token, as is typically depicted in movies, small towns have their fair share of nefarious activity that those in the know are sweeping under the rug to maintain their town's good name.
Curious to hear about bizarre cases that don't always make mainstream news headlines, Redditor descended_from_apes asked:
"Small Town Redditors, what's the weirdest unsolved crime in your town, old or new?"
Not all mysteries involve unsolved murders but are just as baffling
A Crime In The Turd-Degree
"Nowhere near the scale of disappearing children or Nazi collaborators, but my hometown's biggest mystery is who keeps sh**ting in the holes at the golf course."
"Person has been doing it for more than 20 years. Every 2-3 months, there's a hole that's been pooped in."
Outstanding Debts
"I found out my grandma played cards with the mob in a liquor store basement. I was reading a news article on a cold case from the former owner disappearing for an English assignment and my grandma kinda just frowned, told me she used to play cards with him and never payed his debts."
House On Fire
"Not exactly 'small town', but small compared to the region. There was a house that burned down 3 times in the span of a decade. I remember hearing lots of rumors about divorces and revenge, gang activity, being cursed. Not sure if it was ever solved."
When Children Played No More
"In 2003 in my hometown, someone decided to burn down a playground. This was in a very small rural town. The nearest playground aside from that one was 15 miles away. This playground was decent sized too, and I believe it was made possible by a donation from someone in town. It was mostly wood with rubberized mesh, steel bars, and large plastic slides."
"Nobody ever figured out who did it."
Unsolved missing persons cases like the ones mentioned below must be pure torture for family members.
Death Chair
"Happened this year."
"A man rented a room at a guest house. When he left the host went to go clean/ prepare the room for the next occupant."
"The room was covered in blood. In the shower there was a chair with a pool of blood-it is assumed the person died in the chair."
"So the baffling part is that there is a camera trained in the room's door. The man entered and left alone without a speck of blood on him."
"The authorities assumed the blood belonged to a woman whose chopped-up body was found in a nearby damm. Blood tests came back and it doesn't."
Missing Classmate
"1973: My 4th grade buddy, Guy Heckle, disappeared during a boy scout camping trip. They found his coat, that was all. Not another clue after all these years."
The Bar Patron
"Man got kicked out of a bar 3 years ago this December and went missing. Nobody has come forward with tips at all. He went missing from a fairly busy part of town too."
People Break Down Their Greatest Accomplishment On The Internet | George Takei’s Oh Myyy
Child Abduction
"My cousin, TJ Davison was abducted from a car in 1985 and has still yet to be found. He was 4 years old at the time. (Decatur, IL)"
And sometimes, when the bodies turn up, their identities can remain forever a mystery.
In Deep Trouble
"Where I grew up they found a dude who was buried under the cement in a building, no history or information about him. It's clear that he got into some deep trouble with someone."
– KGhaleon
Remains In A Lake
"About 15 years ago. A town near where I grew up drained a man made lake that was used for recreational swimming. This particular year they decided to drain the whole thing to do a clean up. They discovered an intact skeleton that had been sitting at the bottom of the lake for something like 50 years based on the class ring that was still on the skeleton. From my understanding this person had never been reported missing or anything."
Double Mystery
"Two bodies were found on my island in SE Asia in the last 24 hours. One was found in the jungle after being there for a year in an apparent motorbike accident the other washed up on the beach."
– BKKJB57
What's In The Barrel
"There was an old story that during prohibition a big barrel showed up at the post office, addressed to someone no one knew. It was obviously filled with alcohol."
"When the time to pick up expired and it was still there, it was tapped to find whisky inside. It was enjoyed by many, but when it was gone, it was still quite heavy."
"So they opened it up to discover a dead body."
– Dudeinairport ·
Some of the saddest cases involve the deaths of a newborn.
Murderous Mother
"Back in 1903 a local woman poisoned many members of her family, including a baby over a few months. She served time and died but never really admit to a motive. One theory is that she really liked attending irish funerals."
The Infant
"About 30yrs ago a refuse worker found the badly burned body of an 18 month old boy amongst the bags and recycling. Forensics deduced that due to the condition of his liver he'd died less than a week before his body was found."
"Hospital and medical records were used to establish that nobody in the county was missing a child."
"He doesn't have a name on his gravestone."
"Edit: it was in Cumbria, England."
"The police likely didn't retain a DNA sample, or we might have heard something about familial DNA by now.The local police aren't very good - look up the case of Poppi Worthington as an example."
"Most local people assume he died of SIDS, then his parents panicked and tried to conceal his body. Whoever did it must have had an element of local knowledge in order to know where to put the corpse."
A Proper Burial
"There is a street in my city called Park Ave. It's a very small city, mostly blue collar."
"In 2005, a newborn baby boy was found dead near a factory on Park Ave. Doctors could tell he was born alive and likely lived for a few hours before he died. I don't know if he was abandoned (left to die) or killed in some way; that info was never released. Police made a statement saying please come forward, we want to help you bury this child properly."
"The mother sent an anonymous letter to the police station two weeks later, and said she would come to the station soon. The letter didn't explain the circumstances, but it did say she was afraid."
"She never came forward. The baby was named 'Baby Parker' and money was raised to give him a proper burial. People still leave gifts at his grave."
Thanks to horror movies, small towns get a bad rep.
Under the veneer of warm hospitality and kindness lies an unsettling sense of discomfort.
Are the denizens covering up a murder committed by one of their own? Or was there a grifter who dumped a body in their unassuming town and fled the scene?
In the game of life, no one gets out alive. But hopefully, your life's journey won't end in a small town.