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.
There is anonymity in privacy, which is why I'm a big fan of living in a large city (and am perfectly okay with it remaining that way). It's easy to keep people out of your business when you're surrounded by millions of other people.
That's not true in small towns, where even the most innocuous personal drama can be distorted. So when scandals happen (and trust that they do) they tend to captivate the local imagination in ways not seen in big cities.
People told us all about the latest drama in their neck of the woods after Redditor Pessimistic_Soviet asked the online community,
"Those of you who live in small towns, what is the current local controversy all about?"
"Dogs are now getting sick..."
"Thousands of crabs washed ashore dead but nobody really knows why; I think they blamed wind turbines at one point. Dogs are now getting really sick and there are warnings for people to stay away from the beach but nobody knows why it’s happening."
MariahCareyButt
It sounds like algae toxins, which wouldn't surprise me.
"The problem with that is..."
"While fleeing another hit and run, and possible DUI, some dude tried to go full speed directly thru the middle of our town square. The problem with that is we have a big historic fountain there. Traffic is usually supposed to swerve arround the fountain, he did not."
"This dude in a white SUV ramps into our fountain, and smashes into the center pillar. Thankfully the fountain was off for the winter, so there was less damage, but they still have no clue how, and how much money it's gonna take to fix this mess."
"The car was removed, but the fountain is still wrapped up in its tarp a month later. There's security cam footage of the ramp and its all anyone could talk about for a few weeks."
raven_1313
It sounds like that fountain is the town's pride and joy so it makes sense that everyone is a bit bent out of shape about it.
"A woman knows..."
"A woman known as a pretty awful person disappeared. 'Everyone' knows it was probably her husband, but the family owns over 10,000 acres and no body has been found. The rest of her family is ramping up an awareness campaign so should be interesting to see where this all goes."
Ordo501
I expect the Lifetime movie to drop any day now.
"A guy wanted to bury his parents..."
"A guy wanted to bury his parents on their (parents’) slightly rural, totally out of the way, virtually-no-neighbors property, but the village said no way. We don’t do that here. We’re classy."
"So he went to the state for permission to build a funeral home/crematorium instead, and he built a giant mausoleum with both their caskets right on the corner of the property where everyone and their grandma can see it when they drive by!"
"And he has zero plans to actually turn this into a functioning business. It’s about half done, no landscaping, and construction vehicles parked all over the place. Gotta hand it to him!"
Axel0812
Okay, this is petty (and brilliant) as all hell and I am LIVING for it.
"A couple promised..."
"A couple promised a lot of cakes and fancy breads to the local festival and didn't deliver. Everyone has been mad at them for the last two weeks."
ChangeWinter4443
I mean... wouldn't you be? We're talking about cakes AND fancy breads here.
"The girl's volleyball coach..."
"Town of about 1800. The girl's volleyball coach got a DWI. The school's principal went to pick her up from jail, and was arrested for DWI himself. Somehow it got out that these two (both married) were having an affair."
stickshaker73
In a small town how did they think they'd be able to keep any of that secret?
"Two places..."
"Two places make dill dip. One accused the other of stealing the recipe."
duckswithbanjos
This is the sort of drama that I can see being developed into an award-winning indie film.
"People here..."
"People here in my town of 396 are still upset that the local Christmas tree was taken down and thrown away with all the lights still on it."
Onlykitten
I mean... I get it. Sounds like a total waste.
"The woman who just got elected..."
"The woman who just got elected mayor owns most of the property downtown, and all the open seats on city council went to her employees. Can’t wait to see the corruption in action."
Blanchypants
Ha, how convenient. I wonder what her explanation for this was. Probably nothing satisfactory.
"Swans..."
"Swans in the local rivers/lakes have been dying from avian flu and we’ve all been warned to keep our dogs away from sick or dead swans in case infection spreads to humans."
allywillow
Need I remind you that we are in the middle of a global pandemic so I hope people do manage to keep their dogs away, just to be on the safe side!
There's something to be said about small towns – they somehow never fail to entertain us with all their drama.
It's fun to hear about it – definitely not as fun to live it.
Have some stories of your own? Feel free to tell us more in the comments below!
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People Who Live In Small Towns Divulge Their Biggest Scandal
Small towns are often awash with gossip, so any embarrassing or scandalous behavior is usually known by everyone in town in a surprisingly short amount of time.
Some towns definitely have a bit more scandal than others, though, as these Reddit responses show.
Reddit user u/Ayayaya3 asked:
"People living in small towns, what's the recent scandal?"
10.
A few days ago, Amber Alert sent out an emergency message about a fellow in a green car who had stabbed his girlfriend and stolen their baby out of San Jose, which is 3 hours north of us. Lo and behold, the guy was caught right at our own downtown gas station when the kidnapper accidently locked the baby and his keys in his car, which drew attention to him. A good samaritan from an entirely different town, (a tourist), put the puzzle together, and put the guy in a headlock until the authorities arrived.
9.
A local police department likes to post "Wanted" pictures on its Facebook page.
The other day, I saw one of their sh*tty Wanted postings of some woman who is allegedly evading police for drug charges and intent to distribute.
The suspect herself commented on the post and said, "I'm not evading, I'm not on the run, I've been out of town, and when I come back I'm turning myself in."
8.
A couple months ago someone left their fire pit in their driveway for a few days. They received a mailed letter from an anonymous neighbor shaming them for making the neighborhood look bad. The recipient then posted the letter on the town's Facebook page. People ran with it and created the first annual front yard fire night.
7.
The town went with the lowest bidder for a big roadwork contract, and it turns out they were totally unqualified for the job and were messing stuff up. So the town fired them and hired the second-lowest bidder. Same thing. They're on their third contractor now IIRC, and the project which was supposed to be done this summer will hopefully be finished sometime next year.
6.
Our city council just voted to give themselves a 103% raise.
For reference, the pay is low-mid 20k currently, the raise puts the pay at 52k. The support is that more people will be able to get into office with the higher pay, and wages were stagnant from many years ago. So instead of the gradual pay increase over those years with cost of living, it's been adjusted to the current market today resulting in a significant jump. The overall trend from opposers is that they were blindsided and didn't get to vote on it like the last mayor said should happen.
5.
We don't know who but someone has been going around egging random cars and throwing full water bottles at people's windshields..
4.
Our newly elected mayor (who is a school teacher as well) caused a head-on car crash injuring 2 small children in the other car. She was found to be drunk and it was 330pm on a weekday. The kicker: she wasn't charged with a crime (as of yet) but she did resign after "considerable thought."
3.
I left my small town years ago but I was home over thanksgiving and got an earful.
The local grocery store was renovated/expanded after 30 years and now "everything's moved and you can't find nothing".
I was home for four days and literally every new social interaction with people in town involved the go**amn grocery store and how awful it is now.
Spoiler: it actually looks quite nice and they hang signs over the aisles telling you where things are. You know, like a grocery store.
2.
During my sisters volleyball game one of the super aggressive sports dads slapped someone else's kid- cause apparently she "set the ball into a bad positioning" and that caused his daughter to miss the spike
His kid is not good at the game
I played volleyball for a long time and my mom sent me footage of the set, she set that ball beautifully for the small league she's in
They won the game- just be happy
The entire community is turned against him right now and the family of the girl is considering pressing charges, which i feel they should cause this guy has gotten close to crossing the line before and he needs to be reprimanded for his actions
Edit; a lot of you have commented about how he didn't get beat at the game, no one had the chance because immediately realized he f**ked up and ran out to his car
He drove away leaving his kid to be embarrassed and alone in a court full of people pissed at her dad ( one of the nice moms gave her a ride back to her house where she spent the night )
And on a happier note I've just learned from my mom that charges are being pressed, and investigations into the living conditions in his house are being conducted, i'll update when the results come in.
1.
My grandparents small town has had a recent outbreak of teenagers riding horses through the middle of downtown, while wearing nothing but facemasks. It has happened a total of three times now, always different kids, always different horses.