While I know that small town living doesn't agree with everyone, for me, our life here is just about perfect. I grew up in the city and I always felt a sense of disconnection. The pace of city life moves so quickly and while there are people who find a sense of community in their neighbourhoods (my parents being two), that never worked for me. The tightness of a small town that disagrees with some, agrees totally with me. On days like the day of our town Santa Claus parade, I feel that very keenly.
I am a total sucker for hokiness and our town parade has that in spades. There are no fancy floats - most floats are either groups of kids from one club or another, a church group sitting in the back of someone's pick up truck, a few animals, a few local politicians and of course, the Shriners always come with their train car. For the little boys, the firetrucks are always there and we have some companies in town that have some pretty cool vehicles (like Pk's friend's dad who has an environmental assessment drilling company who draw the Cub Scouts in his machine that looks an awful lot like a tank. The local pipe band with about 20 very old and decrepid looking pipers also comes along. I love every second and most years, I end up in tears. There's just something so beautiful about simple people getting together, doing their best and having fun. LB was with the Beavers who rode on the back of a farm trailer covered in tree branches (and I thought that LB was trying to kill someone with a branch but he has assured me that he was "being a Christmas tree.") We saw lots of friends, we got to wave and say hi to people in just about every float or group and mostly, it was just a lot of small town fun. At the end of the parade, there was a table with hot chocolate for all of the participants and there were hot dogs and Santa at the community centre. It was awful and lovely and reminded me of exactly why I chose to live here and that I have been planted in just the right place for me!