Small towns form the backbone of our country where farming and culture met and flourished for the first centuries of our existence. Railroads and interstates nearly destroyed them, but with the resilience of strong foundations, they have begun the slow process of bringing us together once again. Revitalization efforts across the country are bringing back the history and the charm of simpler times while claiming some of the elements of our current culture. Antique stores stand next to modern home furnishing glitz.
Throughout my life, I’ve abhorred, abandoned, and adored—and in that order—the small villages that dot the landscape. Now I find it fascinating to study their history because it really is the history of the United States of America.
I was born in a small Michigan town with a population of 1,100. Today, seventy years later, that village still boasts nearly the same population. I hated living there at the time. Isolated in winter, filled with hypocrites flaunting wealth and gossip all the while praying to the good Lord in church each Sunday. I couldn’t wait to leave and move to Ann Arbor approximately thirty miles away.
By the time I turned eighteen and graduated from high school, the door wasn’t hitting me in the back because I’d flown out of it the moment I graduated from high school. After seven years of “big city” life, my first husband and I escaped Michigan and traded our culturally rich life and debilitating winters for a small town in north Florida. I loved everything about this small town—a place that didn’t know my history or my family. We embraced living there and participated as leaders in the revitalization in the town that had been abandoned when tobacco no longer reigned in the south. And we had another university town, Gainesville, just down the road twenty miles. We had it all.
When I began my writing career, I spent hours studying the history of my adopted new rural area. I wrote for Florida Today magazine on the renaissance of the small-town theaters to revitalize the forgotten Main Streets of the state. Those theaters had once been the mainstay of towns across the country and when the railroads and highways drew people away from the downtowns of small communities, the demise of the theaters began the crushing despair for small town living.
In the past two decades I’ve enjoyed living in several small towns. One, outside Pittsburgh, is truly in decline. We lived in the rural area outside of Aliquippa, Pennsylvania, and spent more time in Pittsburgh than the abandoned steel mill town on the banks of the Ohio River.
For eight summers and falls, we lived in a small North Carolina town in the foothills of the Smokies. I didn’t have a large city nearby, but we were two hours from Atlanta, Chattanooga, Knoxville, and Asheville, so we had our choice in every direction.
I loved all the experiences. I still am fascinated by the origins, ups and downs, and renaissance of these small towns. Some of the time, I stumble upon them by accident when we decide to get off the highways and explore the backroads of this country. They provide a rich history populated with stories of pioneers and legends.
So, sit back and enjoy the small towns I’ve had the pleasure of visiting. And I’d love to learn more about your favorite places. Next week, I’ll take you to a special north Florida town that has seen its share of ups and downs.
P.C. ZICK 