For those who grew up in a small city, you might be most likely conscious that it wasn’t only a place to hold your baseball cap; it was truly a lifestyle. Small-town dwelling was positively a factor and formed who you might be.
Earlier than Know-how Shrank the World, Small Cities Felt Massive Sufficient
Everyone knew each all people and all people’s enterprise, and from the second you bought your first bike, your world consisted of the stretch between the nook retailer (if you happen to had been fortunate to have one) and possibly the city park. Life did not really feel small (okay, possibly it did in your late teenagers) since you had the whole lot you wanted.
Junked cars in New Mexico
Earlier than GPS, group texts, and 24-hour shops, small-town life within the ’70s, ’80s, and even ’90s was less complicated. As know-how has grow to be extra accessible to extra individuals from all walks of life, you might say small cities now function very like bigger cities — simply on a smaller scale. However that distinction nonetheless issues.
YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE: Previous-College Methods We Listened to Music (and Why We Miss Them)
Fewer People reside in small cities than they’ve in many years previous. In line with the Rural America at a Look 2024 report from the USDA Financial Analysis Service, solely about 14–16 p.c of the U.S. inhabitants now lives in what will be thought of rural or small-town America.
That actuality hits dwelling once you make the journey again for Thanksgiving or Christmas and see how a lot has modified. Shops have closed, new housing developments have gone up, and the locations you used to journey your bike are actually blocked by fences. Or possibly it hasn’t modified in any respect… however you’ve.
20 Pictures That Completely Seize Small-City Life within the Nineteen Seventies
Make a journey down reminiscence lane — and down Foremost Avenue — with these pictures from the Nineteen Seventies that seize small-town life earlier than social media and smartphones, when issues had been less complicated, slower, and filled with real-world experiences.
Gallery Credit score: Stephen Lenz
Did Anybody Watch These TV Reveals within the Nineteen Eighties and Nineties?
Whilst you may suppose “watching whereas distracted” is a contemporary behavior, even again within the day the TV was simply… there, buzzing alongside when you did different issues. These had been the exhibits that weren’t precisely “must-see TV,” extra like “might-see TV” — a part of the tradition, however you needed to surprise: who was truly watching?
Gallery Credit score: Stephen Lenz
