THE BEST OF BOTH WORLDS
I’ve come to realize that I am a country girl at heart. Having grown up in Kingston, Jamaica I had always believed that I was more of a city person.
Now however, I live in a tiny town - more of a village really - an hour north of Toronto.
In our little town life is fairly simplistitic. Three cars in a row constitutes a traffic jam. Heaven forbid there are more than six cars. Then, us Small Towners can get truly annoyed, and curse at the prevading winds of progress!!!
In our little town, you can have a 20 minute conversation, while double parked on the main street and no one will blow the horn. There will be no shouts about the parts of one’s “Mumma!” either. Drivers wanting to pass merely drive around, and if it’s some one you know, you may triple park for a moment to rib them about double parking on the main street. Our town consists of:
One hardware store.
One pharmacy.
One grocery store - there used to be two, but there was not enough business
for two.
Two restuarants - actually one recently closed - the owners got too old.
Two movie rental stores.
Two bars - both serve meals at night.
Two gift stores - You know the artsy/crafty kind of stuff - very nice too.
Two real estate offices
One furniture store.
Two convenience stores.
As you can see. Us Small Towners take our entertainment seriously. Both our bars are fairly new. Its great to be able to go out to a bar and know you can walk home if necessary. Unfortunately, we do have lots of “used to haves”. Like a butcher store, the tiny department store, the second grocery store etc.
Sure we give up some things to live out in the boonies. We got the digital system for telephones (it appears) last in all of Ontario and we are not even vaguely the FAR, TRUE NORTH! We don’t have the varieties of lettuce that you can get in bigger towns closer to the city. We are only just getting access to high speed cable for our computers. But the advantages far outweigh the negatives.
Mostly everyone in town knows my kidlets - of course that also has to do with the fact that they are bi-racial. Not a truly common thing in the northern climes - although we are not the only mixed family in the area. You can go for walks pretty much any time of night - if you are willing to brave meeting critters like skunks in the summer or the cold in the winter. Life is definitely slower paced. Maybe that is what I enjoy so much coming from Ja.
Now for the city - the first turn-off for me is the crowdedness of Toronto, all the houses are so close together and the traffic constant. Then there’s the changing attitudes of the younger generation there. There was a news item on the radio today, about some 200 kids who attended some event and then when it was over, stormed the mall in the area and shop lifted from the stores, before the managers even knew what was happening. You do have the odd break- in in small town Ontario but it is MAJOR news! Not just another event.
Our kids go to school fairly confident that there will be no guns or knives there.
Of course there are fights but so far, it has been more the “hand to hand” kind.
There are many neighbourhoods in the city (according to the media) where the residents feel unsafe walking in front of their homes. I know that there are also many areas where this is not so. Unfortunately you do not hear about those.
The city has many great attractiions. (I can hear the Toronto Tourist Committee calling for my head!!!) Fortunately for this small town, we are close enough to drive down to the city when we wish to attend these attractions.
Don’t get me wrong, Toronto is one of the safest cities in the world. It is truly a beautiful city, with many parks and lots of trees and greenary. It has many things going for it. But this small town girl is quite happy living in the boonies. If it wasn’t for the chance of actually seeing bears in one’s back yard I’d even consider moving further north!!!!
August 30th, 2003 at 10:10 am There are definitely benefits to big city living as well as to living in small towns. It is good that you have achieved both. Your town is not too far from the big city… You can get the best of both worlds.
August 30th, 2003 at 8:32 pm Ciya, I like you do prefer a slower pace to life, but your town sounds a bit too slow. I have dreamed in recent years of living in Port Antonio, the beauty of Portland and its attractions (eg. Frenchman’s Cove) does much for the spirit. However, one of the drawbacks with sleepy town living is that decent paying jobs are not that easy to come by, and entertainment is often scarce. Despite my liking a slower pace, I do need a little night life every so often. Kingston has really become too congested and the people have become much like city dwellers in any big city in the ‘First World’. I would love to be able to leave the house and reach work in fifteen minutes and see scenery on the way without any traffic. But alas, for the time being I suppose I will make do as it could be worse I guess. Maybe if I win the Lotto I can buy a nice villa on the hills above San San and work Monday to Thursday 10-3. Weekends begin Thursday evening and end on Sunday. Sounds like good rass living eh? But you know the saying….’if wishes were horses’……Then again, where there’s a will, there’s a way! Watch me!
December 9th, 2003 at 5:39 pm