I never knew I would love living in a small town, but I do. I grew up an Army brat, living on bases and in housing developments and assigned housing. Even in Germany we lived in a military apartment block. Across the street was the little elementary school where I never did learn to speak German besides the requisite numbers and basic words.
I loved College Station but you couldn’t call that a small town with the numbers of students stumbling about from August to May. Then it was Houston, then Dallas, then a suburb outside of Dallas. I finally moved to Denton (again not a small town) when I started Abingdon Park & Pony Farm at a barn in Aubrey (which is arguably a small town, but I didn’t live there).
Once I met and married Tony we searched the area until we found our old, abandoned house and nine acres on a dead-end street on the outside of Pilot Point. We were lucky, the place was a short sale. And so we built our dream.
I knew I was officially part of a small town when I went to the post office and they saw my last name and asked if I was any relation to Lillie and Marshall Tullos. Indeed, I said, somewhat startled by the attention. Those are my parents-in-law. After that the postmistress and I became fast acquaintances, gossiping about the ins and outs of the goings-on in the area.
At first I wasn’t sure I enjoyed running into people Tony knows in every restaurant and every store we were in. After fifteen years I have gotten used to it. We pass a house or a property and Tony says…. “my grandpa/uncle/cousin/aunt used to live there.” There’s a story and a relative for every acre of this town. We have gone to see the numerous houses he grew up in. We’ve joked about the “one room schoolhouse” he attended, which housed grades kindergarten through 12th and still exists as the administration building. Now, all this is in Aubrey, not Pilot Point, but the leap isn’t far considering we are only about ten minutes up the road.
I can’t say that I love Pilot Point specifically, as I am too far removed from the daily goings-on and have no desire to be intricately involved, and I didn’t go to school here. But the small town life is sweet, I’ll admit. I love that everything is fairly connected, and on one main street. I love that there’s a square where there are events such as Christmas on the Square and Bonnie and Clyde days. I love the history here and the fact that there’s a picture of “historic Pilot Point” in every office and bank up and down the highway. I love that you can hear the band play at the football games no matter where in town you are.
I never knew that there could be one elementary school, one middle school and one high school and that the entire town could be Bearcats. Where I grew up every school was its own entity. This entire town bleeds orange and black. These kids know each other from preschool through high school graduation. When Tony says “I went to school with …. so and so” I am no longer shocked that he remembers. And not just the kids in his own class! I am no longer surprised by the number of people who have never left, either. My hair stylist went to school with Tony. So did the pharmacist. I’m sure Tony could name twelve more. My own high school had over 600 kids in my graduating class. I’d be lucky to name five of them. None of whom I am in touch with.
And if you need to know what’s going on ’round here just hop onto the Idle Chatter Facebook page. There’s not a week goes by without someone asking what’s going on down the Dollar General cuz they saw an ‘amblance’ out front, and who’s fine-looking Great Pyrenees dog is out cuz there’s one ambling down Harrison street. And if your package got delivered to someone else’s house, why all you have to do is post that picture and you’re bound to get your goods re-delivered to your own front door.
Don’t have to worry about teenagers causing trouble cuz that Idle Chatter is all over that with rants and rages about how there’s a party with no parents going on and them po-lice cars are gonna show up and tell ever’body to go home, and who ever took my kid’s bicycle please return that – it was a whole paycheck and I can’t affort to get another one and if your kid came home with a pink Stanley cup please take that back to the school cuz it ain’t hers.
Boy, don’t worry if the Dairy Queen is closed because pretty soon there’s gonna be something up on Idle Chatter about why the manager just up and left and if your chicken fried steak isn’t cooked all the way or is just covered in grease at the local fry-up restaurant don’t worry cuz we’re all going to hear about it soon enough. Hopefully letting everyone know about your pain is enough to make you feel better. For the love of all things holy, don’t go down 455 cuz there’s traffic for miles and do you know who was in that wreck last night cuz I saw lights? Please check on your loved ones because it was a white Ford truck super-duty and 8 out of 10 people here drive one of those.
Now don’t get me wrong, Brookshires is great. But if you’re looking for a deal on those Diet Cokes you’re gonna have to trot yourself down to the Walmart down the way because Brookshires is purely for convenience. It’ll do ya in a pinch for a bottle of wine though. I can tell you that from experience.
Lord Almightly, don’t get yourself involved in the politics round here unless you want to be dragged in the dirt and spit out by a llama cuz there certainly isn’t any grace to be found. I sure would like to know why all our FaceBook and ParentSquare feeds are full of the Superintendent and the ISD Chief of Police being put on probationary leave but I guess nobody gets to know that unless you want to be the one starting the gossip as to the reasons why. They sure like to keep us all informed of absolutely nothing though. Let’s make a big deal so that people never run out of things to talk about.
I mean I recognize the people that post incessantly on Idle Chatter and even I think to myself “oh Lord not Stephanie again!” I have no idea who Stephanie even is. But she’s a gossip or just has way too much time on her hands, I can tell you that. I’ve “unfollowed” the Idle Chatter too many times to count but I always come back because it’s just too delicious.
At any rate, I love that I can see the McDonald’s sign from my back porch and I know that they, Sonic, Dairy Queen, and the Subway are the only fast food in town. But if you want to eat Mexican food you’re in luck because there’s about six of those to choose from. I love that people here think they are getting a bad deal when prices of gas are twelve cents higher than they are in Denton. I love that everybody knows exactly where to go to vote, there’s only one tiny library and that my book is in it. Because I donated one to them. I’m considered a “local author” and that thrills me to no end. I’ve been in the paper! I’m famous here. (Not really but don’t burst my bubble please.)
There’s one funeral home in the area and everyone knows Terry. And if you don’t know him, you will. When Tony’s Dad died (about six months after my mom died) Terry asked me at the funeral how “Mom was doing.” I honestly was a bit shocked and almost said “well, she’s dead.” (Which he would know because her viewing was held there not six months earlier.) Luckily I realized he was actually referring to Tony’s mom and not my own. That’s just the way in a small town.
I hope nobody thinks that I am making fun of small town living. I honestly think it’s fabulous and I wouldn’t have it any other way now that I’ve experienced it. Sure, I could live even further away, say on fifty acres in the middle of the woods with no neighbors at all, but in the meantime this is what I’ve got and I truly do enjoy it. I love that Baby Girl gets to grow up here, secure in a place that she can truly say is her home. Even if we have no other family members living here, she knows its history. She knows the land, the place, the roots. She has this nine acres, this town, for better or worse, and hopefully will have fond memories of it, as I will. There’s something to be said for being an Army brat – independence and resilience and all that – but there’s something magical about living in a small town.
I’m looking forward to Christmas on the Square. Maybe I’ll see you there!
(Picture is from Christmas on the Square two years ago)