I love it here. That is surprising to me and probably to many others.
I moved back to my home town nearly two years ago. When I left here at age 18 I, like many teenagers born in tiny rural towns, felt certain I would never be back. I went to college in another tiny town, but after that, it was to big cities for me. First Boston, then The Big Apple or thereabouts for nearly 40 years.
I was, after all, a small town girl, some would call a hick, a hillbilly or a redneck. While I was happy in NYC, I was quite a bit less happy in the suburbs of New York, where I quite simply did not fit in. I wasted 20 years there.
Necessity forced me to consider moving back to this town. I had to find housing suitable to care for an invalid, whom I cared for 24/7. But I couldn't visit the houses to see if they were suitable unless they were very nearby, because I couldn't leave him for more than a couple hours at a time. But I was unhappy where I had been living. Finding a house online, without seeing it, is very risky.
Then I heard that the house I am now living in would be on the market soon. It was an old family house, one I knew very well from my childhood and had stayed in just a few years before while visiting my Aunt Kitty.
Right away, I knew this house was a great layout to care for my disabled son. Two bedrooms right next to each other on the main floor, lovely 1900 home in excellent condition, on a quiet street in a nearly crime free town. Yes, it is the poorest county in the state, and one might think there would be a lot of crime here, but there is hardly any.
Several of my high school friends still live here, so I got a built in social life. I knew my way around. It is a five minute city, everything in walking distance, and I could go out for an evening and still be home in two hours. Perfect!
My son has left me, but I am nevertheless very happy in this redneck hillbilly town. The hills are teeming with interesting characters, artists, homesteaders, preppers and kooks.
And Love.
This is my entry to 's daily freewrite challenge. Today's prompt is not surprising.