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Small American Towns



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Fri Aug 01, 2008 4:59 pm
XxdeannaxX says...



Okay, I'm writing a book and I want to set it in a small town, preferably with a large-ish city nearby, but not totally necessary. I would like it to be a place that has snow in the winter. It also needs to have a high school in it. I did a google search for small towns, but I got a million results of myspace pages, etc. I was going to set it in my town, but then I decided not to. They say to write what you know, but for me, it just feels weird to imagine things going on in the streets I walk down each day. I get my reality and my imaginated stuff mixed up.
Any suggestions? If you could give me the name of a town, what state it's in, and what the name of the high school is, I would be eternally grateful.
  





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Fri Aug 01, 2008 5:05 pm
Clo says...



Wow! My area of expertise! I grew up in a small town.

Of course I'm not going to give you MY hometown - but I'll give you one I know of in the same state. There's this little town of Eden, not far away from a big city, in the state of New York. It snows there profusely in the wintertime, and it has a high school. It's a typical small town - country side around it, fields of corn or grapes or some crop, a small center with things like gas stations, corner stores, pizza places, a Subway, a Pet's store... by a lot of beaches, with very quaint signs on the main road.
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Fri Aug 01, 2008 5:14 pm
Bella says...



Haha, I can name bunhes! Granted, one of them may be the one I live in, I'll never tell you if it is or not. :P

These are all in Michigan, so it most definitely snows in the winter.

Apart from Detour, the others are about 45 minutes away from Coldwater, or Adrian, both of which are...cities. I won't say huge, but they've both got at least two malls. I don't know exactly how big you wanted the city to be.

Detour, Michigan. *no where near a big city, so far as I know of*
North Adams, Michigan.
Hillsdale, Michigan.
Jonesville, Michigan.
Reading, Michigan.

All of the high schools are named after this cities, so you have North Adams High School, Hillsdale High School, Jonesville High School, and Reading High School.

I have no idea about Detour, really. I visited up there a few summers ago, and it's really really small. I think their school is actually in another town, but I don't know the name of it.

If you have any questions about the other four cities, I can pretty much answer just about anything, and if I can't I can probably find someone who knows the answer. Just send me a PM. ^.^

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Fri Aug 01, 2008 5:25 pm
gamechanger10 says...



Oh, wow! Do I know about small towns!


Alright, so there are a bunch of places I could name, but here's one:

Strasburg, Pennsylvania. It snows there. Just the normal amount each winter, not many blizzards or anything, though. (by the way, it's in Lancaster a.k.a., Amish Country or county or whatever. There are Amish there.)

It's also about ten or fifteen minutes away from Lancaster City. It's not huge, but it's pretty big.

A few highschools are in the area. There's L-S (Lampeter-Strasburg) High School. That's the most in-county one.

Hope this helped! PM me if you have any other questions, etc.!
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Sat Aug 02, 2008 7:22 pm
TheWordsmith says...



Fair Oaks, California. Don't know the name of the high school, but its a cool little town. Snows a tiny bit in the winter, but not much, unfortunately. Of course, there are plenty of places within an hour or so where there's lotsa snow.
Crofton, Maryland. Bowie and Annapolis are nearby. Same thing about the high school, though. Snow days aplenty!
Last edited by TheWordsmith on Wed Apr 29, 2009 5:09 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Thu Aug 14, 2008 5:39 am
J. Wilder says...



Why not make one up? If you write about a real one then you have to research all sorts of stuff about it.
  





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Thu Aug 14, 2008 1:21 pm
TheWordsmith says...



Or you could base your imaginary small town on a real one...
There's also Maryville, Athens, and Sparta of TN. The last two have interesting names. :) Since they're in TN, there aren't many snow days...
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Thu Aug 14, 2008 9:53 pm
thunder_dude7 says...



I can give you a ton of info on small towns.

Small towns aren't "small" because of their size. It's the attitude. I call it "townitude". Take one time I was at Ocean Isle Beach, NC. I saw an ambulence go by...and this is not a joke...the driver was smoking.

On a serious note, if you need ot know about lifestyle, PM me.
  





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Sat Aug 16, 2008 6:39 pm
Clo says...



Yeah, now that I think about it, I agree with what someone above me said. Make up your own town. Think of a clever name for a small town and model it off the typical small town.

Imagination will work in your benefit.
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Tue Aug 26, 2008 7:38 pm
WanaBeAuthor says...



Howa' 'Bout

Deer Lodge in Montana, Theres many small cities in Montana and about 7-8 big cities.
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Sun Sep 14, 2008 4:55 pm
TheWordsmith says...



Port Angeles and the City of Forks, WA. Very interesting places.
Big city nearby- Seattle.
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Sat Apr 04, 2009 11:58 am
J_Fang says...



Smiths Grove, Ky. (Where I went to elementary school!)

Oakland, Ky. (actually withing about 5 miles of each other)

Both have populations of less than 3,000. (at least when I was growing up)

Oakland, Ky now has an air-park covering 5,000 acres (I believe). It's pretty much a factory depot, however, not a public air-park. Large rail station, warehousing system and freight airport.

Bowling Green, KY is a larger city in Kentucky (50,000 pop.). It is the 3rd largest city in Kentucky I believe. It's 12 miles to the city from Smiths Grove and Oakland.

There is a lot of farm land between the towns and the city that slowly becomes more densely populated as far as housing is concerned as you get to the city.

Within about three miles of the city several gated communities are present. Most of them are very large multiple story houses within the gated communities.

It snows in the winter at least once a year (as the years have progress the winters have become far more mild with less snow). Though it isn't unheard of for snow to reach a foot deep at times. There are ice storms during the winter as well, although the last major one was in 1994. We were without power for two months (I lived in the stix 18 miles from the city, 8 miles from either town).

The Corvette Factory and Museum are in Warren County and are about 5 miles from WEHS.

Bowling Green was in the Genius Book of World Records for the most restaurants per capita in the US. 1 restaurant for every 6 people. A lot of food chains and restaurants use it as a proving ground before establishing franchises elsewhere. (I don't know if this is still current)

There is a high school for people that live throughout the county (warren county) and it is Warren East High School or WEHS...http://www.wehs.warren.k12.ky.us/

Bowling Green's website is...http://www.bgky.org/visitor.php

Smiths Grove website (not sure how much help it will be) is...http://www.smithsgrove.org/templates/System/default.asp?id=27512

There are also three high schools in Bowling Green. Warren Central High School...Bowling Green High School...Greenwood High School (the rich kids).

If this sounds like a place you're interested in PM me or IM me on Yahoo and I'll be glad to help with as much random and useless (to me) information about the area as possible.

Also Bowling Green now has a Minor League Baseball Team.
  





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Sat Apr 04, 2009 7:50 pm
Krupp says...



You're in luck; I lived in Warsaw, Indiana, which, I am pretty sure, was rated as "One of the top 100 little towns of America" so I HIGHLY recommend you research that place. It was an incredible place to grow up; I still miss it.
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Wed Jun 03, 2009 8:11 pm
Lauren2010 says...



hmm this was a while ago but i want to add my town..

Circleville, Ohio. Yes, Circleville. We have a shape in our name. Famous for being built as a circular town inside a circular indian mound. The people who lived here got fed up with being 'different' (apparenly way back when it was bad to have your town circle shaped.) and so they took all the buildings and moved them so the town would be square. The mound was also destroyed at some point (before or after the squaring of the town I don't know) for town expansion.

Circleville is also widely known for it's worship of the pumpkin. Every October we hold the Pumpkin Show "The greatest free show on earth". Four days of festivities in the center of town. All the main roads are closed off for booths and rides and such and schools are out. It's a pretty big deal and pretty much my favorite part of the town.

Other than that nothing really happens here.

High school: Circleville High School. An old school that is currently being controlled by a power hungry principal. And there are a few nutty teachers.

Well you might not need any of this info any more but it's a pretty interesting place so I thought I'd add it in.
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Fri Jul 09, 2010 1:06 am
Talulahbelle says...



Yay! Tennessee got a shot out! I'm in East Tennessee and Maryville, Athens and Sparta are small but if you want something really small Look up Greenback Tennessee. It's about an hour out of Knoxville and it's the classic kind of small town. The only school in town is Greenback School. Its K-12. There's not traffic lights except the one flashing red light that's a caution light. It hangs over the intersection in town. There's the Drug Store, Cherokee Market, The Corner Store, the post office, the school, the community center, the fire hall, and thats it. Besides churches and houses. Check it out. Its really convienent because of its closeness to Knoxville and the interstate.
Pm me if you need any info on small town details like culture and stuff. Trust me. I know about small towns. I went to kindergarten with my boyfriend, for heavens sakes!
P.S. Tennessee does get snow. Not so much these past few years, but we do get it. Usually just the right amount too. Not too much and not too little. Except that year we had the blizzard.
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