You know you're in a small town...

Several versions of You Know You're in a Small Town have circulated over the years, and I have always found them to be funny as well as quite accurate. Following is an example of one:

You know you're in a small town...

• When Third Street is on the edge of town.
• When you write a check on the wrong bank and it covers for you.
• When the undertaker supplements his income with a furniture store (or another job).
• When you miss a Sunday at church and receive a get well card.
• When a 55 year old farmer is referred to as "young Johnson." 
• When someone asks you how you feel and listens to what you have to say.
• When the nicest house in town has a beauty salon in the back porch.
• When you drive into the ditch five miles from town and word gets back before you do.
• When you dial a wrong number and talk for fifteen minutes anyway.
• When you speak to each dog you pass by name, and he wags at you.
• When everyone's cap has a seed emblem on it.
• When you don't use your turn signals because everyone knows where you're going.
• When a crowd gathers on Main Street and looks toward the fire house when the siren blows.
• When the banker will figure your taxes if you help him sort through the shoe box...

                                                     -- Author Unknown

For this week's blog, I've been thinking about ways You Know You've Grown Up in Raymond, Illinois. Following is how the list is shaping up so far:  

You know you've grown up in Raymond because you remember:  

• When you only locked the house if you were going away on vacation, and then it took a while to find the key because you hadn't used it for a year or two.
• When Bob Hough, the funeral director, provided the ambulance service and dispatched the police. When someone called the ambulance, Bob responded himself; when someone called the police, Bob flipped a switch that turned on a red light uptown to signal to the cop that he had a call. As soon as the town cop happened to drive on Main Street and see the light, he would go directly to the funeral home to find out where he was needed. 
• When someone had a death in the family, Walch Electric delivered an extra refrigerator to the home to store all the extra food donated by friends and neighbors. 
• When most of the vehicles parked on Main Street during Thursday night men's bowling league were pick-up trucks, and most had the family name painted on the side. 
• When you could easily remember all your childhood friends' home phone numbers because they were only four digits.
• When you could make a U-turn on Main Street at the corner of Mizera's Market (it probably wasn't "legal" but everyone did it and no one got in trouble for it).  
• When no one really knew the names of the streets in town because you simply relied on landmarks. 
• When the town cop walked up and down Main Street at night and jiggled all the doors of the businesses to make sure they were locked.
• When it was the last day of school, and all the kids (even the "country" kids), rode their bikes to school. 

If you have comments about these and/or other things that you remember about growing up in Raymond, let me know and I'll share them on my blog. Thanks!