My Image of a Small Southern Town

When I think about a small southern town, I think about a bunch of close-knit houses and buildings. I think about a place where all the shops and markets are within a short walking distance from one’s home. I picture a small school, courthouse, and church around the corner. I picture neighbors gathering around for a nice chat. In a small southern town, I imagine everybody to know everybody else along with family histories and stories. When I think about a small southern town, I think about a sense of community and closeness with neighbors.

My image of a small southern town mostly comes from literature. In To Kill a Mockingbird, the fictional town of Maycomb, Alabama is a small town in which everybody is close and knows each other well. For example, when Miss Maudie’s house burns down, the people of the town gather and help save her possessions. There is also a part in the book when Scout explains to her teacher why a poor boy in the class would not accept the teacher’s money. The boy came from a family that would not take anything that they could not afford to pay back. Bastard out of Carolina also describes a small southern town. In Greenville, South Carolina, the people of the town are familiar with each other. The Boatwrights men have a famous reputation for being hostile, and everybody in the town knows about the Boatwright legacy. In a small southern town, the stories of each family are familiar to the people in the town.

I used to live in Hong Kong and New York. Neither place holds that good-natured feel of a small town. Both places were very populated and one would barely know his or her neighbor no matter how long he or she lived in an area. I now live in Lilburn, a suburb of Atlanta. I wouldn’t call Lilburn a small southern town either. However, there is a part of Lilburn called Old Town which still contains buildings from the 1930’s. There are also many antique and craft shop, and the homes in the area are old-fashioned. Old town still contains this small town feel of Lilburn that used to exist before it started growing and populating.

Antique and craft shops at Old Town, Lilburn

Descriptions from literature and the contrast of Old Town with the busy places where I used to live establish my image of a small southern town.