If you’ve lived in a small town, the same small town your whole life, everyone knows you. They know everything about you. Oh, that’s so and so’s sister and this guy is her brother. There are few secrets in small town life. I went to school with that guy, played football with his brother and he had two sisters. They were twins. His dad worked at the saw mill and his mother was a teacher. I remember one time when he…so forth and so on. A lot of people are blood related or related through marriage.

If you were captain of the football team in 1962 and dated the homecoming queen in school everyone remembers that. If you were the smartest kid in high school and got straight A’s every year or were the toughest guy in the county, people never forget and there are no secrets in the small town. If you were called Fred the molester in high school or had it all and threw it all away, no one forgets this.

In larger towns and cities, you have a certain amount of anonymity. My daddy is this and my brother did that. Really? Never heard of them. Life is different in the city. In some cities the houses are so close together or apartments on top of each other you can pass gas and the neighbors will say “what’s that smell?” If you yell, scream and fight with your wife a lot it’s really hard to hide this even though people don’t know each other.

Do you remember the show “Green Acres”? A couple had moved from the big city to a rural area. She couldn’t cook and he couldn’t farm. The show contrasted life in a big city and country life. Their neighbors were very different from what they were used to. How about “Petticoat Junction” and Andy of Mayberry. All shows about life in small towns. If you are from a small town and are remembered for something unflattering, you can always move and start over where no one knows who you are, but for the rest of us small town folks, you will forever be who you were.