Opinion: Small towns can be unwelcoming
By Craig Childs, High Country News
The woman behind the counter asked where I lived. It turns out she grew up in the very same small town, population 300. She said she had to leave it to find a job, moving to the nearest place with a population nearer 10,000.
“So you must be the new trash that’s moving in,” she mused.
The woman looked 40 or so, with the dry complexion of winter wheat, as weathered as something wadded up and left in a corner for too long. She did not even attempt to smile.
Something pithy should have come out of my mouth about then. “Yeah, I am. You must be the old trash that moved out.”