More Mysteries of the Universe

As I sit here pathetic and alone without my husband, I'm watching back-to-back reruns of Everwood and Gilmore Girls and something occurred to me. Why are people so obsessed with small town life?

I grew up in a small town (1.2 square miles) and I can tell you that it is nothing like on TV. Sure, we had our local characters, like the old guy who wore a beat up winter coat even in the dead of summer and the albino girl who liked to use her unusual appearance to scare younger kids. But it wasn't all fun town festivals and friendly people.

We had a cross town rivallry between the public and Catholic grade schools.

You couldn't get in trouble at lunch time in the first grade without it somehow getting back to your mom.

If you did something embarassing in the second grade, someone would still be bringing it up at the senior prom.

It was a constant race to be the one to befriend the new kid, because s/he was someone different.

When you hit 15, there was nothing to do. This ended with many a young man getting drunk in the woods and riding his bike off of the 15 foot sheer drop off known as "Dead Man's Cliff."

Bad break ups and stupid dating decisions will come back to haunt you for the rest of your life.

And our town meeting were never as fun as the ones on Gilmore Girls.