When I became a teenager and was just starting high school we moved away from the city to a little village near a nature reserve. I was a bit scruffy and I grew my hair long. People would make personal remarks to me about that and call me names when I went out in public and I remember things happening like women telling their children to stay away from me when I was just out minding my own business and buying something from the local store. Another time I went to the post office to cash my giro and the woman behind the counter asked me if I had ID. I said no but that I was a regular customer and she said to another woman that worked there, "Do you know this..." I guess that it would have stuck in her mouth to have said "gentleman" and she didn't want to say "piece of dirt" because she might have been concerned that she would have got some abuse back for that.

Now when I go back there as an adult it brings back a lot of memories but I've got no reputation because I don't live there anymore and I'm no longer a youth, so I actually find the locals to be friendly and they don't just ignore you like city folk tend to do and they are more likely to stop and chat. The people that I find unfriendly when I go there now are bird watchers that come there from the city. They act like they own the place and they just look at you as if you have no right to be there because you haven't got a bloody telescope and are just out walking your dog.

the best definition of a FRIEND i know of is '' SOMEONE WITH THE SAME ILLUSIONS '' people feel safer and more comfortable with like minded people---and we can not do anything about anyone but ourselves and it will always be that way---

Another interesting short story, TS.

I also agree that small town folks will talk about anything anywhere and not care who overhears, while city folks are often afraid to even look in your direction let alone stop and pass a few words.

I grew up on a ninety acre farm. I guess that makes me a farm girl. When I was 10 my father decided he was too old to be a farmer so we moved to a snooty suburb. From day one I did not fit in. Grade school and high school were a nightmare. I was happy to go to college and finally meet some people who were friendly.

Yeah, you can be in a city street and just ask somebody what the time is and they will look at you like you're a loony.

Apart from there being a nature reserve near that village there are estates owned by upper classed types. Strictly speaking, it's private land but there are some nice walks through the woods and I used to spend a lot of my time walking when I lived down there. One time I was just about to go through the gate to go through the woods and the old posh guy that owned the estate pulled over in his car and asked me if I was going in there. I didn't want any hassle and I just said no and then he said that it was alright and I could and he drove off. I met him another time when I was walking through the woods and he asked me if I was from the village. It was like he wanted to know if I was one of his peasants or something. Apparently though, he was just fine with locals walking through the woods but he didn't like people coming down from the city with their dogs running about and fouling footpaths and dropping litter. It's not like locals don't take their dogs there though and he actually gave us permission when we were kids to ride motorcycles at this bit which we called the gassy, which was a little wood next to the gas works.

Sometimes when I go down there to see my folks I go for walks with my mum and my dog through the nature reserve and my mum is a friendly lady and says hello to everybody. Whenever it's one of those bird watchers from the city I say, "Not local". It's a reference to a couple of characters from a British sitcom called The League Of Gentlemen that own a local shop and keep asking people that come in if they are local and say, "This is a local shop for local people. We don't want your kind round here".

the details of my situation were not exactly the same but my experience was similar to yours...you start thinking it's you when the truth is it is simply that you are not relating on the same level as those around you.

Those experiences are big eye openers though...

I grew up in a small town, and now work in an even smaller village. It has it's pluses/minuses. At times it bothered me that everyone knew what I was doing, but once I had kids of my own, it became more of an advantage.