Reasons why I love my small town

Small towns are wonderful sometimes. Sometime they are not so great. I live in a small town in Alabama. My town has a population of about 5,000. It's not that big but it is bigger than other cities around me. My town is also the county seat so we have the courthouse. A little history about my town is that we are on 2 rivers and they meet at a point in a park we have. There are 3 red lights in my town. There is an elementary, middle, and high school. I am also about an hour to an hour and thirty minutes away from the beach. The school mascot is a black panther and our colors are black and gold. We are in the bible belt. We have had some famous people come out of my town. Another bit of history is that we have a big oak tree that is over a hundred years old here that thrives from the river water when the river floods.

Now that the history is out of the way, here are some reasons why I love my small town:

1) Nobody does homecoming like we do. Homecoming is a huge celebration with us. We celebrate all of the classes coming back for football homecoming. Homecoming in my town is celebrated a whole week. The high school decorates the doors to all of the classrooms according to the theme. The elementary, middle, and high school students dress up in themes all week. Thursday is always black and gold, our school colors. And Friday is dress nice day. In the high school library, I decorated a bulletin board with all of the classes coming back. I also cut out pictures and names of all of the returning students. Thursday night we do a bonfire and the Seniors do their annual pyramid. Then after the end of the bonfire, the Seniors and Juniors go out into a field for the egg war. The egg war is a battle with eggs between upperclassman. It gets dangerous. All week we also go around and roll student and faculty houses. Friday is the end to homecoming and it is busy. We have an assembly that morning where the classes are recognized and the homecoming court is crowned. Friday afternoon is the parade downtown where queens and classes ride in it. It is also a big event for Seniors where they ride on a trailer in the parade. The other high school classes decorate a float that is included in the parade. Our band marches so does our cheerleaders. The big event is Friday night. The homecoming football game. The stands are packed and everyone is cheering.

2) The River Festival is where we celebrate our rivers at the rivers. There is a parade on the Friday it starts and it ends on a Sunday. Famous people come and perform for us.

3) A reason I love my small town is that your graduating class is small. You basically know everyone and they know you. You know their whole family basically. We are literally family and we are so close.

4) You won't get lost riding around. You basically know every street and the people that lives on the street.

5) The teachers know you and your whole family.

6) Graduation season is the best. In my small town, graduation is a celebration. You have senior day on a Thursday where you wear dresses and dress clothes under your cap and gown. This is when we find out what scholarships we received. We also sing our class song. Baccalaureate is on a Sunday in a church and we do our class hymn. We have graduation practice and a class picnic on a Friday the day before graduation. This is an event where we eat together and enjoy each other's company for the last time. Graduation is 8 am on a Saturday morning and it is formal. And it is hot.

7) Traditions are really important in my small town.

8) People talk to you when they see you somewhere.

9) Everybody knows your name and your family members. I can't count how many times someone has came up to me and asked if someone was my family member and 9 times out of 10 they were right.

10) High School Sports: baseball, football, and basketball is worshiped.

Here are some disadvantages of living in a small town:

1) Everybody knows your business!

2) There is nothing to do most nights.

3) Downtown and shops close early.

4) River floods. Actually when the river floods everybody gets out to see how high it has risen and where on the levee it is.

Here are some random facts about my hometown:

1) Shane Owens is from here and one of his songs is wrote from his experience here.

2) Bubba Thompson is from here.
3) Casting Crowns visited here and inspired the Thrive album.