I grew up in a smallish town of 4,500 people & I actually loved it. I hated having to drive so far to go shopping or for ethnic food, but I love, love, love my home in the mountains of New Hampshire!

I live in a suburb, so no, I don’t know what small town life is like. I think being used to big cities would cause me to go crazy in a small town!

Nope. Couldn’t do it.
Small towns are charming to drive through but I loves me some 24 hour sushi, bright lights and traffic jams.

I lived in Los Alamos, NM for a year – a mountain home to about 6000 scientists and their families. We were about a 50 minute drive from Santa Fe, but my lab was right near my house, which was awesome. So much space, scenery, and outdoor activity potential. It was also interesting to be part of such a tight-knit community, even though it was only for a year.

The one thing that was really annoying was the 90-mile drive to the nearest airport…and it wasn’t even a major one. Hard to get anywhere.

Oh. My. Gosh. A town that has a grocery store that doesn’t accept credit cards?? I guess little places do still exist. I moved to Montana 9 years ago and they had just gotten their first home depot – I thought that town was small! But I guess Ivanhoe is much, much smaller. Sounds really nice.

I’m from a small town and PROUD!

I absolutely loved growing up in a small town. Everyone always says how they can’t imagine having to drive hours to go to a mall or Target. It really wasn’t that bad! A three hour drive just isn’t a big deal and you do shopping for the whole season in one trip. And well, I don’t share the Target obsession with the rest of the world.

Life is good in a small town. You appreciate the little things. You take life as it comes. I’ve lived all over the world (NYC, Chicago, Cincinnati, Cambodia, Minneapolis, Denver) but I’d prefer to grow-up in rural, northwest Iowa over all of those places.

There’s a good chance, much to my boyfriend’s dismay, that I’ll move back there. Ivanhoe’s actually only about a 2 hour drive north from where I grew up. I’ll have to stop on my way to the Cities someday!

I don’t think I could live in a small town like that — I’ve told Jason before that wherever we live we need to be close to a Target and a good grocery store! But most importantly Target 🙂

Right now we live in a suburb of St. Paul MN and we are close to the city, and yet we’re only a short drive out of the city, so we can escape either way.

That was exactly how it was for me growing up. We didn’t even have a court house. It was… interesting.

Wow, that is a small town! Did you take that photo of yourself on the swing with a self timer? You my dear, have SKILL!

I’ve always wanted to visit a small town like that. I know a girl who grew up in a really small town and hated it, but I think it seems so quaint and cute! I would love to live in a place where everyone seems so friendly. People in southern California are not the friendliest bunch!

I would LOVE to be there hanging out with you! I’d never heard of Ivanhoe until you mentioned it. Sounds like a fun place! Looks cute. 🙂 My hometown is around 20,000 people (according to our population sign, around 18,500, but I’m positive that’s a lie by now), and while I love my church family, I’m not a huge fan of the town. It’s TOO BIG. I like smaller towns where everyone knows everyone else and you can walk pretty much everywhere. I’m just one of those people. Ivanhoe sounds like my kind of place! I don’t really mind long car rides to places–we go to St. Cloud for fun and that’s around an hour drive from us. Minneapolis/St. Paul is around two hours from us, and I’m told people from Cloud go there for fun. 😛

oh my!! I couldn’t deal with that. I moved to a smaller town in high school. I didn’t like the change of having to drive 15 minutes to the grocery store. Yuck!

That’s awesome that you get to visit so many different places. Hilarious you should mention the clean air. My husband tells this story about his aunt who came to visit her parents out in the country from the city and how she was saying how fresh and clean the air smelled in between puffs on her cigarette. Gross! Haha, sorry, your comment just reminded me of that and I laugh every time I hear it.
I love living in a small town. Not everything is such a rush, everyone knows each other and as a result everyone’s more willing to help and is nicer and friendlier. Mind you I don’t live in that small of a town, but I still love it. Couldn’t imagine ever living in a bigger city again and I grew up in one. It kind of sucks for shopping but we live close enough to bigger centers that we can go shopping for the day or whatever.

I had to travel for work and spent three months in Idaho Falls one winter. It was bigger than where you are, but still. It was definitely a part of the country that wasn’t high on my list of places to go. I loved being able to experience western skiing and Yellowstone in winter. It was AMAZING.

I’m a small town girl and every time I visit a city I think “Man, how can people live here” 🙂 I could never live in a city or even the suburbs for that matter. I like to have room and land and the ability to look out my window and not see any other houses or people. I don’t live quite that far out, yet. But I’d love to. I do live on 130 acres which is a good start. Small town life is great. I know everyone. I can tell you the name of everyone I graduated high school with and where they lived when we were in school. Without shopping, movies and restaurants, you learn how to be creative. Growing up we skateboarded (in the streets), four wheeled, camped in the woods and built forts. We made our entertainment and had adventures and we also worked. I grew up doing farm chores, helping friends with their farm chores and doing odd jobs. I’m very thankful for it all!

I have always thought that I lived in a small town until I actually visited one. they are crazy different from my suburban home

I live in a weeeeny place! My village has a church, a village shop, and a crap pub. That’s it! There is a train station, but weirdly it doesn’t belong to my village cos it’s named after something else :/
It’s peaceful sure..but it takes me a 50minute drive to get to a restaurant, the shops, anywehre decent….not even a gym or pool near me! I can’t wait to move haha!

I think there would be some definite benefits to small town living. Im not sure I could do it though. I couldnt live in a big city either though. I like country, but close to the city all at the same time. Which is why where I live is perfect.
I drove through some super small towns in Oregon (one had a population of 200) and I really think I’d go crazy. You’d just have to become really good friends with your neighbors.

Minnesota is the land of the clean air! I love that you noticed it, that is one of the first things I notice when I leave this lovely northern state, how lucky we are in MN to have such clean air and water, and big blue skies over the prairies.

I am a MN girl through-and-through… can ya tell? So much pride in my home state, and I am happy you got to visit!

the store didn’t tkae Credit cards? I would have been screwed, I NEVER carry cash, We use CC’s for everything to get rewards points! what a small town!

It sounds like Minnesotans up to their “Minnesota Nice” reputation!! 🙂 (I might not live in MN anymore, but I am still a Minnesota at heart.)

I’m glad you’re making your rounds to different schools to talk about Operation Beautiful. Where I’m from (Eau Claire, WI) there have been three middle school suicides in the area, including one of my boyfriends students who took their lives. I think your message is INCREDIBLY important for kids at the age and stage in life to hear!

Oh wow!! That is pretty random! I’m sure negative talk and gossip is extremely prevalent in small towns.

I’ve lived for most of my life in an itsy bitsy town in Minnesota (population 286!). I loved growing up here because of the utter freedom I had. I had free reign to roam around my tiny little town and to do all sorts of ridiculous kid things. 🙂

With that said, I’m definitely more of a big city girl. I like options and new experiences which are both occasionally hard to come across in a small town.

I have been in STL my whole life, but my family has a farm in a small town. I have defiantly seen the difference between the two!
(driving 90 minutes to shop! thats just ridiculous! haha)

I LOVE that you wrote about small towns. I’m a college student about to graduate on Saturday and I’m moving away from the great state of Texas to teach in a rural Louisiana town of about 550. I’m sure it will be similar in some ways to Ivanhoe, but with a southern twist.
At least I can drive 30 mins for shopping, restaurants, etc.
There is always a bright side. It’ll be a great learning experience.

Small town living seems nice :)Big city living scares me .. so I kind of like some in between and being able to travel to a big city or a small town. I hope the presentation goes well!!!

I grew up in a very small town (population about 600). It was nice because I’d see people I knew just about anytime I went anywhere. There’s a nice sense of community when the town is so small. There is no rush hour traffic! The drawbacks – not a lot of job opportunities, 45 minute drive to grocery shop, see a movie, go to the mall, 20 miles away from school, long distance phone calls to some of my school friends because several small towns came together into one school district.

Now I live 10 minutes from downtown Minneapolis. Big change.

Our family lives IN Ivanhoe, and I agree with all of the posts! Small towns are not for everyone — in fact, we are sometimes surprised that we came “back home!” The biggest “pro” of small towns is that everyone supports their neighbor. When illness or hardships hit, we are all there and ready to pitch in. It is humbling to be on the receiving end. I love the that my girls have the opportunity to be involved in nearly anything the school offers — in fact, the school NEEDS kids to be involved in many things! Class sizes are approx 20-25 students per grade. The “cons” are the long drives for shopping, restaurants, and local employment opportunities. Luckily, we have larger communities within 25-35 miles — many of us commute just like anyone living in a city. The only difference is that our 25 mile drive takes only 25 minutes!

Wow, I thought I grew up in a small town! My high school was about 800 students total. Ivanhoe seems cute though 🙂

I grew up in metro Detroit in a suburb that had well over 100,000 people, the metropolitan area had a population of closer to 5 million. We had 3 Targets and 4 large malls within ten miles of my house growing up.

Fast forward ten years and my husband is active duty military and we are stationed in a tiny southern town. Bigger than Ivanhoe, about 20,000 people, but that includes the base. I will say there are pros and cons to each lifestyle. I love the lack of traffic and that parking is never an issue here, but I miss good grocery stores and healthy places to eat like crazy. I also miss shopping, the closest mall is an hour away, and the closest good mall is over 2 hours away.

Given the choice I would never live in a small town, but it has been an interesting experience and I appreciate the lifestyle slightly more than I thought I would. That being said I am itching to move this fall, I cannot wait to go back to whole foods and trader joes!

What a cute town…although the no credit card machine at the grocery store would drive me nuts (maybe it would make me spend less there 🙂 ). Except when I was in college, I’ve lived in Metro Atlanta all my life, so it’s hard for me to imagine what that would be like.

Considering its size, I think it’s all the more impressive and flattering that they were able to raise the money to bring you out there–it was a big deal to them that you spoke there, and it’s great that you were able to do it.

I grew up in a small town in Texas, and now live in one in Alaska. I’m about a 4 hour drive from a mall or major airport, but we do have a Subway and a Safeway for groceries! Oh, and a Farmer’s Market that will open in a few weeks. I have a beach, mountains, glaciers, eagles, my husband, my running, and my dogs– what more do I need? 🙂

As an American that grew up in a small town, I understand knowing just about everyone (not quite) and saying hi on the street. Americans tend to make small talk at bus stops, waiting in line, etc. It’s what we do, what our culture says is polite. Go overseas and most people think it odd to talk to other people if you don’t know them. Slowly I’m getting my street acclimated to my saying ‘hello’ – after awhile more say hello/ha/dag. What I’m saying is your seeing Ivanoe through the prism of Miami glasses just as I see the Netherlands through American glasses. The folks there may have been a little bored and wished for bigger things, but don’t kid yourself – it wasn’t Miami they were hoping for. You loved it because you grew up there and didn’t know anything different. They would’ve thought part of Miami was cool and the rest… not so much.