Just doing a little venting
 

You know that old saying that everyone is famous in a small town? Well, I am here to tell you it is TRUE. And if you didn't happen to be born and raised in that small town, you are even MORE famous because everyone is nosy and curious about what the "foreigner" does. In this case, the "foreigner" is ME.

So at 8am this morning I got a phone call from my MIL. I went to the grocery store yesterday and someone she knows saw me there and saw me checking out. This person took it upon themselves to call Carol (my MIL) and ALERT her to the fact that I did not purchase any meat. She was just "concerned" that Mike and I were having "money problems" and couldn't afford to buy meat for our family and she was worried about "the poor children". :mad:

I didn't buy meat because I'M A VEGETARIAN! How she didn't know that I don't know. Lord knows the rest of the town does. Its just another thing that makes me "weird".

Then there are all the speculations and rumors going around about my health. According to the town gossip I've had everything from a brain tumor to cancer to the plague.

And did ya'll know that in the 8 years I have lived here I have YET to be spotted in one of the 1500 churches around here. MIL brought this to my attention. So I told her it was because I was too busy sacrificing animals and small children on Saturday nights and I was just too tired on Sunday mornings. (OK, I DO acknowledge that probably was not a nice thing to say on my part, but I was mad).

I am just tired of it all. No matter how much I watch what I say or do they still find something to talk about. I told Mike I am going to start sitting on the front porch in my bathrobe with curlers in half my hair and clown make up on and squirt everyone who comes near our yard with a water hose. They already think I'm crazy I might as well have some fun, right?

LOL!!! I agree. Get out the water hose. I love your posts, they are always so funny and I'm glad you're feeling better. :)

I HAVE to try and be funny. If I didn't have a sense of humor I really would go crazy. lol

I live in a small town so can really relate and cracked up laughing at your post. My MIL is the biggest gossip and as hard as I try she usually manages to get on my last nerve as I have zero patience for gossip or interest in anyones business but my own.

oh how I laughed at your post!!

But I also know there is a serious side to this - something I have never experienced though, never having lived in a small town. Wow, I didn't realize it was anyone's business what you bought at the store! I am just in shock - goodness, I don't have time to worry about what other people having in the cart :rolleyes:

I couldnt live as close as you do to your Mother in Law. I get along fine with her too. There just needs to be some distance for privacy sake. I do live really close to a brother in law and sister in law so I can relate.

A lot of it is my MIL, but a lot of it is other ppl in the town too. It is a VERY small town. I'm not from here, I was born in Alabama, plus my family was military so I traveled around some and that makes me "foreign". I can not even go to the little hole in the wall library they have because I swear to ya'll the ENTIRE TOWN will know which books I so much as looked at. It is crazy.

I can certainly relate to what you are saying. When I was very young my family lived in a town of 250 people. We still had friends there for many years after, and one time we went back to visit one. She was an older lady, a widow, and she seemed to know everything that went on in town. My sister and I were teens, and we decided to go "downtown" to a little shop a couple blocks from her house. When we got back, she was on the phone with someone who wanted to know who those girls were who were walking around downtown!!!:D

I can so sympathize with your problem. It's kind of funny here in this small town there is a fairly new housing addition started, none of the houses were selling though. I wondered why and was told it's because the only access to the new addition is the same street you have to turn on to get to the towns only liquor store. None of the the Christians (which is about 90% of the town) here want to be seen turning there for fear someone driving by will think they are going to the liquor store.:eek:

I love living in my small town but the gossip can be an annoying thing, especially when you consider those doing the gossip usually have a few skeletons in their closets too.

LOL....now you know you just have to show up at a church banquet some Sunday with a big ol' roast to stop the tongues wagging!

I know what your going through... I live in a small town.. seems like everyone knows everybody and the apartments i live in. well they know everything about you.. where your going.. what you bought.. pretty much EVERYTHING. it's gets OLD real fast. I hope things start to look up for you soon. we sure have missed ya. hope your feeling better

Oh and I think its ridiculous that your neighbor gossiped about you not having meat in your cart. I often have no meat in my cart when go to the store. I get my meat from a butcher and deep freeze it. You could have been doing the same thing for all she knew

LOL. I'm sorry, but everything you were saying really cracked me up. :p I hope the situation improves for you, though.

I totally understand the small town thing. Though for me it wasnt too bad most of the time. My old town was about 7000 people within 1 sq. mile (probably less people because everyone was moving away), which may not seem too small, but when your parents have lived there for 16 years its like random people come up to you and go "Wow, Megan, you've gotten so tall." lol. So my brother and I couldn't do or get away with ANYTHING because someone would be calling my parents telling them. When my dad fell down the stairs and broke his leg, a bunch of random people brought over dinner for us.

and we've also had the downside to small towns. My mom used to be the board of ed. president, and after some events, the whole town ended up hating her with the exception of like 3 people (and then shortly after, they realized that she was right and came crawling back. :p)

LOL!!!!! I was raised in a small town of 500- I know just what you are taking about!
Worried because you bought no MEAT!!!! LOL!!!!LOL!!!!!
They are nosey!!!!!
I always figured that they had pretty boring lives when , thy have to talk about mine! And If they were not talk about, me- it would someone else!:D
Now I just live in the country- and they have to come out here to find something to talk abut!!!!:D :D :D
I hope the venting helped some!!!!

Wow how dare you not buy any meat lol I think its sick that someone has nothing better to do then investigate what you buy at the store.
I think the next shopping trip you should buy a playboy mag or one of those off the wall magazines and see what is said next. I think I could have fun with this.
I never go shopping in my towns store. Just because Im not of of the "in crowd" towns people Im treated like total crap in the store. So I go to the next town over and go to Acme to go shopping.

Nothing like small town gossip.:thumbdown I work in the school district where the dirt is dished on a regular basis.:( I'm blessed to have a best friend who doesn't gossip.:D Keeps me balanced.

I can understand that feeling. I'm from NJ and moved to Alabama where my hubby is from. The unforgivable YANKEE! I've had some rumors and gossip spread about me and of course I've been "the city b*tch" to the MIL but oh well! I've had people here argue with me over the friggin civil war! I've But I usually get made fun of for my accent of course.

You are lucky because you just ARE a yankee. I have committed the ultimate sin/betrayal. I am a southerner who ASSOCIATES with yankees ON PURPOSE! :rolleyes:

I think I am going to write a book. A survival guide to being an outsider in a small town OR My 8 years in Hell. lol

LMAO!!!!:lol tears I was born and raised in Georgia for the most part...I know how it can be, especially if you're in a small town. Where are you in Georgia? You are so funny! I think the clown makeup and water hose sounds like a great idea!!!

Oh man I sure don't envy you. How irritating. My mother lives in Texas but somehow I always seem to get that same type of call from her LOL I think it's my sisters doing. :eek: Be strong don't let the ole blue hairs get to you. Darn old biddies.

I am in a little bitty town called Buchanan. Well, technically we are in Tallapoosa, but we are less than a mile from Buchanan and the kids go to school in Buchanan. It has TWO red lights now. One of them was just put up a couple years ago. :rolleyes: They put it up because we are now actually considered part of "metro-Atlanta" and they wanted to look sophisticated.

It isn't just the old blue hairs doing the gossiping. Its just crazy.

OMG, that was a hoot to read.. and at the same time,. that would drive me crazy...
I had a neighbor one time, that lived on the corner, the only window on my side of her house was her bathroom, in the shower.. and yet she could yell out and tell us the oil bill was dropped off at like 11:01... grrrrrrrrrrrrrr
I uses to think she must have had a chair in her bathtub and she must have stood looking out that tiny window in that older home all day...
Now that was a lady with little to do to keep mind busy.. How do you deal with this.. my patience would wear thin after awhile..
Girl you must really love your hubby..:D

WOW! I'm originally from a small town but not THAT small that people would talk about what you're buying at the grocery store :eek: ! It's nice that you have a bit of a sense of humor about it, though. I can't imagine living around all that DRAMA! I hate drama...
Why do they even care WHAT you buy or what you do??? These people need to get a hobby or something--find something constructive to do with all of their free time.
I think at this point, I'd start acting really bizarre around people, just to get a reaction--see what they'll say next. Go beyond your porch with the garden hose and your clown makeup :)

Wow! Two red lights! I was born in South Georgia - Moultrie to be exact. I haven't lived there since I was 8 years old. It's funny though, I know that I could go back right now - nearly 50 years later and be considered as "home folk". I'm sorry you've run into so many "busy bodies!".

I know exactly how you feel. We were in the AF for 20 years and some places called us "basers" like a bad word and some just wanted to know more than they should. We lived in CA. from 1985 till 1999, retired and moved to a very small place in TN. and lasted 20 months. The mentality there was only "fags" and druggies come from CA. We sold our big beautiful home on 6 1/2 acres, and got back to CA. as fast as we could.
Good luck to you. I do hope you find your happiness somewhere else. Life is just far too short to be miserable.

For a long time I just kept my mouth shut and just rolled my eyes and shook my head.

Then I LOUDLY mentioned in the town gossip hall (also known as "The Cafe") that I don't gossip because my mama always told me the ones who do the gossiping are the ones with the most skeletons in their closets they are trying to hide. That slowed it down some for a couple of weeks.

Then I started just venting to my mom and GaGa or just venting in my journal.

Here lately though I've been popping off the smart comments - a lot. I think its because I have been so sick and I have so much on my plate to deal with my patience is just gone. I am just sick of it.

They care because I am not from here. I am a "foreigner" (yes, I've actually been called that even though I was born right next door in Alabama). So because I'm "different" they are all very interested in ever little thing I say and/or do. I am torn between being ticked off and irritated, and just feeling sorry for them. Most of them have never left this town and have no idea that a world exists outside of it.

Speaking of being called "fags", that is the other rumor going around about me. I am really a lesbian. This is based on the fact that I have been spotted talking to my best friend of nearly 17 years in my driveway and I hugged her and kissed her on the cheek. And they all feel so sorry for poor Mike because he married "that weird foreign girl" and he just doesn't have a clue what he's gotten into. :rolleyes:

:( Sounds like the people in your town need to get a life of their own!! I'm so sorry this is happening to you.

I know where your coming from. My grandmother knows what I have done before I ever get to my house....lol This town is exploding sooooo fast, but that's the only pro about it. The traffic is killer now.

Angie

Yep, sounds like a small southern town to me. :rolleyes: Here's a couple of quick stories.

My first teaching job was in a tiny town in east Texas. My husband was going to work in a local steel plant, but it shut down right after we moved there, so he took a night shift at a convenience store so he could be home with the kids during the day while I taught.

Someone noticed that we never went to a church in town. (We are Episcopal and the closest church was almost an hour away.) So, one night the local sheriff came by and asked my husband if we were Satan worshippers! :eek:

My husband has a very dry, sarcastic sense of humor, so he casually responded, "Yes sir, that's why I work nights." ;)

He came VERY close to being arrested!:eek:

*****
The county was also dry, so for our anniversary, we drove thirty miles to a liquor store and bought a bottle of champagne. The next day my students told me EXACTLY what we had bought right down to the name and price! :eek:

So, you're not alone. Crazy isn't it? LOL!