I am just going to put this out there. I have seen so many scary movies that take place in small towns, that I’m a little scared to visit them. Maybe it’s just that positive movies about small towns just don’t become blockbusters. While films like “Jeepers Creepers”, “A Time to Kill”, “Strangers”, “Texas Chainsaw Massacre”, and a few others were big blockbusters and have made me think of small towns as places where serial killers live and the towns are full of racists citizens and law enforcement.
Hollywood has made me afraid to visit new places. I’m tired of it and something has got to change.
Now that I think about it, it’s not just small towns, I am generally afraid of the unknown. I think I have Yahoo News and Hollywood to thank for that. And yes, I realize this is not a good quality to have if one is about to embark on a life of traveling, but how will our multicultural family be received? Am I being ridiculous?
I expect for our family to learn some hard lessons on this trip. But I thought the lessons would be about learning to tell the difference between needs and wants, how to conserve, and how to respect others’ from different cultures.
I don’t know if I’m prepared to explain racism, abuse of authority, or other topics like that.
Help me out on this, am I totally out of line here? What do you think about small town America? For our readers who consider themselves to be from small town America, what do you think about big cities? Do you think Hollywood makes you afraid of places like NYC?
June 19th, 2008 at 9:12 am
Oh, I forgot one! “Deliverance!” What about “Deliverance”?
June 19th, 2008 at 12:51 pm
I’m from a small town in Oklahoma and I’ve been living in NYC for the last 17 years.
I think Hollywood does give a negative view of the small town, maybe it’s more DRAMATIC for the filmmakes to destroy a “Mayberry-like” image of small town America than to show a more realistic (ie. boring) side of small towns.
Here are the pros of a small town: you can learn who your neighbors are, it’s more affordable and has a slow, quiet pace to it. Cons: it can be hard to find a restaurant open after 9, shopping is limited and of course there can be small-minded, rascist people. But I see that as more of a problem within the country or rather humanity as a whole and not limited to small towns.
I hope you do not encounter those people who are rascist and who can not accept a mixed-race family but they do exist, everywhere, and eventually you will have to teach your children to be the bigger person and walk away from such negative people. Unfortunately, they are everywhere, including NYC.
June 19th, 2008 at 1:12 pm
Thank you for your comments. That’s what I love about this blog. I can be completely honest about my feelings and instead of being judged, I get useful feedback. Thanks again.