The largest city I’ve lived in was Knoxville, TN. I was there, practically downtown, for three years while attending the University of Tennessee. I could literally walk anywhere I wanted to go.
Saturdays were for sports. We made the Vol walk to Neyland Stadium on home game weekends with what seemed like the entire student population. There were pub crawls, cheap student movies, dining hall meals, and chili cheese dogs and a 12-baggers with cheese to fuel all-nighters before finals.
The 1982 World’s Fair was just off campus. We sang German drinking tunes at the Brauhaus, rode the elevator to the top of the Sunsphere, marveled at the terra-cotta warriors at the China exhibit, and collected arcade tokens.
After graduating UT, after marrying and moving to a small, middle Tennessee town… I never lived in a big city again.
To tell the truth… I don’t miss it.
There aren’t any pro sports teams near where I live now, but there is JUCO baseball, softball, and men’s and women’s basketball. For as little as $135 you can join the booster club ~ that gets you season tickets to home games, chicken wings and pizza in the club room, and a free subscription to the athletic department newsletter.
We have several restaurants, but a big night out doesn’t get any fancier than Ruby Tuesday. The local college does has an active fine arts program. I recently went to see Ladysmith Black Mambazo perform, and the touring company of Spamalot is coming this summer. We don’t, however; have a movie theater.
I like where I live. I like the quiet, the unhurried pace, the sense of community. I am minutes from the Gulf of Mexico and minutes from woodland hiking trails.
We have two main thoroughfares dividing the town ~ one running north and south, the other east and west, and not much in-between.
I don’t miss the tall buildings that blot out the sun, the traffic that turns the highways into parking lots. That constant rush to be somewhere else. I think my current hometown would fit inside one of Knoxville’s malls.
In my small town, I can slow down, I can hear myself think, I can breathe…
Thin spiral notebook 
Being in NYC the past 6 weeks I realized I’m a city person stuck in the suburbs. I like action, stuff, and noise. I realize this makes me weird, and wired differently. So many people I know prefer a slower pace. I think that’s admirable and the norm.
I really enjoyed the pace of this, how you wrote it, and the peek into your person.
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I can totally envision you as a big city denizen. Living somewhere that never sleeps. You would thrive in the constant bustle.
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I retired to the rockies from the bigger cities in california, and don’t visit the cities much here either , love my serenity fer a change .. is wunderful. so i can relate 🙂 . Q
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I’ve lived in NYC all my life. I would love to try small town living, but I’m not sure if I could handle the peace and quiet.
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I’ve had people tell me, who are accustom to big city living, that they can’t sleep at night here, because it’s too quiet. I cannot even image.
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We used to live 2 miles from the main town where I worked. I walked some days, but drove most, it taking 10-15 minutes in the morning, but over an hour in the evening. I got fed up being stuck in traffic for over half an hour to get onto a roundabout, tired of being carved up getting into my own drive, sick of the 5am deliveries to the 24 hour supermarket on the opposite side of the dual carriageway behind us which extended their premises twice in three years, so we sold up and moved, ending up in a small village in the country. Clear skies at night, clean air (farmers permitting), no shops, no pub, and when the day is done and everyone is home and in bed, peace and quiet. The Townie in me is no more, and I don’t miss it. As you say, “I can slow down, I can hear myself think, I can breathe”. Wonderful.
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There are mornings when I go on long walks, that the air actually tastes sweet. I would never have that in a big city. I’ll stay in my little town.
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I spent 2 years in Knoxville in the early 80s including the World’s Fair. It’s probably the smallest place I’ve lived since then, and was the largest place I’d lived into up until that time. I guess its my entree to larger cities!
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When I go back to visit Knoxville now, it’s almost overwhelming.
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