Written by Lauren Bucher
Waffle House. Wal-Mart. Sweet tea. Small towns. Gun shops. All these are, admittedly, fixtures of the Deep South. And these are things people tend to look down their noses at.When I go home over breaks, I inevitably field this question from someone, generally a stranger, after he finds out that I moved to a small town in the South: “So … why did you move to a small town in Arkansas?” I always give the usual reasons for choosing a college; good school, great friends and the fact that I like Searcy. People tend to remain skeptical about the last one. Revealing a curiosity that is, at times, mixed with disdain, they ask me if there is a mall nearby, if I can buy groceries in town, if I go to Little Rock often.People my age tend to have negative preconceived notions of what small-town Southern life is like. This is unfair and unfortunate.It has taken me time, just like every other student in the world who is away from home, to adjust to the rhythms of small-town and college life. When I moved here, I was concerned; things were different from the suburb in which I grew up. I watched someone shoot for the first time, “count the camo” became a new pastime, and it seemed that every other vehicle on the road was a pickup truck. It took some time for these things to grow on me.As a freshman, for instance, the chattiness and friendless of the people in Searcy startled me. People talked to me everywhere I went. Everywhere. The waitresses, the women down the aisle, the clerk at the gas station. When I worked at Hastings, it was common for people who regularly came in to make small talk with me. This openness surprised me. The unpretentiousness, affability and sincerity of many people I’ve met in Searcy are traits I appreciate. People are less reserved, not as alienated by a vague pressure to maintain dignified expressions. There is a sense of connectedness, a sense of community that makes the person in line next to you your neighbor, not just one of the millions who happen to live in your city. This is a good thing, but it’s a tendency that I didn’t initially understand.The small-town South certainly has a distinct culture, a prominent personality, and, just like anywhere else, there is good and bad. Traits that others might look down on can, for residents, be joked about and smiled at but ultimately accepted. For me, these characteristics have become the endearing, familiar quirks of a friend, a friend of whom I have grown quite fond.Ode to Arkansas: a haikuWaffle House, Wal-MartMeandering laid-back late nightsDown-home plain porch life
