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23 Hilarious Bits Of Small-Town Gossip That May Make You Regret Living In The Big City
Article created by: Indrė Lukošiūtė
Little towns often appear peaceful and quiet, but that doesn't mean there are no controversies brewing beneath the surface. In fact, a recent Reddit post by user u/Pessimistic_Soviet demonstrates quite the opposite.
It invited residents of small communities to share local gossip and the responses did not disappoint. From debates over property rights to political scandals and corruption, the thread serves as a reminder that drama is not exclusive to big cities.
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
Surprisingly enough, there isn’t one at the moment. In our 3k pop town everyone has come together recently because one of our local homeless veterans lost his pet cat. The entire town has banded together to try and find her and even hated enemies are planning out search parties together.
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#2
There's a llama on loose in this town. The police can't catch it. The humane society can't locate it. And no one is claiming ownership of it. It's been sighted in several locations on the outskirts of town where there are multiple small farms. Sometimes it wanders into town and peruses through people's yards. People have complained to the police who claim they can't corral it as it's the Wyle E Coyote of llamas. It just doesn't want to be caught.
#3
In our small English village, someone has managed to knock over one of the speed limit signs at one end of the road. It's a mystery, everyone is trying to guess who did it/what happened. Was it intentional? Except it's not a mystery in our house. It was my sister and she hit it when she swerved out of the way of an oncoming car (narrow country road). We'll keep acting like we are as clueless as everyone else though.
#4
A guy wanted to bury his parents on their (parents’) slightly rural, totally out of the way, virtually-no-neighbors property, but the village said no way. We don’t do that here. We’re classy. So he went to the state for permission to build a funeral home/crematorium instead, and he built a giant mausoleum with both their caskets right on the corner of the property where everyone and their grandma can see it when they drive by! And he has zero plans to actually turn this into a functioning business. It’s about half done, no landscaping, and construction vehicles parked all over the place. Gotta hand it to him!
[progress!](https://imgur.com/a/BMzmHps)
(July 2022)
#5
They’re still trying to figure out who is Black.
The village has 249 people. On the census everyone reported white except one person who reported biracial or something and now the demographics show that the town is .7% Black.
#6
Someone mentioned opening up a yoga studio. People are losing their minds because yoga is not Christian and of another religion.
#7
My family thought that the term “Karen” being used on Facebook specifically meant the woman named Karen that works at the gas station near me. I had mentioned her once at home and my mom was like “Oh everyone hates her on Facebook right now! They all think she’s a snitch!”
#8
About 2 years ago the mayor of the town I live in got caught with drunk driving his lawnmower down main street at around 2 AM about 6 weeks after being elected.
Edit: I can't wrap my head around the fact that my mayor getting drunk and driving a lawnmower would become one of my most upvoted comments but here we are.
#9
So our controversy has been resolved…But the town I grew up in had a Beefalo (cow Buffalo cross breed) escape from a slaughter house. It spent months running wild in the wooded areas around town living off whatever it could find to eat. I had friends who were out for drives sending me pictures of their beefalo encounters like it was Sasquatch. This went on for months.
The story got picked up by a big YouTube channel and went viral.
https://youtu.be/C3-ZpXp6oe8
Edit: Thanks everyone for the awards! Didn’t expect to wake up to this. Glad you all enjoyed the story.
#10
Small town with 3000 inhabitants. Everyone knows each other, everyone knows where everyone works, who is related to whom, and so on. Still, my cousin doesn't know who is the father of her child.
#11
The eccentric millionaire that owned every building in down town and used them to house his extensive rock collection died like 15 years ago and they still haven't figured out what to do with all the rocks.
#12
My parents live in a tiny Greek village that has a grand total of three families (including my parents) and currently they're trying to rectify the fact that our dog killed our neighbor's chicken.
#13
Sheep:
Whether or not to continue allowing a flock of sheep to graze on the town green (with a petting area for lambs).
Some think the sheep do a fine job of keeping the grass under control (and fertilized) - others want landscaping professionals to do the job.
#14
In my wife's home town of about 2k people, the road side produce stand guy is in a feud with a new SECOND produce stand that just opened. The original produce guy trained the new guy for a while apparently then fired him, now the fired guy opened his own spite produce stand. They got in a fist fight and now the whole town has taken produce stand sides. The mayor and the only police officer in town are also involved and their wives are fighting. It is truly the dumbest version of Hatfield's and McCoys, but no less redneck.
Edit:
This blew up, I have asked my wife for the screenshots she had. These are what the original guy sent the new stand guy, which he then posted on his FB. What he wrote is 10x better than anything I wrote I promise.
https://m.imgur.com/gallery/Xy80Yrn
#15
People here in my town of 396 still upset that the local Christmas tree was taken down and thrown away with all the lights still on it.
#16
One guy wanted to open a gas station but the property wasn’t zoned for it. The town wouldn’t change it for him, so he put toilets on all of his properties and used them as flower planters. The town has tried many different strategies to get rid of them, to the point where the made a law and then tried to enforce it. They got their butts sued off and the toilets still stand. To be fair, he keeps them in great condition and replaces any broken ones after storms.
Edit:It was a dunkin donuts not a gas station
Edit 2: another interesting thing, the local high school mascot is the steve the sandstoner, so all of our apparel says stoner pride.
Link about it https://www.vice.com/amp/en/article/ep4p3p/let-this-man-keep-his-toilet-gardens
#17
LoL The Mayor has a personal feud with this one guy that has an emotional support pig while living in the village. Housing farm animals are illegal within the village.
#18
a couple promissed a lot of cakes and fancy breads to the local festival, and didn't deliverd
everyone is mad at them for the last 2 weeks
#19
The city I live in (around 10k residents or so) doesn't allow food trucks to operate outside of things like festivals. There has been a push to change that, and, coincidentally, majority of most vocal people against them are restaurant owners.
#21
So this one has been ongoing for a while, but... The Nutcrackers.
My hometown (where I no longer live, but still have family so I keep apprised of local matters) has decided, in a bizarre bid to increase tourism, to become The Nutcracker Town.
The reason? An older woman donated her nutcracker collection to the historical society. Something like 2,500 nutcrackers. I think because her kids told her flat out they would dispose of them after she died if she did not make alternate arrangements.
So, the town decided, well, they had all these nutcrackers on display. This could be good for tourism. We could be known for something.
People were bewildered and predictably upset. A lot of townsfolk don't *want* to be the nutcracker town. All the local businesses have been pressured to buy these giant expensive cardboard nutcrackers from the local print shop. They are *terrifying.*
There's been general outcry. Facebook groups, the whole nine yards. And still the town persists. Still there are these hollow-eyed giant cartoonish cardboard nutcrackers everywhere you look.
Edit: Someone guessed it, so I have effectively triangulated myself (internet safety fail 101). If you want to see some local news on the subject, [look no further.](https://www.keloland.com/news/eye-on-keloland/history-center-hopes-to-have-more-nutcrackers-than-people-in-luverne/)
Edit 2: Okay, since many people have asked (and not everyone can access the news sites), I've attempted to upload a picture of [the cardboard nutcrackers.](https://i.imgur.com/lVQ9zUd.jpg) Let me know if it doesn't work and I'll give it another go!
#22
Local mcdonalds wants to build a drive thru, some people are dead against it, but others think its long overdue as the mcdonalds is always crowded. The people against believe it'd ruin the character of the area. I'm not sure where I stand.
#23
The town just spent a LOT of people's tax dollars to create a new logo and slogan.
The logo? It's an Satellite image of the town with the main roads of the square being highlighted to look like a tic tac toe board.
It's seriously a BIG controversy right now, because anyone with Google earth and Ms-Paint could've made it.
Edit: People have been asking for the link. Here you go!
https://www.news-gazette.com/news/local/politics/monticello-gets-new-logo-slogan-close-to-everything-far-from-everyday/article_bd4b9e48-0ee4-5fca-85a9-9f3354e23e43.html
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