Newcomers Integrating into a Small Town

Having moved here from bigger cities as newcomers, Kim and I have a little perspective on how one integrates into a small town, and Nevada County is certainly a small town. Our children hate to go to the grocery store with us, because they know it will take an half-hour longer than it needs to, because we stop and talk to our friends no less than three times per trip. When our children go to the Fair, we warn them not to act up, because we live in a small town and someone will see you and they will tell us and you will get busted. In 2007, I was the best man in the wedding of one of my best friends (a Bear River grad), and I was reminded of the story of him driving home from school up 49 at about 100 miles per hour. His mom knew about it before he got home. Everybody in this community knows everybody...and everybody's business.

We love our wonderful small town community...it is why we moved here - twice. We moved here originally in 1998 and owned a gymnastics gym. In 2002, we went to law school in Valparaiso, Indiana, and after working in northwest Indiana, we chose to move back to our favorite lovely, small, quaint town. We love our tight-knit community. We love the Fair. We love knowing our neighbors. We love our coffee group at Pete's. We love our Rotary group. We love the business community. We wanted to be part of it for the rest of our lives.

Most of all, we love our friends. We play softball on teams which are composed almost entirely of people that went to high school here, and they treat us like family and no different than anyone else. From Darrell Tripp, to Guy Selleck, to Carl Cookson, they are my high school buddies that would have been if we had grown up here.

"In the end, we want to make sure our newcomers feel welcome and are integrated into our politics, culture and economics. It leads to vibrant economies, innovation and collaboration. We need that, because our population is aging and declining."

Yesterday, I read this comment on Pelline's blog and the comment got me thinking. What are the obstacles to integrating in a small town? Is there a systemic problem in this community for newcomers integrating?

In our relocation experience, there were no obstacles. We've owned two businesses here - going on three. We are very active politically. We are members of many local philanthropic groups in town. We have friends who grew up here that would give us the shirt of their back if we needed it. We did not move here and try to change this small community; we moved here to be a part of this community as it currently exists. I think that is the obstacle for certain newcomers.

Most people who end up relocating here either came here for a visit and loved it or had family here. During visits, they find out what we already know, Nevada County is awesome and amazing from the people to the activities. They find out that Nevada County is a rare gem in the world, and then, they decide to move here and be a part of this wonderful community.

That said, there are others that move here and decide that they know more about the way things should be than the people that have lived here for generations. Starting out a new relationship with a new community by treating them as unworldly because they live in a small town does not lend itself to charity. In order to properly integrate into any small town, it seems that one must accept those small town values which make the community wonderful. In order to properly integrate into any small town, it seems that one must become a part of the community and not the newcomer who lectures the community at-large what they are doing wrong all the time. Those small town values are the very reason why people stay here and why people move here. Those small town values are the very fabric of the community. A failure to integrate in this small town by those who reject those small town values is to be expected.

In conclusion, it seems that the obstacles to integrating into this small town are not systemic, they are individual and based upon the person and not the community. This community is very inviting and accepting of newcomers, but you have to share the commonality of small town values or it simply becomes difficult to integrate due to a lack of common vision.