You stand in the center of the universe. In all directions around you, life is happening, whirling, revolving around you and your position. It speeds up, slows down, spirals around and around. Things will come and things will go. But, for this moment, while you stand here, in the center of the universe, everything surrounds you.
Welcome to small town Americana. No matter what state you're in, what county, by entering this small town you have entered a new universe. It's a foreign one to many; the kind of thing a suburban kid reads about in books and sees in movies at best. But while inside, there is much to observe, to bring back to the waiting world outside.
How do small towns happen? Why? The answer is, largely, they don't anymore. Say it as a good thing or a bad thing, but small town Americana is dying out. People frequently don't want to live in the small towns, where opportunities are limited and excitement is rare to be found. Those who grew up in them stay, yes, but they also leave. Slowly, small towns are withering away, atrophying as the young decide to head on to new experiences.
To properly answer the question, of course, is to look at history. America was a country founded step by western step. When an area became too crowded, or didn't afford enough opportunity for folk, they moved, and the only place open was the west. So, settlers from, say, what is now Ohio would group together, travel west until they found unclaimed land, and developed it. They farmed, at first, and around these farmers grew a community. Nowadays we see it with the grain elevator central to many small towns in Illinois, and the banks and post offices and such that line Main Streets. But this community grew, more farmers and support were raised, and so on. Until a certain point, when the land was all claimed up, the farms didn't need more workers for the tractors and things it had, and the limited options of employment as "farmer support" dried up. So, people left the small towns to work in factories and such in the urban areas. Such is the history of our country.
But what exactly is a small town? Or, more precisely, why is Philo the center of the universe? The answer is simple: to these farmers, and the community around them, this town, with the grain elevator and the banks and the Philo Tap and whatever else, is the hub of all that they do. Back in the day, there were things like the Sears Roebuck catalog that brought in outside items. But, other than these limited resources, towns largely had what they had and not too much else. Everything in their little universe came in and out of that town. What else could it be but the center?
Small towns are a weird beast. Like an endangered species, they are slowly fading away. Unlike the photogenic endangered species, however, there is less of a push to save them. Whether this is a good thing or not is dependent on the individual, and frequently their own desires on how they want their life to be. But, whether you want a fast-paced, exciting life, or you want a simple, slow one, take a stop to appreciate ways different than your own. You never know when you'll find the best fish fry of your life.
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