small towns are sometimes a wonderful utopia lost in time

Yesterday was an interesting day. No school for the kids, but girl6 and I were kicking butt on some much needed cleaning. Boy4 was recovering from a weekend of high fevers and vomiting only to be told he has strep. The boys were getting restless and cabin fever was setting in. A superhero came to my rescue when he offered to take my boy10 to play  hockey over at my brothers. Since he had 4wheel drive I said go for it. Later, my neighbor came by and asked to borrow our snow blower. He cleaned out our driveway first then did his. We never had this kind of "pop in" social interactions. No phone call just swing by and ask. My hubby gave my neighbor grief for taking care of our driveway, but all he said in reply "Just my way of saying thanks". Small towns are sometimes a wonderful utopia lost in time.

Through all the chaos of snow days., my hubby still has to work from a home office. It is extremely hard to do on snow days because most of the time the kids are stuck in the house and left to their own entertainment. How to annoy your siblings seems to be a favorite choice. 3 seems to be a toxic mix when it comes to children. Sure, they may get along for a little bit, but it is not long before one of them comes crying because things are not working out for them. How did those large families of our ancestors do it? this is a question I asked my mom earlier this week. Recently two of my have been to the doctor for strep. With nine kids, how did she handle when we were all sick? Simply put, they weren't all about taking us to the doctor or even checking our temperature. I never took amoxocillin or went to the doctor if I didn't feel good. If we were sick she would make us lay around  the TV she wouldn't have to clean beds over and over again. If we weren't feverish, throwing up, or some other obvious illness, we went to school. Can't say as I blame her.

My own Brigadoon

Had a great time skating at my brother's pond yesterday. It was just my kids and some neighborhood boys. We played until dark. Are there other places like that, where random people from the community can skate on a pond? No regulations, planned events, insurance...
My parents talk about their generation always doing this. How they would all walk to a local pond to skate. It was a "hangout", they would build a fire and just make a day of it. Our day at my brothers isn't much different. Am I in a generation behind or is this like that old movie Brigadoon, a place that is stuck in time.
In a lot of ways our small town is like that. People may come and go, but so much stays the same. Events remain the same from generation to generation. Some may ask why, but the answer is always the same... Its what we always do.
The homes people live in our still called by the original owners name, no matter who lives there now. My house included. A lot of people are called the same nicknames that  their parents have/had.  I would guess at least half the population have one, some obvious, others, not so much. Of course we have a "tiny" who isn't, or  a Bud, or Butch, etc. but so many others are "just because that's what they call him" , My grandfather had a nickname for everyone. Some, he was the only one who called them that. I didn't realize that Pickle was his brother, he was always just Pickle. 
I guess we fall into standard small town familiarity. We are blessed that we know everyone. we are cursed because they all know us too.