You Know You Live in a Small(ish) Town When...

[LizzieMaine]

Why that complicated?? Why not just "priority-to-the-right"?

Traffic laws in the US tend to be a mishmash of federal, state, and local regulations -- a lot of areas allow Right Turn on Red, and a lot don't. Sometimes it even varies block-by-block.

 

[belfastboy]

The reality of the class system is that structural, systemic class oppression has nothing to do with the individual morality, actions, or beliefs of members of any class. Americans, steeped in the religion of individualism, too often miss this point.

Oh, what crap.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Gesundheit.

 

[MisterCairo]

So, getting back to small(ish) towns, our headlines in Stratford, Ontario include the annual Walk a Mile in Her Shoes event, a local delegation having gone to Vimy, France for the centennial memorial of the Canadian victory in 1917, a local insurance broker receiving a business achievement award, and of course, a local author having sent a copy of his first book to the Queen (current as of 18 Apr 17):

http://www.stratfordbeaconherald.com

 

[ChiTownScion]

On the other hand, there's the ultimate nightmare of American individualism: a four-way stop sign.

Gotta be careful with those. This could happen:

 

[sheeplady]

To be clear, my mother-in-law's family was never rich rich. Upper middle class by national standards I'd say, but not millionaires. Top of the heap in small town Pennsylvania, though. (And yes, related to two early presidents... my MIL's mother still carried the name. DAR members and all.)

My MIL was mildly fascinated by me when we first got married because my background was so... not like hers. (Half my grandparents never even attended a day of high school, my mother never graduated, etc...) Not in a judgemental way, but there were lots of intrusive questions about why I graduated college, etc.

But it is rather an interesting phenomenon that some people look backwards- although that's not limited to small towns, either.

And to tie this back in... when you're from a small town and go back to visit, you always get asked when you'll be coming back home (permanently). Even if you've made it clear your home is elsewhere.

 

[Trenchfriend]

I believe, the class-system of today was created by clothing-industry.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Clothing is definitely a marker of social class, in small towns or anywhere, but it isnt the garments themselves so much as it's what they represent. Social class is not determined by how much money you make, although Americans like to think that it is. It's determined by a whole set of markers that include how you were raised, where you were raised, by whom you were raised, who your ancestors were, where they came from, what they stood for, how they were educated, where they were educated, and where and how you yourself were educated, and what your priorities in life might be. You can be a billionaire and still, in terms of the class markers and attitudes you display, be painfully middle class. Certain personalities prominent in the current news are explicit demonstrations of this.

These markers are very very prominent in many small towns, where your class position will be carefully judged for how you dress, where you work, the part of town where you live, if you own or rent, and if you own, how you paint and maintain your house, whether you park your car in the driveway or in the garage, what kind of car it is, and whether or not you display bumper stickers on it, and if you do, what they say, what can be seen thru your front windows, whether you hang your washing on a line or dry it in a dryer, and if the lattter, where your dryer port emerges from the side of your house. Your class position will be judged on the basis of what kind of pet you have -- if a dog, you will be judged on the breed of dog and how and where you walk that dog. If a cat, you will be judged on whether you allow that cat to roam or keep it inside, and if the latter, if you allow it to keep its claws or have it surgically mutilated for the sake of your furniture. All of these things are markers of social class, and people will use them in small towns to determine exactly where you fit into the community.

 

[Trenchfriend]

One of my definite life-experiences as a wearer of glasses is, that people with glasses are treated different from people without, here in Germany. Treated with much more respect, than people without glasses. And from 2003 to 2010, I had frameless glasses, looking Professor- or engineer-like, oops.

So, you can see, how "fine" these old pictures still work in the heads of the people.

 

[sheeplady]

I've never seen a more perfect description of class. Right down to where your dryer exits.

Most middle class people I've encountered tend to think everyone is like them. Hence they are amazed when someone they think is middle class says something that signifies they grew up not middle class (particularly if they are of middle class means now). These aren't upper-middle class people either, but they have been middle class for enough generations and are isolated enough that any other ways of living are... well, they don't exist. (Except for the poor, well, you know, *those people* they'll say, and of course, people overseas have dirt floors, but not *here.*)

Then some people look at you and it is like they are recalibrating your class in their eyes.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Americans are very caught up with the idea of being "middle class," even though they don't actually seem to understand what that is, or what it means. Within the so-called "middle class" there are shadings and markers of micrometer precision that will define those who claim that status, and will "other" those who fail to meet those requirements. Truly upper class people have no use for any of this stuff -- you either are upper class or you aren't, and no middle class person, no matter how much they strive and aspire, can ever truly become "upper class" thru their own efforts. There is a vast, vast difference in worldview, in attitude, and in behavior that divides "upper middle class" from "upper class," a gulf that the upper class itself very strictly maintains. An upper class person who is dead broke is still more "upper class" than the richest "upper middle class" person can ever hope to be.

I've seen this with my own eyes, time and time again. For example, middle class people will compliment upper class people on their homes, but in doing so they irreversibly mark themselves as hopelessly middle class. The quality of an upper class person's home is something that is simply taken for granted -- and they consider it crass to talk about such things.

Interestingly, the very term "middle class" as it's broadly used today, didn't really take on that meaning until after WWII, at the instance of the Boys From Marketing and their motivational researchers. The vast majority of people who consider themselves "middle class" today would have been considered unambiguously working class before the war. The selling of the concept of "middle class America" as a byproduct of the right kind of consumption is one of the Boys' most successful and productive propositions.

 

[Trenchfriend]

Wear a simple black Caban-jacket at wintertime and a scarf and strange winter(sport)-hikers, coming from outside and crossing your town, greet you. Greet back an be irritated for some minutes, why they greeted you.

 

[BlueTrain]

When I was little, wearing glasses was problematic. You might be teased, which sooner or later you would have to deal with or the teasing would continue. "Four-eyes" was a common tease, for example, although really very mild. There were a lot worse things to be teased about besides the fact that you wore glasses. I got in fights a lot but never simply because I wore glasses. These days, however, so many people wear glasses that it scarcely makes any difference at all to how people perceive you.

On the subject of class (in our classless society), everyone wants to be like other people and likewise, people want other people to be like themselves even more so. That's one reason you usually find yourself among other people who are just like yourself, at least in some sense of the word. I like to point out that when I was in college, everyone wanted to be a non-conformist. It wasn't hard; all you had to do was to be like everyone else. None of that applied to the Young Republicans Club, of course. They're running the country at the moment.

There's more to the social structure than class and class is complicated enough as it is. There's the high brow, middle brow and low brow thing, too. You can be pretty low class and still be a high brow, although it's rather uncommon and uncharacteristic. Some of the very rich are very middle brow, although we generally define class in this country in terms of income and wealth (not the same thing). We mostly have no other artificial class structures in this country, I think. We don't inherit titles, for example, as is still the case in a few places. But wealth can certainly be inherited and that's really the best way to get it.

I wouldn't say that the clothing industry created classes but more likely, it's the other way around. Even then, it's really only the high end of the clothing industry that benefits from wealth. At one time, in some places, there were laws that prevented ordinary people from wearing the clothing of the rich, although it doesn't seem like such a law would be necessary, when you think about it.

There are, however, some things that you can do that will set you apart from others who haven't done such things. I'm not sure if serving in the armed forces counts everywhere but supposedly, it is still a sort of rite of passage in some places. But nothing will do it like graduating from college. You will leave school with a totally different attitude, for better or worse. Of course, you will see the class differences sorting themselves out on campus even as an undergraduate. Think of fraternity row. They come to school better than everyone else and do their best to make it known. They're no better than anyone else; they just have more money.

 

[LizzieMaine]

"Brows" were discussed rather hilariously in Life magazine -- the very living definition of the middlebrow, middleclass mindset -- in 1949.

 

[BlueTrain]

Nothing much has changed from what I can tell.

 

[Trenchfriend]

"Barbourism" became fashion-trend, check-scarves did the same and now, since years, massmarket offers all of that to all price-categories. So maybe, my littletowns medicine- and lawyer-bourgeoisie, here, will be identifiable by wearing NO scarves and NO rhombus-quilting and maybe NO headwear.

Some of them wear 1st generation Jack Wolfskin-jackets.

 

[BlueTrain]

Everything is also complicated by the age of the individual. In fact, one could postulate yet another division of humanity by age group. We are certainly marketed to by age group.

Oh, to be 70 again.

 

[sheeplady]

The high versus middle versus low brow is interesting. I've noticed that many people are stunned when you can order (yet alone make) a cocktail today... but yet wine is still considered the drink of high class people. (Which, I will note, whiskey, wine, and beer will all make you a fool in the right amount... some it takes none at all.)

 

[LizzieMaine]

I'm sort of miffed they make no mention on that chart of Coca-Cola.

 

[sheeplady]

Now it could be various water bottle brands versus the tap.