There is anonymity in privacy, which is why I'm a big fan of living in a large city (and am perfectly okay with it remaining that way). It's easy to keep people out of your business when you're surrounded by millions of other people.
That's not true in small towns, where even the most innocuous personal drama can be distorted. So when scandals happen (and trust that they do) they tend to captivate the local imagination in ways not seen in big cities.
People told us all about the latest drama in their neck of the woods after Redditor Pessimistic_Soviet asked the online community,
"Those of you who live in small towns, what is the current local controversy all about?"
"Dogs are now getting sick..."
"Thousands of crabs washed ashore dead but nobody really knows why; I think they blamed wind turbines at one point. Dogs are now getting really sick and there are warnings for people to stay away from the beach but nobody knows why it’s happening."
MariahCareyButt
It sounds like algae toxins, which wouldn't surprise me.
"The problem with that is..."
"While fleeing another hit and run, and possible DUI, some dude tried to go full speed directly thru the middle of our town square. The problem with that is we have a big historic fountain there. Traffic is usually supposed to swerve arround the fountain, he did not."
"This dude in a white SUV ramps into our fountain, and smashes into the center pillar. Thankfully the fountain was off for the winter, so there was less damage, but they still have no clue how, and how much money it's gonna take to fix this mess."
"The car was removed, but the fountain is still wrapped up in its tarp a month later. There's security cam footage of the ramp and its all anyone could talk about for a few weeks."
raven_1313
It sounds like that fountain is the town's pride and joy so it makes sense that everyone is a bit bent out of shape about it.
"A woman knows..."
"A woman known as a pretty awful person disappeared. 'Everyone' knows it was probably her husband, but the family owns over 10,000 acres and no body has been found. The rest of her family is ramping up an awareness campaign so should be interesting to see where this all goes."
Ordo501
I expect the Lifetime movie to drop any day now.
"A guy wanted to bury his parents..."
"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!"
Axel0812
Okay, this is petty (and brilliant) as all hell and I am LIVING for it.
"A couple promised..."
"A couple promised a lot of cakes and fancy breads to the local festival and didn't deliver. Everyone has been mad at them for the last two weeks."
ChangeWinter4443
I mean... wouldn't you be? We're talking about cakes AND fancy breads here.
"The girl's volleyball coach..."
"Town of about 1800. The girl's volleyball coach got a DWI. The school's principal went to pick her up from jail, and was arrested for DWI himself. Somehow it got out that these two (both married) were having an affair."
stickshaker73
In a small town how did they think they'd be able to keep any of that secret?
"Two places..."
"Two places make dill dip. One accused the other of stealing the recipe."
duckswithbanjos
This is the sort of drama that I can see being developed into an award-winning indie film.
"People here..."
"People here in my town of 396 are still upset that the local Christmas tree was taken down and thrown away with all the lights still on it."
Onlykitten
I mean... I get it. Sounds like a total waste.
"The woman who just got elected..."
"The woman who just got elected mayor owns most of the property downtown, and all the open seats on city council went to her employees. Can’t wait to see the corruption in action."
Blanchypants
Ha, how convenient. I wonder what her explanation for this was. Probably nothing satisfactory.
"Swans..."
"Swans in the local rivers/lakes have been dying from avian flu and we’ve all been warned to keep our dogs away from sick or dead swans in case infection spreads to humans."
allywillow
Need I remind you that we are in the middle of a global pandemic so I hope people do manage to keep their dogs away, just to be on the safe side!
There's something to be said about small towns – they somehow never fail to entertain us with all their drama.
It's fun to hear about it – definitely not as fun to live it.
Have some stories of your own? Feel free to tell us more in the comments below!
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