[Blindtlk] A List Newbee and a Question About Small Town Life andBlindness

[Julie J.]

Welcome to the list!  I also live in a very small town, less than 8,000 
people.  My husband is a farmer and I work for the county.  I moved here 
from a decent sized city with city buses, cabs and lots of things within 
walking distance.  When I moved here to marry my farmer husband, one of my 
conditions was that we live in town where I could walk to the majority of 
things I would need to get to regularly.    He already had an apartment in 
town and commuted out to where he farms.  We bought a house about 5 blocks 
from where his apartment was.  So we are about 10 blocks from downtown and 
the majority of services and shopping.

It's going to be tough until you get to know people in your community and 
can work out carpooling with others.  I'd suggest joining anything that 
interests you, so you can start making those connections quickly.  Churches, 
civic organizations, leadership groups,  volunteer at a community center or 
get involved with things going on in your workplace.  this will help you 
meet people, who hopefully will be going to many of the same places you want 
to go.  Try to work out an exchange of services, like they pick you up every 
other Saturday morning for a trip to Wal-Mart and you watch their kids that 
night so they can go out with friends.  Small town people are generally 
happy to help out a neighbor and will do what they can, but offering money 
has not worked out well for me.  It is more socially acceptable for you to 
offer an equivalent service.

Also if it is at all possible, I would suggest trying to find a place to 
live where you can access most of what you will need on a regular basis. 
For me those things are: my work location, the schools, the grocery store, 
the bank, the post office, restaurants and the farmers market. There are 
some things I cannot get to by walking, but if those places are something I 
can plan  out in advance, I can figure out transportation.

Another option might be to see if any of the grocery stores offer delivery. 
One of ours does here.  It costs a few dollars and you have to order on 
Tuesday and they only deliver on Thursday, but still it could work.   There 
is at least one farmer that makes deliveries of meats and eggs to our town. 
It costs $7 and I think it's once a month, but if you had a decent sized 
freezer you could order enough to last.  The best thing is to meet people 
who have lived in the area for a while and can tell you about this sort of 
stuff.

Good luck, and happy rural living!
Julie