Down on the Farm: Living in a one horse town

The other day I heard someone say something about living in a one horse town. I haven't heard that expression for a while and it made me wonder where it ever started.

I can imagine that it started back several years when horses were the primary mode of transportation. If you didn't own a horse, you simply had to walk wherever you needed to go. Therefore if a town had only one horse, it was probably pretty small and very quaint.

Now if you refer to a community as a one horse town the same things come to mind. The town is probably very small and also quite laid back or quaint. It is not always a bad description, especially if you like things small and quiet.

Another description for a town is to have just one stop light. I would say that a one stop light town is one step up from a one horse town. It may even seem like a large city to the one-horse residents but pretty small to the one stop light people.

I am not sure why people associate transportation terms with community size.  I guess those of us who live in smaller towns could begin to term the big cities as "traffic jam city" or "smogville." These could be pretty accurate terms for some communities but not all large towns.

I kind of like traveling through one horse or one stop light towns. They have a lot of character and absolutely no traffic problems unless there is something special going on. The biggest issues we have to deal with is that people fail to put on their blinkers when turning or are too busy waving to people on the sidewalks to watch where they are driving. But then again, we usually know where the person in front of us is going so they really don't need the blinker and we are just waiting for our turn to wave to those very same people on the sidewalk. It is just the way traffic flows in our one horse, one stop light towns.

I can imagine that it started back several years when horses were the primary mode of transportation. If you didn't own a horse, you simply had to walk wherever you needed to go. Therefore if a town had only one horse, it was probably pretty small and very quaint.

Now if you refer to a community as a one horse town the same things come to mind. The town is probably very small and also quite laid back or quaint. It is not always a bad description, especially if you like things small and quiet.

Another description for a town is to have just one stop light. I would say that a one stop light town is one step up from a one horse town. It may even seem like a large city to the one-horse residents but pretty small to the one stop light people.

I am not sure why people associate transportation terms with community size.  I guess those of us who live in smaller towns could begin to term the big cities as "traffic jam city" or "smogville." These could be pretty accurate terms for some communities but not all large towns.

I kind of like traveling through one horse or one stop light towns. They have a lot of character and absolutely no traffic problems unless there is something special going on. The biggest issues we have to deal with is that people fail to put on their blinkers when turning or are too busy waving to people on the sidewalks to watch where they are driving. But then again, we usually know where the person in front of us is going so they really don't need the blinker and we are just waiting for our turn to wave to those very same people on the sidewalk. It is just the way traffic flows in our one horse, one stop light towns.