Little Big Town

Being from a small town, there’s not a whole lot to be admired. There are houses, a few bars, an HEB, a Super Wal-Mart, some drive-thrus, and a movie theatre. Pleasanton, Texas is where I reside and where I grew up. I’ve lived in the same house my whole life. My parents bought our house right before I was born. Like everywhere, there’s a north, east, south, and west side to our town whose population was last recorded at 8,226 people, but has grown to over 9,000. I live on the northwest side of Pleasanton on 1012 Maia Dr. Our high school is literally 30 seconds from my backyard.
Being from a small town it’s quite easy and quick to get to almost anywhere in town. From one side of town to the other it takes a maximum of 10 minutes including time spent at lights and stop signs. Some major highways that run through Pleasanton include highway 97 which goes into Floresville, highway 281 which leads into San Antonio, highway 37N and 37S which lead to San Antonio and to Corpus Christi. Although a small town we are still considered a 4A school. All of the town’s schools are located in the same vicinity being at most 2 miles apart from one another.
Like most towns we have a police department made up of about 20 officials. Fortunately, I am privileged to share my neighborhood with at least 5 of them, one living on every street in my immediate neighborhood; my father being one of them. The socio-economic status seems to be between working middle class and middle class in my neighborhood depending on how long the residences have resided there. There is also a great deal of elderly people living on my street. Growing up I was surrounded by elderly couple on three sides. There are also a great deal of families in the neighborhood, young families with young children, and families with children of my age. While growing up in a predominantly Caucasian neighborhood, as I got older more of the new families moving in were of Hispanic descent. There are now a diverse variety of ethnicities such as Caucasians, Hispanics, African Americans, and those of Asian descent. The bigger the town gets, the more diverse it seems to get. Across the road from the high school is a cemetery that has been here for at least 21 years; as long as I’ve lived in town.
Although it seems that Pleasanton has many things that a city has, Pleasanton only has a community college, which is slowly becoming hard to keep staffed. Attending Palo Alto College isn’t the closest place to attend college, but it’s only about a 45 minute drive from my house. Palo Alto gives many in the south San Antonio area and all the small surrounding towns a close place to attend for an education. My best friend and I carpool and take turns driving each week to save gas, money, and the environment.
In Pleasanton in the early 90’s there was a major problem with gangs, but by the mid 90’s to late 90’s those gangs had either segregated, moved, or just died out. After I graduated from high school gangs were starting to become popular again and formed just as fast as they departed. New gangs have formed with new leaders, and new enemies. These gangs aren’t as big a threat as the ones prior to them were. These new gangs are simply juveniles who are trying to be adults with an attitude. None of these kids seem to cause any real trouble or danger to themselves or others.
As earlier stated, there isn’t much to do in a small town, but there is a movie theater, friends’ houses, little café’s, and restaurants and bars where my friends and I usually hang out at. Most of my time is spent in San Antonio at school or just enjoying the many things to do in the great city. After living in a city after moving away from home for a couple of years, I’ve learned that you can have the city life and the town life, you just have to know how to separate the two and not expect the same from both. San Antonio is very fast-paced and Pleasanton is not. Everything is pretty low-key in Pleasanton, and I like it this way because if I want all the hustle and bustle of the city life I know San Antonio is just a hop, skip, and jump away.

Word Count 756