A One Stop Light Town

Throughout America in the days I grew up in, were little towns up and down the old highways, whose size you could almost determine by nothing more than the number of stoplights in them. If you are from a larger town, you probably are not familiar with what I am talking about, but to anyone who grew up in a small town, you may remember when your town got its second or third traffic light. Many of the towns I remember had only one, and did not start adding lights until I was an adult.

As a child, I remember passing through many of these small towns with their courthouse squares filled with all kinds of activity. Sometimes there might be a farmer selling produce from the back of an old truck. On trips to town I have seen all kinds of activity, from couples entering the courthouse to be married, or a couple of old lawyers cordially walking down the street talking to each other, knowing that in only a few minutes they would be in the courtroom on opposite sides. If you did not know it, you might think they hated each other if you only saw their arguments for the respective clients. Many times, I have witnessed children with one or both of their parents reading the names of that particular counties war dead on the monuments placed on the grounds.

If you were fortunate enough to pass through at lunchtime, there always seemed to be at least one diner in close proximity to the courthouse where everyone in town went for lunch. Close by you would find the local drug store, and many of these still had the old soda fountains or lunch counters in them. Not far away you would always find a hardware store or even a Western Auto. In the town I lived in at birth, I can still remember the old icehouse that stood not far from the courthouse square, just across the street from the Post Office. For years, after they tore it down some of the old meat lockers sat in my grandparents’ garage, which they used for storage.

You have always heard that in the south there was a Church on every corner, while not far from the truth, every town seemed to have at least one very close to the town square. In most of the towns I remember, you could almost bet that Church would be Baptist, Methodist, or Church of Christ. It never mattered, because the Church that occupied the center of a town was usually the center of all social activities in town.

During my first trip to Florida, before the expressways were finished, and on many family excursions, I remember counting the stoplights. Then in my late teens, I took a trip, where I drove from just south of Chattanooga, Tennessee to Columbus, Georgia. Even today, I still remember each of the small one and two stop light towns I passed through on those journeys. The towns might have had different names, but they were all similar. You did not have to ask directions, because you could always find just what you needed, even if you had never been there before.

Even now when most of the major highways have bypassed some towns, it feels good to get off the main road and find some gems that still exist off the beaten path. Towns where time seems to have stood still, where someone will still wave at you on the courthouse square, and the waitress at the local diner will make you feel at home. If you get the chance, take a little time and find some of these towns, then make sure you count the stoplights. One-stoplight towns still exist if you want to find them.