This week’s Focus 52 prompt is all about “my town”.

Show us where you live! Is there something you absolutely love about the place you live? Capture it and show us. Maybe you have a favorite place, favorite store, favorite hangout … take a few minutes this week to grab some photos to share.

I was not born in a small town but I have spent a good portion of my childhood in a small town(s)…in my humble (and somewhat limited) opinion, there was nothing more small town than Imperial, Clinton and Oakdale, Pennsylvania, where I lived from 5th grade through high school until I packed up and ran away headed to my birthplace in California. As a kid I hated small town life…I think that is the expectation of your average tween and teen though. In your limited world view there is nothing to do and no where to go in a small town. Everyone knows everyone and everyone’s business and as a kid you are only known as so and so’s kid…that could be a good thing or a very bad thing. If you knew my Mommy Dearest and my step-dad you would appreciate how hard it could be sometimes. But to consider my brothers and sister’s accounts it could be even harder if your oldest sibling is some kind of straight arrow, over-achiever who leaves right after graduation (and pretty much never comes back) so that no one can witness all of her major screw-ups and failings that are a part of growing up and becoming a real, bona-fide grown-up.

THANK GOD no one was able to witness that kind of craziness!

But, yeah, I am pretty much a small town girl, living in a small town world…even if I spent a good portion of my adult life falling in love, getting married, getting educated to pursue my life’s ambition and raising a family in a pretty big city in the Bay Area of California. But life can be funny sometimes as here I am for over nine years living the small town life.

Take note, if you really want to mess with your kids pull up stakes from life in the ‘burbs of Silicon Valley and land in a town where there is a cow pasture right across the street from the high school. Holly can tell you how amazing that is.

Truth be told, Manteca isn’t really a small town. It’s actually a city with a population of over 67,000 people. But it remains a city with a small town attitude, a small town way of thinking and a small town way of living…which is a good thing, but sometimes can be a bad thing…but it is a mostly good thing and a pretty great place to settle down and raise a circus. We are surrounded by orchards, vineyards, dairies and farms…and murals depicting all that, and more…and yes, there is a cow pasture directly across the street from one of my kids’ schools.