Who are we and how did we end up producing Small Town Living?
We're the Wilson family, Paul and Tina with three children living on the panhandle of Florida. Early in 2006 we were talking to some family members who were planning to move to Thomasville, GA. Their plans were driven in part by a desire to get away from the congestion and sprawl in their own town. On a whim we drove up to Thomasville for a weekend and fell in love with what we found. People were friendly, open and made us feel welcome where ever we went. At one point, lost, we stopped and asked a woman sweeping her porch for directions. She told us how to get to the street we were looking for and when she heard we were considering moving to her community she told us we would love it. Her friendliness and warmth were one of the many pleasant memories we still have of our visit.
Once back home we began to talk more about also moving to the area to be closer to family and to get away from the rampant development we were seeing in our own community. There were alot of things we had to consider, where to work, where to live, would we buy a new home? a historic home? land outside of town? We spent hours researching all these topics. My wife had been raised in a rural community and she let us know that if we got a place with a bit of land she would like to own a few animals and grow a few things - Her farm girl was starting to wake up again after living in the city for 15 years.
Small Town Living was born from the interests we have in living in a smaller rural community and from my own love of publication design. We'll share the information we find with you and resources we all can enjoy using. For the time being we're going to continue releasing the magazine in a digital format, but we're looking forward to the day that the first print issue rolls off the press. This topic resonates with many people who want things to move a little slower and simpler, who want to call some small town somewhere....Home.
I hope you enjoy Small Town Living. We'd like to give a special thanks to the numerous authors and photographers who help enrich the quality of the publication with each passing issue.
The Wilsons
