Best Places for a Small Town Girl to Find Romance

Life in Small Town USA is great. There's not much crime, and what there is you can avoid by staying away from the wrong people. You know everyone, and everyone knows you, and you live close by family and friends who you've known all your life. You probably have enough space around you to do what you want, and even if you live in town it gets dark enough at night to see the stars.

Problem is, you KNOW everybody. Every man in town went to school with you, or dated your best friend, or is married to your best friend, or is secretly gay. If you didn't stick with your high school sweetheart, even in the best small towns, the pickings are mighty slim.

There are a few places, though, that you can go to locate the perfect guy for you, someone you can bring home to Mom, a man who will not drag you hundreds of miles away, and ideally someone who will love all the same things about the country life you love. Try these to start with.

A local honky-tonk or greasy spoon: the absolute best place in small town America to find the wrong man! Still, you may find a couple of winners among all the losers; after all, men who are actively looking to meet women are going to be here. Just make sure that they know you're a lady, and that they're expected to behave properly around a small town girl. (Unless you would prefer they don't; in which case, remember that your momma will probably hear about it.)

Church: it may seem like a default place to find men, but nearly everyone in the country goes to church. If you've exhausted your own church's supply of available men and found nothing you like, move on to another church for a little while. God will forgive you. Don't forget to talk to the older women, too. They may consider hooking you up with their sons, who may actually be worthwhile.

Military bases: You won't find one of these in every small town, but you will in many of them. If you're looking for a masculine guy who is absolutely starved for female companionship, this is the right place to go. You probably won't be allowed on-base these days for security reasons, but all military bases in all small towns in America have bars and pawn shops circulating them like satellites. While the men at honky tonks aren't normally of the quality you may be seeking, military men don't have a lot of choices in where to go, so this is acceptable. Be warned, though: fall in love with one of these guys, and you may be moving whether you want to or not.

Country restaurants and convenient stores: You really want to meet men? Take a job working the early shift at a local convenient store, or the lunch shift at a local restaurant. You don't need to tell your prospective boss you're there to meet men, but you will meet lots of small town guys. As a fringe benefit, you'll make some pocket change too. A note: because sometimes things get really busy at peak man time, have some cards in your pocket with your name and phone number so you can give them to an interested guy without having to stop work - if he asks, tell him you wrote it down earlier for a friend, who then realized they could just program it into a cell phone.

There are a couple more places to go to meet men, but they will only be there at certain times: festivals, certain types of celebrations like graduations (everyone has big brothers who come out), parties and weddings of friends, and church revivals and other similar large events. You can also slip to the next small town over to check out their crop of men. Just get creative, and be patient; you may look for a while, but even a small town will harbor at least one absolutely perfect small town boy for you.