When you come from a small town there’s a big thing called home town pride
We love our home town so much we actually named our business after it
Here are 10 Things You Do If You Love Your Home Town
1. Tweet Positive
There may be naysayers, there may be serial complainers, there may be out of towners who want to build your town in the image of their home town
But none of this stops you tweeting positive about the town you love
You get excited about every new development, every new opening and do your best to support the town at every opportunity
This is your town – you tweet positive regardless of what anybody else says
2. Support New Businesses
You want to be the 1st to check out new businesses in the town and be the 1st of your friends to check in on Facebook, tweet about it, visit it
There’s nothing better than meeting a new business owner and find out their story that led to them setting up their own business
If they’re from your home town you share memories of time gone by and if they’re new to the town you suggest people they should chat to and meet
Most of all you love a good launch party where the whole town comes together and you know the whole room (and those you don’t yet know will become future friends)
3. Show Respect to Older Businesses
Even though you love all the new entrants you have the ultimate respect to those business that have been here for years in town
You’ve seen the town change – the ups and down – the booms and the recessions – and still there are businesses who stay and flourish regardless
Some have been here since before you were born and you’ve seen several generations of the same family run the business
Every time you go to another town you try similar businesses and find they’re never quite as good as your old favourites
You look at some of the new businesses and wonder if they can survive as long as these classic businesses
4. Review on TripAdvisor / Facebook
You eat and drink out all the time and think if it’s good enough for holiday then it’s good enough for your home town
You try and review as many places locally as possible when you visit because you don’t want to keep your favourite businesses a secret – you want more and more people to try the businesses out (as long as you can get a seat still)
When it comes to businesses that don’t make the grade – you simply keep quiet because you know promoting what you love instead of bashing what you hate is the better way to do things
You keep an active look at the TripAdvisor ratings and have internal debates about which businesses should be lower or higher in the ratings
5. Constantly Take Foodie Photos
Your family hate you for it. You friends wonder why you do it. Your friends wonder how you many times you actually cook at home.
But you want to document the best of the town offerings so every time you go out you snap away at your plate trying to get the best foodie photo
You pat yourself on the back when you get a photo that’s worthy of being included in the restaurant’s menu and you love it when the restaurant / cafe retweets, shares and regrams it
When you get 20 of your friends saying they’re all going to check out the restaurant you know you’ve done your good deed for the day
6. Encourage Others To Support The Town
When there’s a town centre event you encourage your friends to all meet up and go down en masse
For older friends it’s increasingly harder with baby sitters, prior commitments and work getting in the way – but you’re always the one to send the Facebook and Whatsapp messages trying to get everyone together
You think if everyone did this the town would be buzzing every single day and often wonder why it’s always the same faces supporting local events
You love Social Media and it’s benefits, but wish more people would go outside and participate rather than voyeuristically watching other people’s life via social media photos
7. Make Note Of Great Ideas In Other Towns
A holiday or daytrip away is great to get away but in every town you see great ideas and projects that you think would work really well in your home town
You make notes and send yourself an email to remind you when you get back and start thinking about who can make this happen
Originality is important, but imagine if your town had the best ideas from other towns and it was a Best Of Compilation that no other town could compete with
8. Get involved in Town Initiatives
When you were younger you never thought you’d become one of those “old people who does meetings and committees”
And then you get drawn in and become that old person who does meetings and committees
You know that you have great ideas and being part of the community means getting involved rather than sniping from the side-lines
There are highs and lows, there is meeting fatigue and there are times you feel like walking away
Deep down you know your contribution is important for the town
9. Be Offended When Anyone Attacks Your Home Town
You know what’s great and not so great about your town
But there’s nothing more offensive than someone constantly attacking your town
You wonder why when there’s so many great things to talk about, certain people always manage to find something to moan about
It’s even worse when it’s the press from outside the town – people who have visited for no longer than 20 minutes and then broadcast their opinion to the world
10. Plan To Retire In Your Home town
Even if you move away for your career, you know deep down that you will retire in your home town
It’s one of those things that constantly plays on your mind when you come back to visit family
You’ve been to London, NYC, Paris and all around the world
When you’re in your 60s the only place you want to retire is the town you grew up in as a child
