Small towns and small town people

I grew up in and around Astoria, Oregon. There is one thing that you will after living here for a short period of time. People here have a general lack of self esteem and a general lack of opitimism. Also people here have some etremely bad habits. Those negative attributes of just a few people have been spoiling things for the rest of us.

Here's a few things about Astoria, Oregon in general that make it an unpleasant place to live to begin with:

The weather here is pretty much terrible. Our summer is about two months long and runs from August to September. Than we have a rainy season that last through fall, winter, and spring. Accasionally we have a nice summer or a nice snowy winter but mostly we get rain.

You might think that with all the rain there would be some kind of large civic center where people could go and have some sort of social interaction or take some part in what is going on their community. There isn't the only places one can walk around indoors is the few large grocery and department stores and small shopping centers and mini-malls. There isn't really a place to be social here. Every place you can be social is centered around spending money. While trade is important to all societies. It's not everything.

Most of the events that happen here are political, religous, or economically driven so genuine social situations are hard to come by unless you are really in the know. The groups who have events that are purely social are private niches who are pretty selective about who they associate with. It's hard to meet people who are social and civic because those people are usually strong individuals who are tend to avoid social situations created under false pretence. Couple the lack of opportunity for social interaction with very fragmented social groups you find that it is pretty hard to upkeep any kind of social life without travelling to other areas or extensive use of the internet or accademic persuits.