I really like small towns. Not just because they are small. I guess the main attraction is that they still look like something from the past. Some of them still have the old railroad stations and bus stations. The trains and buses don't stop there anymore, but the buildings have been restored and converted to other uses.

I like the old weatherboard churches with a cemetary in the side yard. Some old towns have 1950's style theaters, gas stations, and diners.

If you start at the center of town and drive out the main road, you will notice that houses get newer and newer. Near downtown the houses may be more than a century old, then you see the 1920's, the 1940's, and the 1960's. Main Street is a history book.

If the town is large enough to be a county seat, it may have a square with a court house in the middle. Old store buildings face the court house and sometimes only the front has been modernized.

Loudon, Tennessee is one of my favorite small towns. There is a curb in front of the court house with iron rings to tether your horse.

I also like Liberty, Tennessee. I went there a few years ago to attend the 200th birthday of the town. My wife was born nearby.

In California, there is a small town called Harmony. It's just a few building beside highway 1. The last time I was there the entire town was for sale.

Lexington, Mass, is no longer small, but the oldest part downtown represents an important chapter in our history.

Kaunakakai, Hawaii, on Molokai is one of my favorites. It's still stuck in the 1920's and I hope it stays that way. (Cow-nah-kah-kah'-ee)

I have a love-hate relationship with Hazard, Ky., but it has a hometown feel that you don't find much anymore. I spent WWII there, and it has taken me many years to get to where I like the place again. Its winding streets and 30's and 40's houses are worth the trip. It's located on the North Fork of the Kentucky River.

Cochran, Georgia, where I go for a scooter meet every spring, is a garden of spring blossoms. It has an old courthouse and century-old houses. Some of them are rather grand. The town is in an area of country roads and typical south Georgia farms and ponds. Southern cooking is one of the highlights.

Paris Landing, Tennessee, is located on a river that has become a lake. You have to see it to believe it. The town is on a bluff that was high above the river, but the dam raised the water level and the bluff doesn't seem so high anymore. I think they have a law that you can't drive a car or truck that isn't towing a boat.

Not far from Paris Landing, just a stone's throw across the Kentucky line, is the town of Hazel. Most of the stores in town are antique shops.

Avalon, California, on Catalina Island, is about ten blocks square. It's one of the best walking around towns anywhere. You will love the water front. The stars of all those old black and white movies used to vacation there.

Port Townsend, Washington, out on the Olympic Peninsula, is another great water-front town. They must have had some great brick masons there in the old days.

Don't miss Rockport, Mass.; Skaway, Alaska; Murrell's Inlet, S.C.;
Okeechobee City, Florida; Dawson, West Virginia; St. Lucie, Florida; and Smithville, Tennessee.

And where ever you travel, there is another small town just down the road.
Howard