If you are familiar with the Wingfield Farms stories and plays or with Garrison Keillor's many tales about the people and life in Lake Wobegon, you will feel right at home in Chesterville.
Chesterville is a friendly community where it is acceptable to greet people on the street with a "good morning"; where the storepeople know you by name; where the banks know you by name; where the mechanics who work on your car are your neighbours so you do not worry about being cheated; where the "community centre" is the post office; where different groups of friends gather regularly in their restaurant of choice for daily "coffee clubs" to catch up on the local news they may have missed; where you can pay by cheque; where your credit is good; where most prices are as good as or better than city prices and you get SERVICE too; where customers tell me that if they wanted big city service then they would shop in the city.
Chesterville is a good place to raise kids. With the village park, nursery school, two elementary schools and the high school just 3 miles down the road, most kids have no need to leave till college days come. With a weekly newspaper, all kids have a fair chance to get their pictures in the paper many times before they get too old to care any more.
Chesterville is a place where the term "responsible government" has a meaning. Residents know the people who represent them at the local level and will bring up local problems at any time.
I describe small town life as being reminiscent of Robert Bolt's play "A Man for All Seasons" which I studied in high school so many years ago. In Bolt's play, there was a character named Everyman who assumed many roles and to indicate which role he was then playing, he would simply change his hat. Village life is very similar. We all interact with the same people over and over but change hats many times during those interactions. Today I deal with person X as my bank teller. Tomorrow, I am president of group Y and she is treasurer. The next day, I am secretary of association Z and she is president. And on and on it goes - dealing with the same people in differing roles.
One of my customers (thanks Ken) told me that what is important is the relationship you form, not the written warranty or other legal document. I have no written lease with my landlord or with my tennant and trust the relationships I have with both much more anyways. Chesterville provides the environment where these relationships can form.
If I have to pick one bad thing about village life it is probably the number of senseless deaths that occur, always to young people, involving cars and alcohol. Because the number of people one knows in a village environment seems so much larger than the number known by urban dwellers, when these accidents happen they involve people we know and the community shares the loss.
My summary of the joys of village life is to say that life here is continually dealing with people you know. It is not necessary to exchange resumes when you have need to approach someone for service. The two of you already know who the other is and that really DOES make a big difference.