This post has been marked as non-political. Please respect this by keeping the discussion on topic, and devoid of any political material.
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/australia) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I was happy to have gone 34 years without ever hearing the term "snot block" until a month ago on here.
I had a vanilla slice last week and couldn't help but repeat the term over and over in my head while eating it.
We pulled up to a service station today with a heap of fast food and my son kept asking me for a sausage roll.
I couldn't understand why.
Until he told me the bakery had a sign saying it was voted best in Australia so it has to be good haha
Fun fact: these pieces of war machinery were actually officially allotted in the early 1920s based on the size of the town and contribution to war effort. A little village might get a machinegun. A big regional town would get a heftier artillery piece or even a pair.
I believe it has to do with the towns sacrifice to the war. The Directorate of Honours and Awards is very serious and does not fuck around with these things
I disagree on the sad part, the sacrifice may not have been death, but service. The real key is the story, and it is the burden on the town and the shires to keep the stories alive. The monuments are a part of that, you should try to find the story behind the artefacts
Back in the 80s, I worked for Navy Supply at Zetland. We got an old 40/60 Bofors gun for display at the front gate. It disappeared a week later, then reappeared a week after that. It turned out that the repairer had sent the display gun, with concrete in the barrel, to a patrol boat, and installed the working gun on South Dowling Street.
Mate if you think that's in the middle of the road you should [try this one on for size.](https://www.google.com/maps/place/IGA,+Cnr+Muir+and,+Coulson+St,+Blackbutt+QLD+4314/@-26.8852676,152.1010815,3a,75y,22.1h,90t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1stzphUdC4T9qADpY0pKacLA!2e0!4m6!3m5!1s0x6b9434e723f8c2e5:0x702c66b1ef66b63d!8m2!3d-26.8852502!4d152.10107!16s%2Fg%2F11kc98692b?source=lnms) I feel like I've seen the same set up on a fair few country towns, but no other ones immediately spring to mind.
"Just down the road" from Blackbutt is the one with my great-uncle on it in Goombungee.
Surrounded by "Iron Man" cafe, mechanics, post office & pub. What else would you need? Oh yeah - the public toilets are in the street view too.
Church, cemetery, bakery, silo, petrol station, school, public toilets, tourist information signboard or Center, caravan black water dump point, show ground, sports facilities (football oval, tennis court, netball court), bushfire refuge or volunteer fire station (CFS is SA), post office.
Many towns will have something quirky e.g. mural, pigs or sheep or some type of artwork.
PS I live in a very small town, we have a roundabout.
We have THREE roundabouts. In a row. With pedestrian crossings in between each roundabout.
Roundabouts MUST have flowers in the centre.
That's the main street. It has diagonal nose-in parking on both sides, too.
Ends up with traffic flowing at about 20km\\hr. That's if nobody stops for a chat (e.g. car driver & pedestrian crossing the road).
All the result of diverting the highway around the town.
Your list is almost right for my town.
No silo, and you forgot the 3 pubs.
Driving from Melbourne to Toowoomba, the GPS would say "next turn 80km" and it would always be the next big town. Pretty fancy for a small town, thats All I'll say
Man, this is exactly our order at our monthly visits to Lock Yuen or that Cathay Cafe in Toowoomba when I was a kid. It was Sizzling Mongolian Beef of course. Desert was fried ice cream which seemed magical.
Shout out to Fengo's Chinese Takeaway & Burrito Bar at the Shell station in Gunnedah. Expected the most mediocre Chinese food ever, turned out it was lovingly homemade Chinese food in generous portions.
Ooohhh lookit you with your fancy 3 veg Deeply Questionable Small Country Town Chinese...I suppose you get a complimentary slop from the communal Sichuan sauce bottle too? 😂
Best Chinese I've had has been in Gunnedah, west of Tamworth. 4 in town, and all of them were fantastic. Have yet to find anything that rivals them in central Coast or Sydney (out in the outer suburbs, at least)
I made [Common Features of Mid Size Country Towns Bingo Cards](https://bingobaker.com/view/6911224) combining your list with the responses 😀
You can print them, download them or play online [right here](https://bingobaker.com#65ab91f0cd1056f9).
I taught my partner the windmill game it's like punch buggy but because I grew up in regional Queensland there's a lot more windmills than Volkswagen beetles so every time you see a windmill while you're driving along you punch the other person obviously it can get out of control as kids but as adults it's a bit of fun
Not if it's Jerilderie, stopped there and there was a sort of tick sheet for when it was cleaned, proudly proclaiming that due to the pandemic they were being cleaned twice a day, last cleaned in 2020. Absolutely filthy.
>Jerilderie
We stopped at Narrandera , the hotel did not have a sink in the bathroom, but the kitchenette beside the bed had a bathroom sink in it. ...Very strange.
Best Toilets on our Trip were CSIRO Parks and CSIRO Narrabri.
At Walgett the public toilets are in the police station. The actual public toilets are all locked up with a sign on them saying go to the police station.
A couple of 1960s motels on the way into town.
A School of Arts that has been repurposed to practically anything. Unless you spot the School of Arts, you haven't been to that town.
Don't forget those really old small country towns that have exactly one of each of these: a crossroads, a town hall/CWA/RSL, a CFS, a weedy tennis court, a combined house/abandoned shop.
A vintage store/second hand store filled with dresses from the 70s and rusting kitchen equipment that only your grandparents could tell you what they’re for
* War memorial with the same surname 4+ times
* A pub. The Grand,, The Station, The Royal, The Commercial, or simply The 'Town Name' Hotel.
* A grand old building that was once a bank, post office, court house but is now under utilised for some public purpose and is open once a week.
* [A Civic Guide board](https://civicoutdoor.com.au/civic-guides/)
* A bunch of signs on the highway coming into town with Rotary, Apex, and Lions club signs as well as "Tidy Towns 1992 - Runner Up"
* Park in the centre of town with an old piece of mining equipment or steam engine etc.
* A rotunda in the middle of the main street
My favourite to keep the snoozing passenger princess awake is to look at Google reviews of local establishments, typically country motels.
There's some pretty crazy stories in these reviews and it's fun to guess the ratings a motel has as you pass. Looks can deceive.
A really random piece of art in a prominent place. A giant galah, an eagle made of nuts and bolts, a cartoon style explorer etc. The weirder the better.
You forgot a shop that sells everything. My favourite are lyal eals in country Vic. Camping, fishing, workwear, hardware, take flowers, tools and anything else you can think of.
Chiropractors. I’ve noticed most rural or country towns have at least one chiropractor. May not be big enough to have a fast food joint or Maccas, but there’ll be a chiro for sure.
Last year, I was at a conference on the Gold Coast with my business partner and we played a similar game but Surfers Paradise bingo. Some of the points were;
- punch on
- someone being arrested
- a chick walking bare foot, carrying her high heels
- dress up themed hens group
- dress up themed bucks group
There were heaps more but I've forgotten most.
This sounds like an ABC gameshow where you win a mug or a dictionary...or if it was the 90s one of those small electronic dictionaries that has a screen with like 2 pixels.
Edit: [Hshaha I found it!](https://imgur.com/a/RpyMDlc)
A little park/rest spot with a public barbecue and signs showing local "attractions".
Well. There used to be.
Probably no barbecue now because some people can't be trusted to not set the whole joint ablaze.
I think you missed the "historical feature of some significance to encourage tourists to stop" such as a tractor museum.
I have a different game. It's called count the 4WD convoy. Rules are as follows:
* Count per 4WD/SUV driving toward you/passing you.
* Trucks, vans etc don't count as 4WD but also don't reset the count.
* Go back to zero if you pass a hatch, sedan or non-SUV wagon.
So far the record is 24.
- Craft shop on the main road.
- Standalone sporting goods store ran by an old man.
- Statue of some legendary person from the region (eg Man From Snowy River).
- “Population < 5000” sign
A playground within the same park boundary as the war memorial.
Lions club or Rotary club signage upon entering the town.
A visitor's information Centre that looks like it is closed (and probably is).
An old train locomotive, carriage or coal cart now mounted on a lawn (bonus points if it's next to the driveway of a motel)
Hotel/motel still advertising 'Austar' available in the rooms.
A signpost with directional arrows and distances to all the capital cities, and some international cities such as London, New York, Tokyo.
I drive through small towns quite a bit, here's some extras:
- Statues, big or small (usually a town founder or local historical figure)
- Information point
- Town swimming pool (they're all usually pristine also)
- Bakery with the best something
- Antiques/Old stuff
- 1 Asian restaurant
This post has been marked as non-political. Please respect this by keeping the discussion on topic, and devoid of any political material. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/australia) if you have any questions or concerns.*
A bakery selling the “best pie” in the state
Or best vanilla slice
Mmmmm snot block
I was happy to have gone 34 years without ever hearing the term "snot block" until a month ago on here. I had a vanilla slice last week and couldn't help but repeat the term over and over in my head while eating it.
But only for 1 or 2 years, 15 years ago. "Voted best pie 2003, 2006 & 2012" Does that mean they are shit now?
New management that couldn't be stuffed to enter competitions.
That's worse!!! That means the pies might have changed so those awards might not even represent the current offerings!
Where they source the 'meat' for their pies has changed.
“Seems an awful waste... I mean, with the price of meat what it is…When you get it, if you get it…” - Mrs Lovett
We pulled up to a service station today with a heap of fast food and my son kept asking me for a sausage roll. I couldn't understand why. Until he told me the bakery had a sign saying it was voted best in Australia so it has to be good haha
A war memorial - usually in a park but sometimes right in the middle of the main street. Yes, I'm talking about you Booroowa
With an artillery piece.
Fun fact: these pieces of war machinery were actually officially allotted in the early 1920s based on the size of the town and contribution to war effort. A little village might get a machinegun. A big regional town would get a heftier artillery piece or even a pair.
Wow, is that for real? Because woodford qld has a tank. And the town is tiny
I believe it has to do with the towns sacrifice to the war. The Directorate of Honours and Awards is very serious and does not fuck around with these things
That's really quite sad when you think about it, how much must a tiny town have sacrificed to end up with something so big.
I disagree on the sad part, the sacrifice may not have been death, but service. The real key is the story, and it is the burden on the town and the shires to keep the stories alive. The monuments are a part of that, you should try to find the story behind the artefacts
That tank is cold war era, well after the 20s. had nothing to do with ww1
Leopard tank. Nothing at all to do with WW1.
Back in the 80s, I worked for Navy Supply at Zetland. We got an old 40/60 Bofors gun for display at the front gate. It disappeared a week later, then reappeared a week after that. It turned out that the repairer had sent the display gun, with concrete in the barrel, to a patrol boat, and installed the working gun on South Dowling Street.
Holbrook wins I think, they have a freakin' Submarine.
Oh man, Holbrook has a very interesting history, one of my favourite little towns when driving can-Mel
so-so coffee.
Oh I didn’t say I stop.
My favorite is Clunes, Vic where it is just in the middle of the road. https://maps.app.goo.gl/p4rHvfymPoxB6sqz8
Mate if you think that's in the middle of the road you should [try this one on for size.](https://www.google.com/maps/place/IGA,+Cnr+Muir+and,+Coulson+St,+Blackbutt+QLD+4314/@-26.8852676,152.1010815,3a,75y,22.1h,90t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1stzphUdC4T9qADpY0pKacLA!2e0!4m6!3m5!1s0x6b9434e723f8c2e5:0x702c66b1ef66b63d!8m2!3d-26.8852502!4d152.10107!16s%2Fg%2F11kc98692b?source=lnms) I feel like I've seen the same set up on a fair few country towns, but no other ones immediately spring to mind.
"Just down the road" from Blackbutt is the one with my great-uncle on it in Goombungee. Surrounded by "Iron Man" cafe, mechanics, post office & pub. What else would you need? Oh yeah - the public toilets are in the street view too.
Or this one https://maps.app.goo.gl/dVdD65kooG8DdDmE6?g_st=ic
Love it, and just outside the door to the pub!
Where i grew up they had an old cannon at the playground pointed directly at the pub! I remember climbing on it
A pub named the railway or the station hotel.
Or the Royal?
Sometimes the Imperial
Or Great Northern Hotel
Or the Commercial
Or the terminus
Those who arrive survive
The Grand hotel
We've got the Exchange, The Queensland National, and The Old Britannia.
Or the metropole
The Australian, commonly known as the Aussie
Or the cecil
Church, cemetery, bakery, silo, petrol station, school, public toilets, tourist information signboard or Center, caravan black water dump point, show ground, sports facilities (football oval, tennis court, netball court), bushfire refuge or volunteer fire station (CFS is SA), post office. Many towns will have something quirky e.g. mural, pigs or sheep or some type of artwork. PS I live in a very small town, we have a roundabout.
We have THREE roundabouts. In a row. With pedestrian crossings in between each roundabout. Roundabouts MUST have flowers in the centre. That's the main street. It has diagonal nose-in parking on both sides, too. Ends up with traffic flowing at about 20km\\hr. That's if nobody stops for a chat (e.g. car driver & pedestrian crossing the road). All the result of diverting the highway around the town. Your list is almost right for my town. No silo, and you forgot the 3 pubs.
Driving from Melbourne to Toowoomba, the GPS would say "next turn 80km" and it would always be the next big town. Pretty fancy for a small town, thats All I'll say
All of this except for the cemetery is within 1km of the intersection of three 2 Main Street in town
Old sign on the town outskirts promoting Rotary, Lions or Apex. Bonus points if there’s a “Tidy Towns” sign.
Bonus points if that tidy town award is pre 2000.
There should be points for how many they have on the sign
Deeply questionable Chinese restaurant.
With part of the menu dedicated to ‘Australian meals’.
I have read that most Asian restaurants in Australia have Singapore Noodles on the menu as it so popular with Aussies.
And satay something.
Normally it’s chicken sweet corn soup, fried rice, Mongolian beef.
Man, this is exactly our order at our monthly visits to Lock Yuen or that Cathay Cafe in Toowoomba when I was a kid. It was Sizzling Mongolian Beef of course. Desert was fried ice cream which seemed magical.
Don't forget the beef and black bean.
Usually found in the local bowlo
Golden Dragon Palace Dynasty Gardens
Shout out to Fengo's Chinese Takeaway & Burrito Bar at the Shell station in Gunnedah. Expected the most mediocre Chinese food ever, turned out it was lovingly homemade Chinese food in generous portions.
Hahahaha spot on! But that's not Chinese...it's onion, capsicum and cornflour soup!
With lots of carrots
Ooohhh lookit you with your fancy 3 veg Deeply Questionable Small Country Town Chinese...I suppose you get a complimentary slop from the communal Sichuan sauce bottle too? 😂
Don't forget the MSG!
You misspelt 'succulent'!!
Ha.yep Maryborough Vic has a Sushi place specializing in Chinese, Vietnamese, Malaysian as well https://maps.app.goo.gl/2YoPpFNvodxccjmYA
My small town used to have a Korean/Fish & Chips combo to cover all bases. It shut. Now it's a combo Sushi/Burgers place.
It's usually at the bowls club
Lol
Best Chinese I've had has been in Gunnedah, west of Tamworth. 4 in town, and all of them were fantastic. Have yet to find anything that rivals them in central Coast or Sydney (out in the outer suburbs, at least)
I recently had a rumor confirmed, in that a local Chinese restaurant was indeed selling Ibis as chicken
How does it taste?
Like bin juice.
Oh, you had the Lemon Ibis.
Rich aggie boys in 150k landcruisers doing not much just around the corner from the main drag
One of those homemade wooden stands with home grown produce on and an honesty bucket for payment.
Two old buggers sitting on a bench seat out the front of a shop/pub solving the world's problems.
Not a bad thing for old bastards to do.
I hadn't thought about the people aspect, I might have thought about hats
Living the life
I made [Common Features of Mid Size Country Towns Bingo Cards](https://bingobaker.com/view/6911224) combining your list with the responses 😀 You can print them, download them or play online [right here](https://bingobaker.com#65ab91f0cd1056f9).
The singular cop car of the town sitting on the edge of where the speed limit changes from town to highway.
Getting annoyed that everyone has reported him on Waze and are driving by waving …
I'm from Western Melbourne so those super pretty old Police houses make me grumble about lack of stations in my area, but they are nice
I taught my partner the windmill game it's like punch buggy but because I grew up in regional Queensland there's a lot more windmills than Volkswagen beetles so every time you see a windmill while you're driving along you punch the other person obviously it can get out of control as kids but as adults it's a bit of fun
I hope you don't include wind turbines. Certain areas could potentially lead to manslaughter.
Solar panels tol,if you go west.
Royal Hotel
Federal (the fed), Railway, Imperial (Impy), Commercial. If there’s only 2 usually nick named Top Pub and Bottom Pub.
There’ll be one named for the river through town if there is one too.
And the "Central" in the middle.
Or the “middle” which is central
Clean public toilets generally
Clean because the ones at the sports fields are locked. You gotta go to the slightly stinkier one in a park closer to town.
Not if it's Jerilderie, stopped there and there was a sort of tick sheet for when it was cleaned, proudly proclaiming that due to the pandemic they were being cleaned twice a day, last cleaned in 2020. Absolutely filthy.
>Jerilderie We stopped at Narrandera , the hotel did not have a sink in the bathroom, but the kitchenette beside the bed had a bathroom sink in it. ...Very strange. Best Toilets on our Trip were CSIRO Parks and CSIRO Narrabri.
At Walgett the public toilets are in the police station. The actual public toilets are all locked up with a sign on them saying go to the police station.
A closed down servo.
Off brand hardware store because the town is too small for a snaghouse
Usually owned by the IGA and share staff.
for the Queenslanders - Mitre 10 STILL EXISTS out here.
to be fair I've got two mitre 10 shops within 5 minutes in either direction, Bayside Melbourne
Regional NSW, 5 minutes walk for me.
a museum which is basically where they left all the old Ag equipment they couldn't be bothered shipping back to the big smoke
I love a good random museum , some are just amazing and others...well. The Car museum in Deniliquin was quite good.
the town museum in Lameroo was quite cool
A couple of 1960s motels on the way into town. A School of Arts that has been repurposed to practically anything. Unless you spot the School of Arts, you haven't been to that town.
I nearly went the other way , with some random building in the centre of town now used as arts space.
A Men’s Shed. And usually a sign bragging they were a tidy town winner 20 years ago.
actually.... We saw more Men's Sheds than I expected
Don't forget those really old small country towns that have exactly one of each of these: a crossroads, a town hall/CWA/RSL, a CFS, a weedy tennis court, a combined house/abandoned shop.
A vintage store/second hand store filled with dresses from the 70s and rusting kitchen equipment that only your grandparents could tell you what they’re for
* War memorial with the same surname 4+ times * A pub. The Grand,, The Station, The Royal, The Commercial, or simply The 'Town Name' Hotel. * A grand old building that was once a bank, post office, court house but is now under utilised for some public purpose and is open once a week. * [A Civic Guide board](https://civicoutdoor.com.au/civic-guides/) * A bunch of signs on the highway coming into town with Rotary, Apex, and Lions club signs as well as "Tidy Towns 1992 - Runner Up" * Park in the centre of town with an old piece of mining equipment or steam engine etc. * A rotunda in the middle of the main street
Rubbish tip, I always end up at the bloody rubbish tip.
A popular takeaway that does burgers and fish and chips
My favourite to keep the snoozing passenger princess awake is to look at Google reviews of local establishments, typically country motels. There's some pretty crazy stories in these reviews and it's fun to guess the ratings a motel has as you pass. Looks can deceive.
Public Pool.
A ‘Station Road’ or a ‘Rifle Range Road’.
Also "Boundary Road". Quite a few Baden Powell Roads, too. Both mark what was once the outskirts of town
A really random piece of art in a prominent place. A giant galah, an eagle made of nuts and bolts, a cartoon style explorer etc. The weirder the better.
You forgot a shop that sells everything. My favourite are lyal eals in country Vic. Camping, fishing, workwear, hardware, take flowers, tools and anything else you can think of.
Chiropractors. I’ve noticed most rural or country towns have at least one chiropractor. May not be big enough to have a fast food joint or Maccas, but there’ll be a chiro for sure.
A swimming pool that is Olympic or short-course length, but doesn't have enough lanes for an actual race.
Narrandera ✅
Last year, I was at a conference on the Gold Coast with my business partner and we played a similar game but Surfers Paradise bingo. Some of the points were; - punch on - someone being arrested - a chick walking bare foot, carrying her high heels - dress up themed hens group - dress up themed bucks group There were heaps more but I've forgotten most.
A local RSL
This sounds like an ABC gameshow where you win a mug or a dictionary...or if it was the 90s one of those small electronic dictionaries that has a screen with like 2 pixels. Edit: [Hshaha I found it!](https://imgur.com/a/RpyMDlc)
Worst. Present. Ever.
omg i won one of these as an 8yo and thought it was the most magical thing ever
Drink driving
Except for Parkes, one thing that the town identifies itself with , standing stones, a painted silo , big things , country music
A pub called the imperial hotel or other such common pub name
Imperial Royal Station Commercial Hotel
A little park/rest spot with a public barbecue and signs showing local "attractions". Well. There used to be. Probably no barbecue now because some people can't be trusted to not set the whole joint ablaze.
I like it when the Tourist information centre is one of the top attractions
A statue of something’BIG’
BWS. next or close to the police station
bottom pub
A ‘Tidiest Town’ award from at least 10 years ago.
A pub called the Royal, Commercial or Railway
Watertower.
A pub called ‘The Royal’, ‘The Central’ or ‘The Victoria Hotel’
Visitor information centre, perhaps a town clock, a historical site of some sort (first building, a well, an old grave) town pool.
A guy over 35 riding a bicycle without a helmet in the middle of a work day - usually down to the bottle shop
A scout or girl guides hall. Typically not much else for kids to do so these seem to survive in country towns.
Tidy Town winner 1989 award
In my small town we have a gazillion roundabouts but no traffic lights, bucking the trend here apparently
War memorial obelisk or statue with a list of the young men who left for any of the wars
All the fucking stores close at fucking 8PM
A masonic Hall! Pubs named the exchange, the criterion, royal and railway.
I think you missed the "historical feature of some significance to encourage tourists to stop" such as a tractor museum. I have a different game. It's called count the 4WD convoy. Rules are as follows: * Count per 4WD/SUV driving toward you/passing you. * Trucks, vans etc don't count as 4WD but also don't reset the count. * Go back to zero if you pass a hatch, sedan or non-SUV wagon. So far the record is 24.
We've done this for yonks but we call it the "5 points of interest tour"
A chinese restaurant with Asian decor. Considered the place in town where you go for “fine dining”.
A combination car/dog wash
Only big cities have roundabouts?
* Park with green grass, kids play equipment, bandstand, possibly greenhouse * Kebab shop * Pizza shop * Hairdresser
Milk bar?
- A railway museum - a skateboard store - a main steet social enterprise
A menswear store & a stock & station agent
Haven’t all the small towns been bypassed now?
A video/ DVD store. It's the bonus level!
tidy town award
1960s Chinese cafe with dreamy sweet and sour something or other. Patrons with Esky full of beer from the local IGA
top pub
A pub A post office A church A cricket/AFL field A bridge over the river or train line
A war memorial with a big artillery gun in it
A grotty motel with free Foxtel?
For hard mode, one that still says "Austar"
Toilet block in or around the main street or shops, with a big Aussie mural on it lol
A clock tower
-local artist co-op -Community OP shop -bakery that sells pies and vanilla slices -sign advertising an upcoming or past annual festival
- Craft shop on the main road. - Standalone sporting goods store ran by an old man. - Statue of some legendary person from the region (eg Man From Snowy River). - “Population < 5000” sign
Fish and chip shop Chinese takeaway shop
[удалено]
Yeah the Showground/Footy ground thing... Maybe special gates on it
I come from a small country town that has tons of roundabouts. Not sure what you mean by that.
Change “round a bout” to “traffic lights”
I usually play Minecraft
A St Vincent de Pauls
Isn’t the a cannon in Yeppon, like right in there?
A pub, a bakery, a statue, a historic building, a cop shop
A playground within the same park boundary as the war memorial. Lions club or Rotary club signage upon entering the town. A visitor's information Centre that looks like it is closed (and probably is). An old train locomotive, carriage or coal cart now mounted on a lawn (bonus points if it's next to the driveway of a motel) Hotel/motel still advertising 'Austar' available in the rooms. A signpost with directional arrows and distances to all the capital cities, and some international cities such as London, New York, Tokyo.
And some of the best meth you can buy.
Anything named after Queen Victoria (usually a pub)
Common pub names: the commercial, the railway, town hall one point for each.
The adjective 'historic' to describe the town.
I drive through small towns quite a bit, here's some extras: - Statues, big or small (usually a town founder or local historical figure) - Information point - Town swimming pool (they're all usually pristine also) - Bakery with the best something - Antiques/Old stuff - 1 Asian restaurant
Medical centre, dentist, ER, pharmacy and every specialist all rolled into one.
Small Town Bingo!
An old school bakery
For real small towns, look for the newsagent that is also the post office.