“Vinton is a small town”, is a phrase my wife Kimberly and I heard often from residents as we moved into town and started patronizing local businesses. While I’m sure a lot of that phrase is built around the message of the town being friendly and having community-driven goals and dreams, it can also be said with a slight negative connotation as if there isn’t much Vinton has to offer compared to metro areas Cedar Rapids and Waterloo.
“Small-town” is a relative term. For a couple like my wife and I, who both grew up in the country outside tiny communities 45 minutes or more away from any retail outside of an antique shop or pharmacy Vinton is HUGE. I know the longer you live in one place the more it can seem to become stale but if you look at Vinton from a promotional viewpoint we have a small town with a lot to offer. This small town has a K through 12 school system in town (that isn’t in danger of needing to merge with another district!), a wonderful grocery store, a Main Street with retail stores that sell everything you need, a hardware store where you can buy or rent any tool you need – anyone driving down 13th St early this spring who saw me trying to catch/tackle a spinning auger can attest that I should of listened better to my tutorial – along with bigger chain stores, fast food offerings, industrial park for economic growth and more.
I don’t know how my wife and I will choose where to eat on our next and much belated date-night but I know we will have plenty of drive-time saved to still catch a movie because Vinton has a movie theater! How rare is that anymore?
The next time I hear “Vinton is a small town” from either an outsider or long-time resident I will simply smile and say “I know, isn’t it great?”