Rumors: The Ugly Side of Small Towns...And Smaller Minds

Hey don't just show your test, ask for theirs. :)

I love it.
While you are at it make sure you lift the paper money up to the light when you get change in a shop. Just like they do with your money.

Ron,

I created a group for people *like us* a couple days ago. Mental, Emotional, Spiritual It's a private group.

Anyone else who understands and has empathy for Ron's story here is probably well suited for this group as well! It's a private group like I said so that when you want to just share with people but not ALL of Newsvine, you now have an option. I hope it can be of benefit to some really special lives I see here on Newsvine. It's really like a support group for sensitive souls or people who sometimes have a hard go at understanding this world.

Ron,
I just popped in here to learn a little about you because in Rebel Girls seed "Disgusted" I said something about you that wasn't very nice & I did apologize for it. Rebel did say basically, to know you is to love you. She didn't say those exact words but that's what she was getting at.
Let me tell you something. Did you know from the time I was 18, I was pregnant. So, for almost 40 years I've been carrying this "fictitious" baby inside of me. Now that I think about it, maybe that's why I get constipated so much. I've been blaming it on not eating enough fiber. Anyway, when I turned 39 & got married I got a phone call from a relative "congratulating me on my pregnancy."
Ron, if I got pregnant every time the town folk thought I was pregnant, I'd have a football team with the cheerleaders. I would try my damnedest to stop these rumors, which you can't, and to try and find the source so I could confront them, which I couldn't. I'd say, "Thanks, but I'm not pregnant, who'd you hear that from". Every time the answer was the same. "I Don't Remember". So, finally one day the rumors just stopped. I was in my mid-40's by then. So I'm guessing the idiots finally put 2 & 2 together & came up with, "Gee, I guess she never was pregnant cuz she's gotta be in menopausal stage by now."
Ron, you know as well as I do, it takes all kinds. Sometimes, I'd play the game. Twenty years ago I ran into someone & they made a comment like, "So how are your children? You have 3 or 4, don't you?" And I'd tell them no..I have 6. And I'd use my nieces & nephews names.
Keep the sense of humor Ron. That gets you thru anything life throws at you. I'm sorry you're not in the position to move. That would be the ideal solution. But for now, hold your head high. You know the truth. And when these jackasses start dropping dead all around you, go to their funerals, kneel in front of the casket with head in hands, say a little prayer & end it with, "I told you so."

Oh, Ron, I am so sorry to hear of this. My high school years were spent in a small town so I personally have experienced the rumor mill myself. I wish I knew what to tell you to do, but I don't. If I did, I would have been able to tolerate Hoptown's rumor mill a little better. People will believe what they choose to believe and some of those choose to believe that which is most tragic-sounding or of the most nefarious nature because they find the pain of others fascinating. It's just like when someone gets accused of murder or rape and gets exonerated beyond a shadow of a doubt. Their reputation is destroyed anyway and there are those who will choose to believe they were really guilty of the crime after all. You are right - it is their problem. It is a form of small town entertainment, sadly. I just don't know how to combat it. I wish and I did and I wish I had back when I was in high school. The most difficult thing to change is someone's mind.

I have lived in a small town for my entire life, and there are always rumors circling around. They used to bother me, but now I make a huge joke out of it. In small towns it seems that everybody is on drugs, an alcoholic, gay, and HIV+ at some point of their lives. The people that start these things want them to bother you, and if you don't let it then it really pisses them off. If I was you when I was in public and could tell that people were staring or talking act like you just had a sudden pain and announce it must be your aids. Lately, I've had people spread rumors that I'm gay and when I'm out in public I've been winking and saying "Hey baby" to every guy on the street and by being over the top ridiculous people realize that it's not true and stupid.
I don't know about your town, but in my town this is how people deal with the rumor bullcrap.

Hi Hon. How you feeling today?

Just reading through this and trying to get away from the political pages that are making me crazy. I too grew up in a small town in New Mex. I have always been something of a loner type and have evolved into a reclusive type that would have probably made a good hermit. I do have a partner and the one thing she and I do have in common is our reclusive tendencies. I have spent the last 20 years or so working in a town even smaller than the one I grew up in and live about 15 miles out of town. I am sure that I am the subject of numorus rumors. Like somebody said earlier it helps you to find out who your real friends are. A wise person once told me that we spend a part of our life worrying over what people think of us, then we spend part of it not caring what people think, then we find out that for the most part nobody was thinking anything at all, and in the end we find out that it dosen't matter what they did or didn't think. All that matters is what you think about you. Learn to enjoy your own company and get out of the house, go do something it dosen't matter what. Maybe get a decent camera and just go out somewhere and take photos of stuff, anything, it really dosen't matter.

Small towns in most places like ingrown toenails (worldwide)...

I will not go back to my hometown... You get along one way or the other.

Rumor mills in big cities can be bad too, but a lot of folks are here for their privacy.

Good conversation, some were really funny.

I agree with the above, keep your head and cultivate your sense of humor.

I was surprised to hear about the rumors about me at college. Apparently I had been with every guy on campus and then those in town. I basically told others these "rumors" at least made me seem interesting instead of the boring person I was becoming.

Good luck. I still live in a small town and this time I am trying to cultivate the "crazy cat lady" rumor.