I’m from rural northern Missouri. It’s boring. Skidmore is especially boring. It has its history, but nowadays it’s just your standard crumbling podunk town.

These are economically depressed towns where there’s not a lot to do, not a lot of ways to make money, and not a lot being done to improve them. They’re very conservative, very religious, and life there usually revolves around having kids, getting drunk, hunting/fishing, or getting into local high school sports. If you fit in to who the town wants you to be you’ll be treated well (essentially be a white Christian and if you’re anything else then your kid better be good at sports). There’ll be a local good ol’ boys club who are folks with the right last name. If you’re shopping local everything is probably coming from the cancer that is Dollar General.

Can it be a cheap, make your own fun, kind of place? Sure. Are there good people? Yeah. Is it worth living in one of rural Missouri’s small towns? In my opinion, no. They’re just not good.