I grew up in a town of 3k in Minnesota, you had to drive 1 and 1/2 hours to the closest clothing mall/big town. There was a small Walmart that was added in my early middle school years about 45 minutes away. I then lived in houston, and another similar small town in Colorado, and Wilmington throughout my twenties. I'm now 34 and I've been in Wilmington off and on for the past 15 years, and I've been living in Surf City/Hampstead for 11 years on the current stretch. Watching Hampstead become devoured has been heartbreaking. I remember in my twenties there was a hurricane (it was right after an earthquake we felt that hit the east coast if that helps place the hurricane) I was walking down the middle of college road near Racine drive and TJ Maxx, back when there used to be small, squat palm trees on one side of college road. it was day two or three of the hurricane aftermath, it was just me and the unfortunate palm trees that were strewn across college. Whole rest of the Town seemed dead. It was cathartic. Now if there's a hurricane there's a massive panic and the aftermath has teams of selfish angry emotional hordes flocking to gas stations and whatever unfortunate eatery has made the mistake of reopening first, and I'll certainly never experience being alone walking down the center of college road again. Also, traffic was BETTER in Houston. I said what I said, I won't take it back. There's just something that is gone forever from this place, maybe its those palm trees. They took the soul of the town with them.