I live in a really small place. My nearest neighbor is nearly two miles away. The closest town about two and a half miles from me has a population of under 300. The largest town in the county has nearly 3000 people and two stop lights.

Our entire county has fewer than 15,000 people, and it is growing because of proximity to a larger city. Parts of central Nebraska are so thinly populated, road signs show not towns, but ranches. Cherry County is larger than Connecticut and has only a bit more than 20,000 people. Highschool students often board in town, because their homes are too far away for school busses to reach. At least one county in that area has under 900 population.

Half of the people are related and the other half think they know everyone's business. Recently, we attended a court hearing over custody in a divorce. The lawyers knew each other personally and didn't like each other. The ex- husband attends the same church as both lawyers, and his father was a highschool classmate of the ex- wife's father. The ex-husband was my aunt's highschool student as was the sherrif and the bailif.