My little "home town" (Rossville, pop 1500) finally has a welcoming sign. On it, the words "Where it feels like home" proudly declare we're the best small community in the world, or, at least, we rank right up there.

In my blue highway travels across the country, it seems many, if not most, small towns have some little ditty that conjures up visions of grandeur and glory. I had a bunch invented in my mind, but you get the message (no pun intended).

The funny thing is that few of these towns do have anything worth bragging about. It's just fun reading their proclamations.

I love driving through small towns, especially in Nebraska or Kansas. There are magnificent old homes, a neat court house (plus downtown square with shops), a Wal-mart as you enter or leave town, a park, and, if you're lucky, something of fame.

It seems every town has a local museum of some sort or another. Or perhaps the "biggest", "deepest", "tallest", "fastest" whatever in the world. Oxford (IN) advertizes the famous trotter, Dan Patch, who held the record for the fastest horse in the world. They hold "Dan Patch Days" every summer, no matter that ol' Dan broke the record over 100 years ago!

And without fail, if you ask any person in any one of these towns, they'll tell you it's "a great place to live, everybody knows and watches out for others, and it's a fine place to raise a family". Yep, home is where the heart is, wherever that might be.