After spending my first day of vacation in the small town of Selma, North Carolina, I thought I stumbled upon the smallest town in the world. Being a native New Yorker – any town that has less then five million people is small to me. But after driving another three hundred miles on my way to F-L-A, I decided it was time to call it a day and stopped in Darien, Georgia – which is so small that it makes Selma look like Manhattan.

With a population that would not even fill up Madison Square Garden, Darien is so small that they do not even have a stoplight anywhere in the town. The clerk at the Motel 8 I am staying at pointed me toward Archie’s Seafood Restaurant for dinner. It’s a good thing – because they are the only place in town to eat. In fact, they even have T-Shirt Tuesdays, which gives a ten percent discount to anyone who comes in wearing one of their t-shirts.

For dinner, I had what could be the most interesting meal I have ever eaten – “Low Country Boil” – which was all you can eat peel-and-eat shrimp, Italian sausage, red potatoes, corn on the cob, hush puppies and French fries. When I asked why it was called Low Country Boil, I was told that when the town has cookouts, everyone brings something to boil – oh, now I get it.

By no means am I making fun of this town – in fact – I love it. After sharing an island that is less then twenty miles long with ten million other people all of my life, I often crave the calmness and serenity that a small town has to offer. It’s no secret that I come from a city that never sleeps – but in Darien – life goes to bed when the sun does. In New York, the nightlife speaks for itself – but here – the only thing that is open all night is the gas station for the passing motorists.

It may sound funny to someone who lives in a town like this – but if I could – I would live here in a New York minute. In a town like this, you can actually take a minute to stop and watch the grass grow, the sun set, and the leaves change. The concept of missing the express train, having someone steal your cab – and “Gridlock Alert Days” are completely foreign concepts to the people I have met over the last two days. Sure, they don’t have Times Square, the Twin Towers or Coney Island – but I don’t think they need it. As small as this town may be – I think it has everything it needs .

Maybe it’s not them that are the ones who are missing out on the good life.