Sharing personal stories is what makes us a community. That's why we say good morning to strangers too. If you're here, you're one of us.
First time I experienced the small town experience was in Texas. I was doing contract work in the state for about 6 months. It took me about a week to figure out these people were not weird, they're just polite. I've primarily lived in larger cities up to that point. So this was a novel application of that emotion to me.