To say that the number of shows on Netflix that I have started and completed throughout quarantine is both impressive and concerning would certainly be an understatement.
My years-long endeavor to finish “Grey’s Anatomy” finally came to an end when I sat down to watch the remaining six seasons in just a matter of weeks. I started and finished the shows “Community”, “Wild Wild Country”, “Waco”, a humiliating number of reality dating shows and a why-is-she-so-obsessed-with-murder number of true crime documentaries.
Most recently and most notably, I’ve been finishing up (after starting just weeks ago) the classic “Gilmore Girls.”
It was clear from the beginning that part of my love for the show came not only from the creative writing and endearing — though sometimes quite frustrating — characters but also from the personal connection I felt to the main character Rory’s hometown of Stars Hollow, Connecticut. Though she eventually goes to high school in Hartford, she and her mother Lorelei often celebrate the close-knit community that they call home.
The show’s writer, Amy Sherman-Palladino, who grew up in L.A., spent weeks studying the small-town lifestyle that Lorelei and Rory embrace throughout the show. While there, Sherman-Palladino saw a lifestyle and tight-knit community feel that can only be attributed to a small town such as Stars Hollow.
“At the time I was there, it was beautiful, it was magical and it was feeling of warmth and small-town camaraderie,” Sherman-Palladino said. “There was a longing for that in my own life, and I thought that’s something that I would really love to put out there.”
Sherman-Palladino’s effort to show Stars Hollow’s small-town camaraderie was not in vain, as the feeling of community and belonging shows through in nearly every scene of the show.
Instead of showing the town as a flyover city with little to see and even less to do, the show’s writers highlight the personal connections and devoted residents that make the town what it is.
When I see interactions between the Gilmore girls (Rory and Lorelei), and other community members, I am often reminded of the interactions I see and experience right here in Monroe.
As Stars Hollow residents come together to plan events and discuss happenings, I can’t help but think of our own Common Council. I’m reminded of the public hearings, off-the-record discussions and community cooperation that make Monroe home to each of us.
In an episode I watched recently, Lorelei and Rory attended an annual Movie in the Square night. Naturally, I couldn’t help but think of our own Concerts on the Square and how lucky I am to be able to (COVID-willing) attend events that bring the whole community out for an evening of fun together.
Even the overwhelming gossip spread among recurring characters in the show reminds viewers that in a small town like Monroe, people know each other and care about what is happening in other people’s lives.
Maybe it’s the journalist in me, but the curiosity displayed among characters and the need to know all of the town’s happenings have helped to remind me why I love Monroe.
An award, a new job or a marriage or birth do not go unnoticed in a community like ours, and it’s just part of what makes it such a welcoming environment to grow up in.
For a while, I got too used to living in Des Moines (population 216,853), Tübingen (population 89,011) and the Chicago suburb of Lombard (population 44,523). I liked the idea of always having something new to see and somewhere new to go, but young Rory Gilmore’s absolute admiration of her hometown made me stop and think for a second: Why? With grandparents and a school in the “big city” of Hartford, what about Stars Hollow kept Rory there?
I realized while watching that what Rory and I both need is the personal connections that come with living in a community like Monroe. When I go to the grocery store here, odds are that I’ll see someone I know. To cashiers and baristas, we are more than just customers. Maybe we go to church together or often run into each other at the gym. When someone asks how I’m doing here in Monroe, I know that they genuinely want to hear the answer.
Whether the fictional city of Stars Hollow, the real-life Monroe or any of the thousands of small towns scattered throughout the county, the camaraderie and magic that comes with the community make any hometown worth loving.
— Shannon Rabotski is a reporter with The Monroe Times. Her column appears periodically on Wednesdays and she can be reached at
srabotski@themonroetimes.com
