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I’m sitting this morning at a table on the sidewalk in front of Adrianna’s having the first good cup of coffee in months that I didn’t roast myself, and pondering the possibilities for cheap and frugal living that seem to exist only in (southern?) college towns.

College towns, like Columbia, have a lot of things that small towns don’t; real cobbler shops, good boulangeries, used clothes shops that sell by weight, decent housing for cheap (as long as it isn’t walking distance to campus), tons of free or low-cost entertainment from chamber music and gallery openings to rock bands and street theatre.

Sure, larger cities have most of these things too, but the cost of living is much higher. At least down here in the South, college towns usually have about the same cost of living as any other small or rural town. Add in the fact that a good sized college brings in a pretty cosmopolitan mix of people, and you have a recipe for a pretty groovy place to live, for reasonably cheap.

Jen and I have been considering leaving Myrtle Beach in the next year or so. Myrtle Beach is stupidly overpriced, both in housing and in general cost of living. Now that you can’t go a week without news of a body found in the trunk of an abandoned car, someone shpt in the face at a nightclub, or a home-invasion style robbery, we have decided to get while we still can. , So, we are in the process of visiting and evaluating potential places to move; all of them, incidentally, college towns.

Columbia, home of the University of South Carolina was first on our list, being closer to Myrtle Beach than any of the others (Athens, GA, Berkeley, CA, Fort Collins, CO, Tallahassee, FL and Montpelier, VT), so here we are. Columbia is a nice place ,with most of the amenities we like in a college town, but not really a standout in any particular respect, except maybe in the number of cobbler shops (I can see at least three from where I am sitting).

So, the search continues, I think. If anyone wants to speak up for (or against) any of the places we are considering, or add somewhere to the list, please let me know, either in the comments, or by email.