213:6
That's the ratio of churches to bars in the local phone book.
That's a lot of churches, though not as wildly disproportionate to what I'm used to as I first thought. Where I grew up, there are 6 churches serving a population of about 2300. That's just over 380 people/church. Now if you take all the people in Mercer County, and add in the population of Bluefield, VA (I did this because the phone book includes nearby cities), then divide by the number of churches in the phone book, you get about 320. Alternately, I can limit myself to churches in Bluefield, WV and use that population, in which case I get about 160 people/church. So the difference between here and where I grew up, in number of churches per capita, is at most a factor of 2 or so.
Where the real difference lies is in the ratio of churches to bars. In my hometown, there are 3 bars in the same area as the 6 churches, giving a nice even ratio of 2:1. Here in Bluefield, that ratio is 36:1, meaning there are disproportionately fewer bars here than what I'm used to.
Why is this a big deal to me? I haven't barhopped in years.
First, a dearth of bars means an extreme dearth of sports bars, so where am I going to go to watch the Vikings?
Second, it points toward the fact that many of the people around here do their socializing through church. And while I'm sure I'd meet a lot of good, well-souled people at a church, I just really don't care to socialize with the religiously-motivated. So the tough job of meeting people and making friends in this new life of ours becomes all the more difficult.
That's a lot of churches, though not as wildly disproportionate to what I'm used to as I first thought. Where I grew up, there are 6 churches serving a population of about 2300. That's just over 380 people/church. Now if you take all the people in Mercer County, and add in the population of Bluefield, VA (I did this because the phone book includes nearby cities), then divide by the number of churches in the phone book, you get about 320. Alternately, I can limit myself to churches in Bluefield, WV and use that population, in which case I get about 160 people/church. So the difference between here and where I grew up, in number of churches per capita, is at most a factor of 2 or so.
Where the real difference lies is in the ratio of churches to bars. In my hometown, there are 3 bars in the same area as the 6 churches, giving a nice even ratio of 2:1. Here in Bluefield, that ratio is 36:1, meaning there are disproportionately fewer bars here than what I'm used to.
Why is this a big deal to me? I haven't barhopped in years.
First, a dearth of bars means an extreme dearth of sports bars, so where am I going to go to watch the Vikings?
Second, it points toward the fact that many of the people around here do their socializing through church. And while I'm sure I'd meet a lot of good, well-souled people at a church, I just really don't care to socialize with the religiously-motivated. So the tough job of meeting people and making friends in this new life of ours becomes all the more difficult.
