I live in a fairly small town.  I know all my neighbors.  I know everyone at my church.  Whenever I go into town, I won't recognize everyone I see but I'll always see someone I know.

If all goes well, I will start living fulltime as a woman this summer.  My face should be mostly cleared by then and I should have been on hormones for several months.

I've already told all the people I usually socialize with.  I'll tell my neighbors in the next few months.  I expect to announce to the church as a whole before summer.  My question is: What about everyone else?

I'll try to tell the few others I socialize with only rarely.  What about the staff at the coffee shop and several restaurants who know me?  The woman at the grocery checkout I always chat with?  The guy at the card shop I always talk to?  The bank tellers?  Then there's the game warden, the newspaper editor, the old guy I always nod to but don't know his name?  (Not really worried about him.)

It seems like it would be easier to transition where you are not known, but I live here and want to do it here so that I have the support of all my friends.  Anyone else transition in a small community (small town or community within a large town)?

I lived in small towns in rural Iowa for about a third of my life, and my feeling is that if you tell one person (at the coffee shop, or the convenience store) everyone else will know in a few days.

I always thought that James McMurtrey had it right in his song Talkin' At the Texaco.

hey what you up to
I already know
I heard the boys
talkin' at the Texaco
it's a small town
I know how you feel
it's a small town, son
and the news travels
quicker than wheels

I feel the same way as you. It's kinda hard in a small town...I haven't got to the point where you are yet. But I do know that once one person knows, everybody will know within the next day or so. I hope all goes well once you tell everyone.

A small town can be a plus. You can be seen as a person, not as a specimen of a type.

Ok, at first some people might be weirded out, but they will keep on seeing you and realize that you are not a weirdo and that this is a change for the better.