The other day, one of my monthly book clubs met to discuss our most recent selection: “Population 485. Meeting Your Neighbors One Siren at a Time” by Michael Perry. The book is a non-fiction account of a real-life prodigal son, the author, who returns to his hometown -- New Auburn, Wisconsin, population: 485 -- and joins the volunteer fire and rescue department. Our discussion initially covered the great writing, stories and characters found in Perry’s book. We eventually moved on to our thoughts about Wauwatosa and how it compared to New Auburn.

The most intriguing question asked was whether each of us considered Wauwatosa a suburb of a big city or a small town. As someone who grew up on the north side of Chicago, Wauwatosa feels wonderfully small-townish to me. I love the fact that I meet my neighbors in grocery store aisles and at church festivals. I love that we have a weekly local paper (The former News Times, soon to be the WauwatosaNOW.) I love that the police officers are familiar to me and not because I’ve had run-ins with the law, but because they’re constant guardians in our community. I love that we have a charming 4th of July Parade every year where we holler greetings to people marching by as they pelt us with candy. I love that I can walk to the Village and visit Drew’s Variety Store where they truly have a little something of almost everything.

Sure, Tosa is very “big town” in many ways with our cool new restaurants and shops, our cosmopolitan shopping mall and our proximity to a major metropolitan city. Our firefighters are not volunteers but you can watch our local government on local access TV.

To me, Wauwatosa is the right combination of mostly “little” with just the right amount of “big” mixed in. How about you? Do you consider Tosa a small town or a big suburb? E-mail your thoughts to westsidestoriestosa@yahoo.com .