In a small town people remember who you were in fourth grade. You’re allowed to not be that person anymore.

Where everybody has known everybody for years, your file is public and badly out of date. People are not being cruel when they still see the kid from fourth grade, they are working from the last version they filed. The risk is agreeing with their copy instead of your own.

Behave like the current version steadily and let the record catch up on its own schedule. It will take longer than feels fair, and it does move. Meanwhile find one or two people who met you recently, since being seen accurately once makes the old story easier to carry.