Settling back into the routine of living in Northwest Iowa after being completely engulfed by the hustle and bustle of The Big Apple has been a nice transition for me. It has enabled to me to, once again, review the reasons why I live where I do. I need to take a mental inventory every now and then when I am romanced by the light of the city.
Always a fan of big city life (I grew up in St. Louis), I miss a lot of the cultural and social activities that a city provides. It is also nice to be a small fish swimming in a big pond and not feel like you are living a life under a magnifying glass. There are museums and diversity and lots of great things to experience.
Having said this, there is much to be said for living in a place where you can walk to the farmers market and the grocery store on a sunny Saturday morning. One can also send your kids to the park without fear or know that if you forget to set your garbage can out the night before trash pick-up….your neighbor will remember to do it for you.
It means that, come August, your co-workers bring bushels and bags of vegetables that have grown in abundance in their garden… “Please! Take them! They will go to waste if you don’t!” It also means sweet corn being sold on the side of the road out of an old pick-up truck by teenagers (usually the farmers’ kids) – the sign, painted in orange paint on a piece of 4’ x 8’ particle board that reads, “SUPER SWEET CORN” – while another pick-up truck 30 yards away is advertising on their own particle board sign, “SUPER CANDY SWEET CORN”. How does one choose??
Living where I live provides free concerts in the gazebo on Wednesday nights, county fairs, kids selling home-made pie at the 4-H stand, driving through country roads surrounded by the smells of earth and growing things and farm-fresh air.
Bon-fires.
It is a place where my children are being raised by a community who cares about growing kids up to be strong, patriotic, and responsible citizens. It is a place where family members live within walking distance and Sunday nights in which dinner, dessert, and/or a card game is the order of business. It is where I can sit on my mom and dad’s front porch swing and watch the world go by, waving at folks walking past on the sidewalk.
It is wide green spaces and no traffic jams and just about the only thing that makes you late for work is the 7:55 a.m. train that crosses through town.
It is chilled Pinot Grigio on the back porch, road trips to the lake, and Sunday church service. It is ice cream in the freezer 365 days a year.
It is life in “The Ice Cream Capital of the World®” – where, while it may not be over the rainbow, it is where life, truly, is sweet.
Until next time, I remain…..1SweetMama
Always a fan of big city life (I grew up in St. Louis), I miss a lot of the cultural and social activities that a city provides. It is also nice to be a small fish swimming in a big pond and not feel like you are living a life under a magnifying glass. There are museums and diversity and lots of great things to experience.
Having said this, there is much to be said for living in a place where you can walk to the farmers market and the grocery store on a sunny Saturday morning. One can also send your kids to the park without fear or know that if you forget to set your garbage can out the night before trash pick-up….your neighbor will remember to do it for you.
It means that, come August, your co-workers bring bushels and bags of vegetables that have grown in abundance in their garden… “Please! Take them! They will go to waste if you don’t!” It also means sweet corn being sold on the side of the road out of an old pick-up truck by teenagers (usually the farmers’ kids) – the sign, painted in orange paint on a piece of 4’ x 8’ particle board that reads, “SUPER SWEET CORN” – while another pick-up truck 30 yards away is advertising on their own particle board sign, “SUPER CANDY SWEET CORN”. How does one choose??
Living where I live provides free concerts in the gazebo on Wednesday nights, county fairs, kids selling home-made pie at the 4-H stand, driving through country roads surrounded by the smells of earth and growing things and farm-fresh air.
Bon-fires.
It is a place where my children are being raised by a community who cares about growing kids up to be strong, patriotic, and responsible citizens. It is a place where family members live within walking distance and Sunday nights in which dinner, dessert, and/or a card game is the order of business. It is where I can sit on my mom and dad’s front porch swing and watch the world go by, waving at folks walking past on the sidewalk.
It is wide green spaces and no traffic jams and just about the only thing that makes you late for work is the 7:55 a.m. train that crosses through town.
It is chilled Pinot Grigio on the back porch, road trips to the lake, and Sunday church service. It is ice cream in the freezer 365 days a year.
It is life in “The Ice Cream Capital of the World®” – where, while it may not be over the rainbow, it is where life, truly, is sweet.
Until next time, I remain…..1SweetMama
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment