My Family Digest
Country Living, Rural Farm Life - City Cousin Sees No Metropolis, Asks What Do You Do Around Here?
Growing up in rural Alabama was not what many would consider an exciting childhood. I remember, as if it were yesterday, my city cousin coming to visit for a few hours one day. We were shooting hoops in the yard, and he kept asking, "What do you DO around here?" Until that time, it had never occurred to me that I was supposed to DO anything. This was simple country living. You just naturally found things to do without pondering it a great deal.
There was plenty to do. Living on a rural farm, there was gardening, plowing, planting, tending livestock, climbing trees, creek wading, fishing, and enjoying the many comforts and adventures that country living brings. It was hard for me to conceive how my city cousin could wonder what there might be to do.
Most of the people with whom I was associated were from the country, and there weren't a lot of them. There were only four or five people my agethe length of time that a person or thing has existed. A particular stage in someone's life. in our tiny community. I saw more kids at school, but usually not socially. We didn't have a car when I was young, so traveling was very limited.
Reflecting back, most everything we did in the way of entertainment was self produced.
Before we got our first television, we would walk a quarter mile up the road to watch the Lone Ranger with an elderly neighbor couple. This happened, at most, once a week. They never made me feel that it was an imposition for us to be there, and I never felt embarrassed that we had no television of our own.
When we did eventually get a television, the viewing was confined to a couple of hours per night, and maybe a little more on the weekend. There were only a couple of channels at the time that offered acceptable reception, and they didn't have programming past midnight. You never heard anyone asking, "What did you watch last night?" Everyone watched the same thing on one television.
My closest sibling was my sister, who is two years my senior. There were a few other kids within walking distance to play with, and it seemed that our house was the usual meeting place.
We built huts in the woods, staged plays in the wash house, played pick-up baseball, and as I said before, entertained ourselves. It seemed like the natural thing to do.
After I grew up and got into the construction business, many of the jobs I worked on were in people's homes. On some of these occasions, I would see children who were so bored with their lives that they were completely miserable.
They had expensive toys, televisions with lots of channels, transportation to go most anywhere, and parents with comfortable incomes. But, they had something very important missing from their lives. The sad thing is that a lot of them never found it.
When I ponder the childhood we had in the country, I don't feel there was much missing. We had parents who cared for us, friendsa person with whom one has a bond of mutual affection, typically one exclusive of sexual or family relations. Used in polite address to an acquaintance or stranger we enjoyed being around, and the priceless part of life that you can't really explain to someone who hasn't experienced it: a strong initiative to make something of every day, out of only what you had.
To most folks, our little plays and other projects might seem silly and worthless. They weren't silly to us. We had more fun than a lot of kids who had money and paid for things to entertain themselves.
We got up in the mornings looking for some inexpensive, active pursuit. I don't think that is such a bad way to live life, even now. Sometimes I have the urge to pick up the phone, make that call, and say, "Yes, Donald, this is what I DO around here!"
Wilson Lankford Brown is a Professional Freelance Author at Ebook Egghead which is a company specializing in ghostwriting services. His primary occupation throughout the years was in the construction industry, where he achieved Master Builder Status. In later years, he became a successful Project Manager, Commercial Construction Estimator, and a writer of various published books and publications. His writing is sprinkled with many Southernisms and flavored with many experiences that span his more than interesting years in the construction industry. You can view more of his works at Ebook Egghead.
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Added: 20 октября 2009