Small Town Summers

Like many farm kids, I have lived in a small town my whole life.  I have only lived in two houses, and that is only because my parents and grandparents decided to do a house swap when my parents starting running the farm.  We moved a whole half- mile, just across the field from one another.  I can literally walk to Grandma's house in ten minutes, and they are the closest neighbors to my parents.

That's kind of the way we settle around here- if you drive just out of town, you reach "Woodliff's corners"  the Wildt's road, Crandall's, Adam's, Green's, Bussing's and Hawkin's. Even the Petredean's, who nearly live in town have three or four relatives all clumped in their little family "compound."  We don't go far, and when the house next to mom and dad's comes up for sale, we are quick to jump on it.  We like to stay close to our kind.  We create our neighborhoods with our families, celebrating birthdays, plantings, harvests, and Sundays together.  If farm families are sometimes stern and less than forthcoming with emotion or support, we show each other our love in the ability to live basically on top of each other.

Each summer, my home town has a festival.  It's similar to those in the neighboring towns, and maybe it isn't anything large, or even that unique, but it is special to our community.  Some of the festival is pig-themed with Pig-tail contest, a "Porky's Plunge Raffle (a duck race with little rubber pigs instead of ducks), a pork roast, and sometimes a Hog-Calling contest (if you don't know what that is, look it up on YouTube).  Other events are more mainstream, like mud volleyball, corn hole tournaments, a singing contest, a 5k run, a triathalon, a hot dog eating contest, and of course, fireworks. Our community doesn't do fireworks for Independence Day, but we do go all out for our little festival.  Donations start the day after the festival all over town and continue right up until the first firework is lit on Saturday night.  Our festival marks the end of early summer, and the beginning of fair season.  

Every year that I spend in my community, I realize that the things I take for granted as part of my small town life, most people probably don't know exist anymore.  Raising steers for fair, a Farm Bureau frozen food sale, roadside vegetable stands, live bait machines, and backyard bonfires aren't the types of things that urban families ever experience.  There are merits to the convenience and speed of cities and suburbs, but our lives are so different that it makes it hard to share some of those common experiences that every rural kid knows.  I'm glad that my summer escape to the country is right out my front door, and not two weeks at summer camp. I cherish my experiences and look forward with hope that future farmer's children will have their own small town summers.