Friday, November 25, 2005
SmallTown
I grew up in a small town, actually on a small cattle ranch near that small town. It was about 1,000 people. The county I lived in was about 40 miles square and had a total population of less than 10,000. I grew up in a very rural environment. As I was growing up, passing the long, slow boring days I used to think city kids had all the fun,m they had all the neat things to do, amusement parks, show houses, swimming pools, skating rinks and the list goes on and on. But now, as I sit with 1,000,000 other people in a county very similar in size to the one I knew as a kid, I realize that city life is not what I thought, no amusement park can ever compare to the woods behind our house, and the pond we swam in and skated on was something a swimming pool or skating rink can never even come close to duplicating.
I used to hate the gossiping old women, and their phone network that went into action whenever the fire alarm rang (other than for the 10 o'clock curfew every week-night) or when the ambulance went out, but now that nosy gossiping concern seems a lot more warm and caring to me; and the total unconcern for others and the "don't bother me" attitude I see everyday here in the city bothers me a lot more than some gossiping old ladies.
I remember thinking the local people were pretty dumb to hand around this podunk town when they could be in the big time of the city. I remember feeling sorry for the people I thought were stuck there for the rest of their lives. I remember thinking that small town people were stupid and unsophisticated and behind the times. I thought we weren't cool and we didn't know what was going on; I realize now after I've been around people who are "cool", "sophisticated, and "smart"; that part of what I thougt about those dumb, backwoods, small town hicks was true, and I'm glad its true. I've come to realize that while they may not be smart in book-learning or city-ways, that many of those dumb country bumpkins are a lot smarter than I ever gave them credit for and they're twice the people that any of the shallow, selfish, sophisticated city people that I've met since I left that small cattle ranch, near that tiny little town.
(Seattle, 1985)
I used to hate the gossiping old women, and their phone network that went into action whenever the fire alarm rang (other than for the 10 o'clock curfew every week-night) or when the ambulance went out, but now that nosy gossiping concern seems a lot more warm and caring to me; and the total unconcern for others and the "don't bother me" attitude I see everyday here in the city bothers me a lot more than some gossiping old ladies.
I remember thinking the local people were pretty dumb to hand around this podunk town when they could be in the big time of the city. I remember feeling sorry for the people I thought were stuck there for the rest of their lives. I remember thinking that small town people were stupid and unsophisticated and behind the times. I thought we weren't cool and we didn't know what was going on; I realize now after I've been around people who are "cool", "sophisticated, and "smart"; that part of what I thougt about those dumb, backwoods, small town hicks was true, and I'm glad its true. I've come to realize that while they may not be smart in book-learning or city-ways, that many of those dumb country bumpkins are a lot smarter than I ever gave them credit for and they're twice the people that any of the shallow, selfish, sophisticated city people that I've met since I left that small cattle ranch, near that tiny little town.
(Seattle, 1985)
// posted by mattB @ 10:40 PM 
