Country Living

Wouldn't that be neat if this were actually an article that I'm submitting to their magazine? It's not, of course.

I thought my mini vacation was perfect, I ate a lot, slept a lot and found a number of people, i.e. all of L.A. who would qualify for What Not to Wear.

The other night the girls were asking for stories from my childhood, that is farther away than I think it should be. A lot of the retelling came from when our family moved to 'the country'. I put together a little sample of how you know if you live in the country.

You know you live in the country if:

• you call the nearest largely populated area 'town'.


• you 'rent' movies from your neighbors.


• you can get a horse by working for it.


• the only cell phone reception is by a flagpole, in the parking lot, of the high school.


• prayer is said before each school event.


• there are four generations of a family still living there and you call the oldest one grandma and grandpa.


• directions sound something like this: if you take this road, that has the big haystack, and you turn in after the first dairy, but before the second dairy, right where the line of mailboxes are and you see a fence, that's us.


• you go swimming in your neighbor's milk tank. It had water, not milk, by the way.


• there is all day kindergarten because there's not enough time, money, or people to have the buses leave and come back again half way through the day.


• you're related to someone. Seriously, you can move to a town and not know a soul and within minutes, you've realized you're related.


• there's a row of churches.


• they have a 'parade' on Homecoming through the 'town'.


• one of the bars has the best hamburgers, ever.


• some stores are only open certain hours on certain days, or whatever they feel like doing.


• people know what corn topping, mud bogging, canal swimming, and speeding are.


• someone is driving really slowly, it's a farmer checking out the fields or an illegal.


• your sister and you just move there and you decide to go on a bike ride, and realize your destination is farther than you thought, but you keep going, and on the way home, your sister gets a flat tire and you're still miles from your home, on a deserted road. Oh yes, and you forgot to tell your mom.


• there are rodents shot with a BB gun hanging on fence posts.


• your dog may or may not tree a raccoon up the electric pole in your front yard.


• a block party encompasses a five mile radius.


• most people learn how to drive a tractor and walk all in the same week.


• people leave their car running with the keys in it while they run into the convenience store.


• trucks are called rigs.


• you think one of the best things is to slide down a huge row of manure that's been wrapped in plastic.

Till next week,

Katie