I've been in Ohio for over a week, and during that time I've watched the soybean fields that surround my parents' house turn from an emerald green to a faded yellow. This is good, because the soybeans aren't harvested until the plants are completely dried up (as I have just learned).
This sort of observation is in line with how life moves here. When I make my typical quick trips to visit my family, our time is normally packed with visits to my brother or celebrating some holiday or another. This time I was able to bring work with me, allowing me to write during the day and just hang out with my parents in the evening. Since we were necessarily prevented from taking day trips, I got to experience what daily life is like here, and it's a lot slower. It's also more centered around home. Watching the sun while it sets is actually an activity here. Or we might go visit with the neighbors for a half hour when they're sitting out by the bonfire.
A list of experiences foreign to my everyday life:
1. The clip-clop of horses pulling Amish buggies.
2. Neighbors just "stopping by" to see if you need help cleaning up after a party.
3. Trying to decide if you really need those two grocery items, since it'll take 30 minutes to drive into town.
4. Taking out the compost at night and seeing a skunk. (And therefore putting off that chore until the daylight.)
5. Seeing a sky full of stars. (Curse you, light pollution!)
6. Listening to the cows (soon to be burgers and roasts) who live next door.
7. Driving in a car almost every day.
It's been a good trip, but I'll be happy to be home tomorrow.
10 comments:
Please clarify that "here" is your parent's house in the sticks, and not the whole state of Ohio. :) While your brother and I don't live in "the city", it doesn't take us 30 minutes to get to the grocery store, nor do we think that watching the sun go down is an activity. Although, sometimes I wish our life DID move a little slower- it would be nice to watch a sunset every now and then. :) Thanks for the visit!
Point taken, Stacey. And I might add that having two kids, wherever you live, makes life go faster.
Oh. That sounds so nice. I do consider myself a city girl, but aspects of the rural life are so appealing.
I think anytime you can visit someone and just hang for a while and not make it a series of must do events that it is nice.
how lovely - but taking Stacey's point, was it so different where you were growing up in OH?
Alexis, it was quite a bit different when I was growing up. Since then, my parents have moved into a very rural area. Where I grew up, it was a 15 minute drive to the store, we didn't know any farmers, and there were no Amish.
And Shawn and Stacey live in a subdivision, in a suburb. It's not city life, but it's not country life - I guess it's a typical suburban life?
"What is this life, if full of care, We have no time to stand and..... visit and enjoy the company of those we love"
(With apologies to W.H.Davies who penned the original 'Leisure')
Well done RM
Okay, I was really confused... I remembered where you lived as a child (where I also grew up) and I didnt think Brunstucky Hills was THAT far out that there were now Amish buggies going by!!
Mars girl, my parents move a few years ago - that's why I was trying to say that I lived in the country then, but not in FARM country. Now my parents live in a much more rural area.
Very "Prairie Home Companion"esque.
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