Country

by Ann Major

Created on: January 22, 2008   Last Updated: July 25, 2011

Having a preference for city or country living often depends on the age group. At a certain time in one's life, there is a yearning to replace the faster-paced city life with quieter surroundings of the country. For someone who has yo-yoed back and forth between country, city, small town, bigger city, back to the country again, rural living is definitely the way to go.

This writer was born in a small village with one dirt road which led to an enclave of homes with no running water and no toilets. What was available was comparable to an outhouse in the old days in America. Eventually relocating to a congested city such as Hong Kong was a complete turnaround.

Living in Hong Kong was like being in a citified cage, where no youngster could venture past his apartment building without the presence of an adult. Children were walked to and from school by extended family members.  In a city of that caliber, the attitude is to trust no one. So other than going to school, pastimes often consisted of looking out of the apartment window, watching moving throngs of people being moved along like a human wave.

Sundays were rest days for every working person and a day for doing shopping. So on Sundays, citizens emerged from safety of their crowded rooms/apartments to the streets below; shoving and being shoved, borne along the sidewalk, a wave of shackled people.  City living was no fun.

Small-town living on the East Coast was definitely better than Hong Kong as summers days were spent rummaging around garbage piles, looking for bits and pieces to create masterpiece "go-carts"; walking on railroad tracks to blueberry fields; stealing apples from farmers' yards; and going to adult movies; attending wrestling matches. These activities would not have been possible in a city setting, and because of the era and place, there was more safety within a small-town, rural-like setting.

When adulthood necessitated living in suburbia, privacy was certainly not a luxury which could be afforded. The suburbs do give an individual the chance to be anonymous. If one does not want to know one's neighbors, then city-living or suburbia is the place to be. Socializing with neighbors in the suburbs can sometimes incur unpleasant consequences; when you no longer get along with your neighbors, and houses are in close proximity, where do you go?  

Even though this writer's son considers the country to be, oh so "bo-oring!", the friendliness of country people cannot be denied. Everyone waves to everyone else in the country, whether a person knows them or not. If the person does not wave back, it is assumed they must be from the city, or destined to become one's mortal enemy. In the suburb, a person may wave to a new neighbor; he or she might stare as if one was the village idiot. In the country, if neighbors do not know the newcomer,  they will certainly make up colorful stories about them until they do.

On the other hand, country people are well-meaning when they say " We should have you over for supper sometime' knowing fully well that they have no intentions of doing so.  That it is just a way of saying hello in the country.  In the city, when a person says "Drop in sometime" he or she usually means:" Please don't call me, I'll call you, and don't hold your breath."

In the country, there is an unspoken pecking order which goes far back to one being blue-blooded and having settled in the country when it was still largely unpopulated. On the East Coast, if a person was not born and bred in that area; worst still, chose to go off in search of a job in a city, they are no longer considered local, or a person of note. In fact one is an outsider and forever remains an outsider, as country people are less nomadic than city folk, have roots and stay put.

There is one common element that has to do with both city and country-living. One cannot choose one's neighbors. Obsessive-compulsive neighbors living in suburbia/city are also doubly obsessive with the borderline of their properties. In suburbia, neighbors never mow an extra inch of grass which separates the two houses, since it does not belong to their side. It almost seems like they got a measuring tape out and exacted the borderline. It is often wondered whether a neighbor had a surveyor's blueprint in his/her head.

People in a suburb/city tend to be selfish and often inconsiderate. In this writer's experience, wintertime sports from one's neighbor often consisted of hockey pucks being pummeled against the fence, flying baseballs into the yard, tennis balls, soccer and footballs have all allowed this writer's husband to start a sports kiosk.

In retirement, having moved back to the country, this writer has learned that country people love to put one over city folks. City folks know very little about keeping a country homestead. In the city, everything is done for you. In the country, you have to look for service people, and they don't come cheap, even if they are not the best in their profession.

There are no set prices for any kind of service. If they think you have money, the price goes up. A written contract does not exist. Everything is word-of-mouth, most of the time without a handshake; forget about their coming back to fix any problems once the job is done and cash is in their hands. You may never see them again.

In the city there is more of everything. More jobs, more food, more transportation, availability of services. Cities harbor better doctors, medical care and cheaper consumer goods because there is competition. In the country, if you don't like the prices, too bad. What you see is what you get. If you like peanut butter and there are only three bottles left on the shelves, buy all three because the next time, the shelves may be bare. As with country hospitals, a new one has been built, but with lesser services. The negative of rural-living is not every professional, such as a doctor want to practice in the country.

In the country, everyone is versatile and one must learn to be self-sufficient. The fire chief may be an electrician and whose job is sometimes cut short when he is called away to a fire emergency. A country dweller may pay more for house insurance because the nearest fire hydrant is nowhere to be seen or found.

Then there are the small inconveniences of country living, like potholes on the road that never get filled: a road which does not get plowed in winter until two days later; or garbage that is collected on a bi-monthly basis. If one leaves the garbage out too early, the crows will peck away at it and have a field day. As for the mail, one needs to walk a half mile to get it, but it's a small inconvenience for the positives of rural living.

Country living is food for the soul and quiet and solitude are great for the soul. Having the opportunity to wake up to beautiful sunrises; not having to shower every day, hanging clothes on a clothesline are what define country life. Walking around in rubber duckies is a fashion state in the country as roads tend to be wet and muddy whenever it rains.

In cottage country where this writer lives, the population triples during the summer and trickles to a few hundred in the fall, becoming once again a sleepy little community.  It is so quiet, peace, tranquility, and being at one with nature that draws many people to the country.

Learn more about this author, Ann Major.
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