I grew up in the country. I tiny little village, population 136. Now that was in the "village limits" of course. I lived in the "suburbs" of the "village" so I wasn't really in the metro area of our little town. But we loved it. Where I grew up and spent nearly 22 years of my life was founded by my ancestors years and years (and may I emphasize YEARS) before I was born. We had 3 bars, two churches, a feed mill, a lumber yard and a village park. About a quarter mile away was the Station. You know, for gas and milk and candy and such. I wasn't allowed to ride my bike to the Station until I was 10 years old. Why? It was across a major highway (and by major I mean non-interstate) and my parents felt it was too dangerous- or I was to ADD to pay attention to traffic- to get across. But that was ok by me. I didn't want to end up like a truck pressed pheasant on the highway that would require a spatula and a pizza box to clean up after.
I used to ride my bike over to my friend, Kelly's, house and ride up and down her driveway until she saw me outside. I was obviously too scared to go knock on her door and see if she could play. I mean, come on, I was 9 and she had like 5 older siblings that enjoyed teasing me. I didn't want that, so instead I rode up and down her driveway like a dork for about 20 minutes until someone looked out.
Once she got her bike, we would peddle around town for hours. Sometimes hang out in the park or go hang out under the bridge and throw rocks in the water. I remember going wading in the creek until my mom caught wind of it. She wasn't very happy because she was afraid we "would get empentigo" from all the crap in the creek. Whatever. That which does not kill us only makes us stranger.
The cool thing was, once it started to get dark out my mom would go out on the front porch and yell, "Jenny! Time to come home!" Generally, in the small little borough, I would hear and jump on my bike and head home.
Well, when I turned 10, my mom would let me go into town and stay with my cousin Tanya, during the day while she went to work. Tanya was three years younger than I and we would go EVERYWHERE! Yes, Mom, I said it. I was a juvenile delinquent running the streets of town. In and out of the Schultz Bros. store, into the Artisan to look for cool stickers and smelly pencils, across the street to the Rexall Drug for a (real) Cherry Coke and then into the Music Shop to check out records and tapes (for those of you too young to remember records and tapes, google it). I admit it. However, I never did anything bad merely because everyone in town new my mother. If I was doing something I shouldn't have been, or annoying someone, she would come down and find me. I swear, she was worse than the Mob for connections in town.
In the summer, Tanya and I would go to the pool. We would spend all day there. Seriously, all day. From when they opened at 1 until they closed at 5.. And, if I was staying overnight, we would go back at 630 when they opened up until 9 at night. I between we would jump on our bikes and go over to the park (before it got all mucked up by the levee or dike they built) or hit the Dairy-O for ice cream or frozen Charleston Chew bars. If we had enough money we would split a hot beef sandwich or get a hot dog.
Once 9 o'clock hit, we would change out of our wet suits and get our clothes on and head for her house. Most of the time we got waylaid by another friend or would take the long way home.
No, our bikes didn't have lights. No, we didn't wear helmets- you would look like a dork plus, they didn't have them then. No, we didn't use hand signals. Yes, Mom, we DID watch traffic VERY closely.
Once we got home, we never really stayed there. Her older brother and a bunch of his buddies always coerced us into playing Ghost in the Graveyard, in the actual graveyard or some game of flashlight hide and seek. Yes, we were disrespectful of the dead. But, we were having fun.
Occasionally, during the daylight hours, we would have kool-aid stands, or go rollerskating, or sit on a skateboard and coast-er, speed- down 3rd street. Once we even rode her Barbie Dream Camper down 3rd street through a stop sign and past the high school. That was actually WAY more fun because we could both fit on it.
And guess what. We both lived to tell about it and we both grew up and had children (she had way more than I did and I learned my lesson after 2. The lesson being, ugh..I can't handle another one like my son!) and are now being tortured much like we tortured our mothers.
The cool thing was, I really enjoyed going into town with Tanya. We were very inseparable. And she, like coming out to the country and enjoying all the fun stuff we did out there. Playing in the sandbox (having baby sister come up and steal her spade right out of her hand), rolling down the hill in the front of the house. Rollerskating on the driveway and into the open garage and back out again. Making up stupid songs that meant nothing but we still remember them to this day. We are weird like that.
But, the COOLEST thing, was to go over to my Aunt and Uncle's farm. WHOA!! We got to go feed calves and let their slimy tongues suck on our fingers, dip cows (not TIP cows, DIP cows...with iodine before you put the milkers on. Once again, google it.), feed the trout at the trout farm, ride the riding lawn mower...holy crap! And that was only OUTSIDE!!
Inside my Aunt and Uncle had added an addition to their house so, to us, it was HUGE! We would play office, we would put the Sound of Music on the hi-fi and sing along and pretend we were the children and Maria. I was Maria, big sister was Liesl, baby sister was Gretl and Tanya was Brigitta. We would stand on the stairs and sing "So Long Farewell" to the imaginary crowd below.
We would play pool and listen to Steve Martin albums.
We would make a restaurant and serve our older cousins. Usually peanut butter sandwiches and marshmallows for dessert. We weren't allowed to touch the stove.
We would sneak into the chest freezer in the garage and "steal" Golden Guernsey ice cream bars. (My favourites were the chocolate covered mint ice cream ones.) Although, I don't think it was much sneaking because Aunt B always could hear the freezer open and shut. I think she would just look the other way. Bless her heart.
Either way, I really couldn't choose which was better. Country life or City life. The way I look at it, to quote a teen pop star, We had the best of both worlds!
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