Well, perhaps not quite living in the country but we started out not living in the city either and it was pleasant. We had woods on two sides of our house filled with ponds and small wood creatures that our children could investigate. There were places, like “dead man’s hill” where the children could stretch their imaginations and dare each other to bike or sled to the bottom as fast as possible. Once endowed with confidence they even built a ramp at the bottom for emulating daredevils. Those were the days but they’re now it’s all gone. Evaporated for ever, I guess.

I was reminded of this by recently on one of my rare trips out of the house when we had to drive out in the countryside and it struck me that our neighborhood used to look like the countryside on our drive. We used to have nice forests surrounding our place. We used to live quietly away from hustle and bustle. Now creeping urbanization has surrounded us. Perhaps I sound like an old codger but I can’t say I particularly like the changes. Something important seems to me to have been lost.

I’m not exactly sure what but few people remember the old buffalo farm or the horse stables or the local swamps (now filled in) where you could find such treasures as frogs or salamanders not to mention snakes and lizards (talk to Grandma Oddball about that nostalgia!). Few remember that the old school had a nice orchard (long since torn down to provide parking) or even that the school basement was dug out by the boy scouts as part of a eagle project; now the scouts are barred from using the very room they built and donated!

Over thirty years ago when we first moved here we had to take a country road around the hills to reach our place. Then they bulldozed a road right over and through the hill which is now a five lane highway. A block away from our house the farming fields have been transformed into a major shopping center anchored by a major local chain store. In the other direction the log cabins have been replaced by a huge hardware mega store. Our quiet neighborhood now rumbles to the sounds of semi’s during the day while at night they clutter the streets where they park.

Ah well, that’s progress and its probably not all bad. Many of the changes are convenient but I do miss the quiet. I do miss not having to lock our doors all the time. And at least our children benefited from the environment before the major changes of progress descended upon us. It was probably just as well that they closed the one room schoolhouse that my son went to kindergarten in the year he moved on to first grade (and yes, it was red). But I still miss the ducks that nested in our ditch each year, the squirrels and possums that came to be feed on our deck (despite the mess they made), the variety of birds that came by and the various other critters that visited us from time to time. However, I really don’t miss the coyotes which seem to still be thriving nearby or the raccoons.

Enough of the soapbox, I’ll quit now. Because of my medical problems we’re looking for another place to live but I’ll report on the change whenever it occurs.

Tags: family

This entry was posted on Saturday, September 5th, 2009 at 8:02 am and is filed under thoughts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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