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Go on, keep fooling yourself and saying that spending the night sitting on the porch bored to tears while drinking a glass of sweet tea is a "good time," while I'm enjoying 50,000 other things.
I drive 20 minutes and buy groceries from HEB - the kind with a wine steward.
I drive about 25 minutes to a major hospital. Quicker if I'm in a hurry.
I've been not only out of my town (where I wasn't born, by the way), but out of the country. (Much to my dismay, I fell in love with some single malt Scotches in Scotland that you just can't get here. And haggis. Love haggis. Can't get the real thing here.)
Quite an assortment of restaurants, as well, within the 20 minute drive - and if I want to drive 30, even more.
And, yet, sometimes I decide that the beauty of the sunset or the wildflowers or the horses or the sunrise beat out all those attractions and more (though I did attend the Sunday Fair of the Texas Wine & Food Festival this past weekend, again, 20 minutes or so from my front porch out in the country). And a glass of sweet tea after an afternoon of putting up hay so that my horses will have feed for the winter is pure ambrosia. Go figure.
Thing is, I have the choice between those whenever I want. Most folks who live in the city, don't.
I love the redneck "We got it so simple here" attitude. Sorry, friend, I lived there long enough to know it's not true.
Yep, and you drive 20 minutes to buy groceries...from Wal Mart. I drive 3 minutes and buy from a regional grocer.
You drive 40 miles to work to a place of decent size (sizable enough to actually HAVE a hospital)...I drive 5.
Then, you are a "rural elitist" who has most likely never left your Anytown, USA, and think the world revolves around it, while people who actually leave the block every once in a while know there is more out there.
Yeah, here we have professional sports, theater, restaurants, shopping options, and it's all in a 5-15 min. drive...And hey, if I want to hunt or fish, its a 30 minute drive to the country. Ouch, didn't see that one coming, did you? What's your argument now?
Go on, keep fooling yourself and saying that spending the night sitting on the porch bored to tears while drinking a glass of sweet tea is a "good time," while I'm enjoying 50,000 other things.
Arcadia, FL. Has all the rural areas you could want...but oh so close to being a "real" city. It has a hospital, a movie theater, they opened an auditorium a few years back, had some national country artists perform. They have rodeo, they have at least ONE museum I know of, and their "historic district" is a tourist attraction. They have all kinds of stores out on SR 70 east of town proper. They have libraries, and civic centers.
And you could actually WALK from place to place, without fear of getting run down by some "in a hurry" big-city driver.
I love the redneck "We got it so simple here" attitude. Sorry, friend, I lived there long enough to know it's not true.
Yep, and you drive 20 minutes to buy groceries...from Wal Mart. I drive 3 minutes and buy from a regional grocer.
You drive 40 miles to work to a place of decent size (sizable enough to actually HAVE a hospital)...I drive 5.
Then, you are a "rural elitist" who has most likely never left your Anytown, USA, and think the world revolves around it, while people who actually leave the block every once in a while know there is more out there.
Yeah, here we have professional sports, theater, restaurants, shopping options, and it's all in a 5-15 min. drive...And hey, if I want to hunt or fish, its a 30 minute drive to the country. Ouch, didn't see that one coming, did you? What's your argument now?
Go on, keep fooling yourself and saying that spending the night sitting on the porch bored to tears while drinking a glass of sweet tea is a "good time," while I'm enjoying 50,000 other things.
Almost all of the activities you list are external to you - places to go where someone/thing else entertains you. A lot of people don't need that. I'm happy out here hiking, having dinner with friends, reading, writing, watching the occasional Netflix rental (don't have cable/satellite), gardening, tending an orchard and attempting to train my dogs. When I hit the "big city" I usually do a nice round of museums and dinners out, but I didn't take any more regular advantage of that when I lived IN the city than I do now.
And you could actually WALK from place to place, without fear of getting run down by some "in a hurry" big-city driver.
I find it laughable when people who live in rural America seem to think that living in a city is living on a main artery (highway, interstate) through the heart of a city. Sorry, but your fears are irrational. Neighborhoods get neighborhood traffic (15 mph locals), not 80 mph BMWs of people heading to work.
Quote:
Originally Posted by PNW-type-gal
Almost all of the activities you list are external to you - places to go where someone/thing else entertains you. A lot of people don't need that. I'm happy out here hiking, having dinner with friends, reading, writing, watching the occasional Netflix rental (don't have cable/satellite), gardening, tending an orchard and attempting to train my dogs.
Absolutely, and I don't disagree with you at all. I disagree with the "our lifestyle is better than yours" attitude that is given by some rural elitists like "joee." It was not meant to be an attack on ruralites.
Quote:
Originally Posted by TexasHorseLady
Thing is, I have the choice between those whenever I want. Most folks who live in the city, don't.
Again, I'm not attacking your lifestyle or what you choose to do; my parents live in a rural area and are perfectly content. However, you don't have a choice to visit museums and the zoo, and monuments, and sculpture parks, and 400 city parks, etc, etc. Hey, if you aren't interested, that's fine! But I am, and I think many urbanites are, and that's why we choose not to live in the hills where you have to travel 2 hours to do anything outside of a tractor pull.
I don't need to rely on others to be happy. In fact, self-reliance alone tends to make me happy. Go ahead and brag about the "things to do in the city" while spending most of your money paying for food, energy and housing. On my homestead I won't be living at the whim of the market, corporations and who knows who else. The system as we know it could collapse and I'd be able to survive there. I can't wait to get out of this city, too many people around.
No...people SPEED through residential neighborhoods...and the traffic is just as bad...from people taking "shortcuts" through your neighborhood--unless you live on a cul de sac.
As far as the zoo...our animals AREN'T on the other side of a fence, or confined to a cage.
However, you don't have a choice to visit museums and the zoo, and monuments, and sculpture parks, and 400 city parks, etc, etc.
Actually, yes, I do. Even living in the country, I have that choice (and relatively nearby, as well - the Umlauf Sculpture Garden is about 45 minutes away, there are two zoos within an hour drive, there are numerous museums within an easy drive, city parks (if I need them - after all, I pretty much live in a park, come to that, but sometimes I like to visit a city park for a change of scenery) are equally accessible.
You keep assuming that those of us who live in the country don't have choices. It may be that your parents who live in the country don't have choices, or don't choose to take advantage of the choices they do have, but that doesn't mean that rural living is devoid of choice.
Do I have to drive more than 15 minutes to take advantage of some of these things? Yes, I do. However, I had to drive more than 15 minutes to take advantage of some of them when I lived 5 minutes from downtown Austin - if it's across town, the drive can be as long, through worse traffic than I experience driving into town from the country.
I disagree with the "our lifestyle is better than yours" attitude
Seems to me you're exhibiting exactly that attitude when you make statements like the first one I quoted above.
And who needs a park when your backyard is better than any park.
When you live in a city, most of the time you dont even have a back yard. You have only what city and zoning give you as a fire escape out your back door. All the houses look alike. Whats that, about 50 sq feet? In the country you can actually have space to run, play, a horse/dog/both, a clothesline, a greenhouse or a real garden, whatever, and more. Okay so its a little exagerated but you get the picture.
Precisely my point. I've got 20 acres of woods to have a garden, animals, etc. on, and it borders a state forest that is open for hunting/fishing/gold panning and more. I don't need no parks like cities have, nor zoos (plenty of wildlife there). Unfortunately I'm in an apartment right now, and the "backyard" is shared by about 75 other people (which translates as don't leave anything out, it'll be either trashed or stolen when you go back outside). I don't like cities one bit. I came along about 10 years too late and missed the state homesteading program in AK, or I wouldn't need to be in a city working right now. I'll be out like a rocket as soon as I have enough money...
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I can't wait to get out of this city, too many people around.
