Welcome to the Country
As most people who know me have heard, I am from rural Ohio. And I don't mean the rural that we've come to identify with in the last decade or so, but a "real" rural area. A place where dairy, beef, and pig farms dotted a landscape of corn and soybeans which, in turn, was broken up by moderate stands of old forest growth. This was an area wherein trick-or-treating took 2 hours, and you visited only 5-10 neighboring homes which were spread acroos 2.5 miles. Of course, all of the families knew each other, and had for generations. Needless to say, there wasn't a lot to do and if you did find something "fun", someone was bound to find out and tell your mother.
The point of all of this rambling is to begin to discuss just how much the landscape of rural America has changed in the Midwest. As in many areas of the country, the farmers of Ohio have found it necessary to get out of the business which is now profitable only for company farms. One by one, then, family farmers have parcelled out their land in 1/8th acre plots. No longer do you see corn and soy beans beginning their climb toward the sun in the spring, but sprouting foundations for vast mansions of houses.
So what drives people to move to the country? Most of them will cite a better environment to raise their children, the clean air, larger open spaces, "natural" surroundings, or the fact that people are supposedly just nicer in the countryside. What a list! And the arguments supporting these reasons usually seem pretty reasonable - at least at first glance. But if you are from the area in question, the reasons are not quite so reasonable after all.
And at this point, I could easily go off on a small rant regarding each of this points, and you'd expect me to do just that. But I'll not do that for this post. Instead, please offer me some of your thoughts. Then I'll address more of these reasons in later diatribes. Because, trust me, you don't want me to get too worked up on all of them at once. You'll just end up being worried by the shear length of my rant.
The point of all of this rambling is to begin to discuss just how much the landscape of rural America has changed in the Midwest. As in many areas of the country, the farmers of Ohio have found it necessary to get out of the business which is now profitable only for company farms. One by one, then, family farmers have parcelled out their land in 1/8th acre plots. No longer do you see corn and soy beans beginning their climb toward the sun in the spring, but sprouting foundations for vast mansions of houses.
So what drives people to move to the country? Most of them will cite a better environment to raise their children, the clean air, larger open spaces, "natural" surroundings, or the fact that people are supposedly just nicer in the countryside. What a list! And the arguments supporting these reasons usually seem pretty reasonable - at least at first glance. But if you are from the area in question, the reasons are not quite so reasonable after all.
And at this point, I could easily go off on a small rant regarding each of this points, and you'd expect me to do just that. But I'll not do that for this post. Instead, please offer me some of your thoughts. Then I'll address more of these reasons in later diatribes. Because, trust me, you don't want me to get too worked up on all of them at once. You'll just end up being worried by the shear length of my rant.
posted by Barbara | 9:44 PM
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