This article was originally published on April 15, 2012 on the old blog
Okay, I'll admit it, I'm a country girl born & bred. Where I live in east Tennessee, our city life isn't exactly "big city", but there are so many differences in county (country) life & city life. Although, I'd listed #102 on my bucket list, I never really thought I'd accomplish it. Yet, here I found myself living away from the swamp. #102 was: move away from the swamp.
Living in the county, I wouldn't be woken up after midnight to the sound of sirens nightly. Actually, I very rarely ever heard sirens in the suburbs. Tonight though, I am awake listening to the sounds of sirens. A neighboring home or apartment has had an emergency again after midnight...again. I pray for the people, hoping all will be well...again.
This episode does make me draw a few comparisons. In the city, we are no more than 5 minutes from many national retail stores, businesses, local rescue services, and big name eateries. In the county, we have these things as well, but they are mostly mom & pop owned & operated eateries or fast food, and the emergency services are located in the city about 20-30 minutes away. So, everyone knows if you need serious help quick, Joe Bob can drive like Earnhardt...call him instead! Why else do you think NASCAR is so popular in the south? To get to the hospitals we drive 100 MPH around the base of a mountain, making only left hand turns ;-)
There are several luxuries to city life though. Instead of loading the car with trash once a week and driving it off to the local dump, we get to carry our trash to the curb! How cool is that?? In the county, if we put our trash outside on the curb, 20 wild dogs would rip into the bags, no one would pick it up, & the neighbors would call the beautification board on us!
In the city the parks are small, quaint, clean and hidden. In the county, the parks are littered with trash, large, and right off a main
road.
In the county, everyone has a septic tank & neighbors pull up a chair to watch someone dig up their yard to have it pumped when the toilet stops flushing. It's neighborhood entertainment & occasionally, someone pitches in a helping hand to dig. In the city, toilets flush with no issue!! Everyone has sewer. It's a fascinating thing that uses gravity and suction to grab ones mounds of toilet paper and shoot it into the underground abyss of the unknown!
Then there are garbage disposals. In the city, there's no dog in the back yard to eat dinner scraps. (Dogs are like people, they live inside.) After dinner, the scraps are raked from plates into the sink. A Langolier type monster that lives in the drain pipe chews all the left over stuff and burps when it's done! If we had garbage disposals in the country, could you imagine all the starving K9s?
Another difference is the yard. A yard in the country can take anywhere between an hour & all day to mow. Country yards are much larger & hilly. One can easily entertain the neighborhood by attempting to push mow the side of a mountain sideways or by dangling vicariously from a riding mower while holding on for dear life shouting "I Will Win!". In the city, the yards are so small & level they can be easily trimmed by using an electrical appliance in as little as 5-25 minutes! Where's the entertainment in that?
There are many more differences, but I'll have to tell y'all bout 'em later. The sirens have stopped now & I may be able to go back to sleep.
Night :-)
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