Rural Area Versus City Life
As you may have remembered in any of my previous posts, I live in a rural area. It is actually called a village and used to be a booming town many years ago. Back in the 70's we had 3 clothing shops, a furniture store, jewelry store, 2 bakeries, a Ben Franklin store, 4 restaurants, 2 grocery stores, 5 gas stations, 2 motels, a Western Auto store, Carpet/Flooring store, 4 banks, 4 factories, 2 barber shops and more than that which I can't recall right now.
Years before we even had a theatre that closed in the early 60's which I don't remember since I was too little.
Nowadays, the town is just about completely empty. We have 3 insurance agencies (of course) - they don't go out of business because everyone needs insurance. The downtown also has a library, post office, a doctor's office, church (used to be a beautiful new bank that I worked in years ago), the fire department, light & water department, police station, and that's about it. Out of the "town" area we do have a grocery store, 2 restaurants, McDonalds, Subway, 1 gas station, Dollar General, Ace Hardware, Auto Parts store, and Sports Shop. Oh yes, we have a Sugar Factory which produces some of the sugar you may have bought in the grocery store. We also have about 5 churches. The Catholic church sadly closed about a year ago.
There are advantages of living in a rural area such as peace and quietness. There are miles of crop fields around the area. Farmers grow sugar beets, corn, soybeans, navy beans, and wheat mostly. Everybody knows just about everyone in the town and most people are related. It can be nice that just about everyone knows everybody and most people are pretty friendly. There is hardly any crime here and when you here a fire whistle or police siren that is big news. If something happens, word spreads like wildfire! If something bad happens (such as sickness or tragedies), people do join together and have benefit dinners which is really nice too. We also live close to the lake and if you are into boating or fishing this is an ideal location for you.
Some of the cons of living in a rural area is that you are always driving a long ways to get someplace. For example, the closest Walmart is about 30 miles away. There is only 1 grocery store in our town like I said before, and they can price products whatever they like. I bought some new type of crackers the other day in Walmart for $2.08 and at our local grocery they were priced at $3.69. That's quite a big difference. So I always shop for lots of things in the city. I go there once a week for allergy injections so do some grocery shopping while I'm there. Of course we do patronage our local store. My husband usually goes there for what he wants. Then if you want to go to other places such as a mall, hospitals, specialists, name brand restaurants, you have to drive about 45 miles. It seems like we are always putting gas in our cars. Our one son works 30 miles away so he's always filling up. There aren't any opportunities for kids around here, so most college graduates move away, like my daughter had to do to get a job.
So there are pros and cons to living in a rural area. What type of area do you live in? Are you happy with your town or city?
So there are pros and cons to living in a rural area. What type of area do you live in? Are you happy with your town or city?
This is a very interesting post, Gloria. I've always wanted to know more about living in a rural area. That's interesting that there's 3 insurance agencies! The next time I buy sugar, I'll have to see where it was made. I'm sure it's hard having to travel so far for things. You would have to be very organized and make sure you get everything you need since you can't just run to Walmart or wherever for what you forgot. I live in the suburbs and it is nice that everything is so convenient, but people aren't very friendly and are way too busy. Most don't even say hello when you pass on the street, or even look at you. However, my son still has to travel 50 minutes to go to college, and my husband and daughter travel about 30 for work/college.
ReplyDeleteI do have to always have a list when going shopping for sure. When I get my allergy shots weekly I do shopping at Walmart for some things and Meijer for some others. When you go to the city it's like a half day shot. I wish I could just run to a store like Walmart when I need something quick. Also in the winter you always have to worry about the roads being icy and slippery. My daughter used to drive an hour to college in the winter; and my sons drove a little over 2 hours to college when they went. So that was an extra worry about the roads. Guess there are pros and cons to everything though.
Delete