Perception of Country Livin'

God made the country, man made the town.

--William Cowper

As y'all know I am currently trying out this big city livin'! Well along with the big city come... city folk. I must mention that I have met some of the best people I know! My friends are the absolute BEST, but most of them grew up a completely different way than I did and as you can imagine they are baffled by my ways. Some of their ideas are too funny not to share! Before we get started I must apologize for my sarcastic answers, but sometimes it is just too hard to take their questions seriously, you will see what I mean. Hope y'all enjoy these conversations as much as I have. P.S. This is quite lengthy, but hopefully y'all will get through it.

Lauren: What kind of stuff do y'all do for fun in the Duke city?

City Friend: Wait... did you just say yaawwwllll?

Lauren: Yes, do y'all not say y'all?

City Friend: No only the under educated rednecks say y'all, well I guess you are from the country. Makes sense.

Lauren: Hey! Just because I was raised in the country that does not mean I am undereducated. If I am not mistaken we are in the same Doctor of Pharmacy program and oh wait, ya I got into school when I was 20.

City Friend: That is very true. So why do you say yaawwwwlllll then?

Lauren: Well I was raised in the country and everybody says y'all. My hometown is super small, I actually had a graduating class of 13 kids. (This ALWAYS blows their mind!)

City Friend: OH MY GOODNESS!!! Are you serious? What was that like?

Lauren: It was absolutely great! I loved it. It was like one big tight nit family. Everybody looked out for everybody else and... well it was just fun. I wouldn't have traded it for anything.

City Friend: So where exactly are you from?

Lauren: I grew up in the Clovis/Portales area about 50 miles from Texas.

City Friend: Oh so you live in Southern NM by Mexico?

Lauren: No, I was raised in the country in Eastern NM.

City Friend: Did you get electricity all the way out in the "country"?

City Friend: Did you have a television growing up?

Lauren: Yes we had electricity, but for us to watch tv my brother had to ride on a bike for about an hour before, then constantly during the tv show. I never really watched much tv growing up though because I was the one that always had to hold up the antenna. Anytime I moved to the window to watch from outside I got yelled at because it messed up the signal and the screen went fuzzy.

City Friend: Oh my gosh! Are you serious?

Lauren: No y'all! Just because I was raised in the country doesn't mean its like a 1920's western movie. Yes, I did grow up in the country and raised animals, but its not crazy like that. Depending on where you live it can be pretty secluded though. We have to drive 40 miles to the closest Wal-Mart.

City Friend: Ya I guess you're right. So you said you had animals? Does that mean you had to ride a horse to school? 40 miles to a Wal-Mart? So what did you do for groceries?

Lauren: No we had these great things called pick-up trucks, or you might call them auto-mo-biles. Not only were they great about getting us from point a to point b, but we also used them for hauling trailers and tons (literately) of feed sacks. Yes, Wal-Mart was 40 miles away and we usually just went every 2 weeks or so. We were usually around Clovis anyways a couple times a week, but if we weren't we could pick up milk, bread, eggs, etc from Allsups.

City Friend: Oh my gosh do you guys go on lots of hay rides huh???

City Friend: Allsups?

City Friend: Oh man that is crazy. I can't imagine having to drive 40 miles just for groceries.

Lauren: It really was not that bad. It was 15 miles each way to school so an extra 25 miles is not bad at all. In Eastern NM everything is at least a 30 minute drive away, you get used to it! It was so peaceful and I sure do miss those starry nights!

Well that pretty much sums up some of the conversations I have had with my friends about 'Country Livin' and I am sure I have probably missed out on some. After I started getting all of these crazy questions about how I was raised I decided to do a little poll.

I asked about 40 people 3 simple questions.

1. Do you know what a Holstein is?
2. A Holstein is a cow, do you think they are used for beef or dairy production?
---I also asked them if they knew where the milk they get from their grocery store comes from.
3. They are used for dairy production, do you know what color they are?


You would be surprised the answers I received. One guy thought a holstein was a type of lingerie. Haha really?!? Well out of those 40 people I only had 1, yes I said ONE, person correctly answer all three questions and I am pretty sure the second one was a guess for them (50-50 right?)! This is crazy right?!?! How could they not know that, especially where the milk they drink comes from? It absolutely amazes me how people a couple hundred miles away could live such different lives. I am not talking about the normal stuff, but more along the lines of completely different knowledge bases as well. Those three questions are something I was taught as a 7 year old and some of the smart people I know in their twenties and thirties have no idea what I am talking about.


I encourage you all to branch out from your usual routine. Talk to a stranger in the bread isle at Smith's or while you are waiting in line to get your oil changed. Share your knowledge bank and stories. Be friendly. One of the best part about living in America is the diversity of our population, and with all that diversity is thousands of thousands of good stories and experiences. Share a smile, share a story, touch a life.

Have a great weekend lovelies :)