I’m a sucker for the simple life, (not the TV show kind), but the kind where community is important and people get excited about, well, simple things. As I depart from city life in Newcastle, I’m aware that sophistication is really just another game of oneupmanship. Enjoy this webclip…
Town and country - On Line Opinion - 5/1/2007
When I drive anywhere I am never held up by traffic lights or traffic. There is no road rage, there are so few other drivers at whom I can vent my rage. The local shopping centre’s most exciting day of the year was last week, when a Best and Less store opened up and held a sale. You could get hankies for 1c. The local FM radio station broadcast live from the front of the store. The lines for the checkouts were twenty deep, mothers and grandmothers wrangling young kids while struggling with armfuls of cheap underwear and kids clothing.
Although the author is not permanently moving to the country you get a sense that there is something there that she wishes she could hold onto…
In a small town you can’t totally forget. You can’t escape. You can’t ignore. If it is only you and one other person on a footpath on an entire street and they say hello, you can not pretend that they are talking to someone else, or are just some loony talking to themselves.
Is it possible to bring some of this back to the city?
Technorati Tags: country, country towns, city, urban, community, rural, regional, simple life
If you enjoyed this post, why not try these ones:- Children in the Planning Process
- Simple Home Crafts and Fall Fairs
- Random Linkage 9 December 2007
- Small Town Entrepreneurs
- A Community Engineer
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