#62 - The Town Mouse & the Country Mouse

#62 - The Town Mouse & the Country Mouse

How about just: town & country. Are you a city person or a country person or both or neither? Feelings about town and country?


Like the John Denver song says; "Thank God I'm a country Boy."

No ifs ands or buts about it, I'm a country boy. I grew up in rural America, in the only"city" in the biggest county in New York State. The population of that city at the time was approximately 14,000. It was not a major metropolis by any stretch. The city bordered Canada via the St. Lawrence River and was a mere 50 mile drive away from the capital of Canada...Ottawa. The population of Ottawa is approximately 750, 000. So I grew up in the best of all possible worlds. I lived in an extremely rural farming community, but was close enough to a major city to enjoy the amenities it could offer.

I left this idyllic childhood incubator at the tender age of 17 to join the Navy and see the world. For the next thirteen years I did in fact see the world I spent time in or lived in the following cities: Chicago, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, San Francisco, Danang RSVN, and Norfolk Va., New York City, Albany, NY., and Pusan S. Korea. I lived in NYC for a little more than a year while in nursing school. It's fair to say that I gave big cities a reasonable try. When it came time to raise a family though there was no debate...Small town rural America won, hands down.

We moved to a village in New York State just 10 miles from the city I grew up in. The population of the village is about 500. I know by name nearly all of these people.

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{Five hours later}

Because I'm a country mouse, I took some time off from this story to a. weed and spade 1/3 of my vegetable garden (I'd have done it all but I got too tired and hot.) b. to finish reading Anne Fadiman's delicious book "Ex Libris, Confessions of a Common Reader". Which, my friends, is the most enjoyable read I've had...cover to cover... in a very long time! c. Eat lunch. d. Take a nap. And e. Take many photographs of nature.

Now, that's not to say that these things couldn't be done if I lived in a city. But, the laid-back take it slow and easy style is much more attributable to the country life than city life. That is exactly the way I like it.

I've enjoyed living in every city I've inhabited. (Danang was questionable at times.) The rent in NYC was exorbitant but everything else was good-to-go. Everything imaginable is available twenty-four hours a day and usually within walking distantance . Entertainment of any and every sort was just around the corner, and I didn't require a car because of municipal transportation.

Mentioning the rent In the Big Apple before it was called the big apple reminds me of a story. At the time, my wife and I were both nursing students at Elmhurst City Hospital. We rented an upstairs apartment in a Queen's brownstone from Mrs. Valverde. The rent was $125.00 a month. Our total income consisted of my monthly $175.00 GI Bill check. You do the math. Oh, let me add here that my wife was also pregnant with our first child. Our fellow nursing students would smuggle bread and peanut butter from the nurse's residence for us. We subsisted on breakfast and lunch 5 days a week at the hospital cafeteria, and Ragu sauce and shells everynight for supper. A few steps from our front door towards Northern Blvd. there was a milk machine, similar to today's soda machines, where you could buy a quart of milk for a quarter. One afternoon my wife put our last quarter in the slot, no quart of milk was ejected. She cried .
[The stories from that year in NYC would make an readable book.]

In all honesty, all of my city experiences were fun and sometimes exciting. I never experienced any of the "bad" things big cities are noted for (with the exception of smog.)


Settledown and raise a family time came about in the early to mid 1970s. Serendipitously a job came available, for my specialty, in my hometown. We wanted to raise our kids in a community environment where everyone knew us and the children and the whole community helped raise each others children. I believed in making it as difficult as possible for my children to get into mischief without my finding out about it. I believed in holding my kids responsible for their actions. We bought a home in the village where my father spent his first thirteen years...the village that we still reside in. We had a vegetable garden big enough to raise most all of our own vegetables. We raised chickens (yes, in the village) for eggs and meat, and rabbits for meat. We supplemented our fuel oil furnace with wood which we cut and burned in a wood stove. Remember, this was during the first oil price crisis.

Our children attended and graduated from a K-12 school (just one block behind our house) with a total enrollment of 500 pupils. They each played in the band, played sports; each one played on a small school championship teams that went on to play for State championships. They were in scouts, had after school jobs. and did chores around the house. All three of my children currently reside in big cities. They know that milk comes from black and white, four legged, four titted animals. They know that animals are butchered to put meat in the supermarket. they know that eggs come out the same orifice as chicken shit. And they know how much work somebody did to put veggies on their plates. They got into their share of mischief, and I didn't find out some of it I'm sure. Son J. said to me not too long ago; "You caught me most of the time when I broke the rules, but not everytime!" I asked what I'd missed. He continued. "'ll tell you when I think you're old enough to hear it." Hehe.

They know where to find fresh air and clean water. They know the value of friendships, and neighborliness.

Raising a family in the country was the right thing for us. Others have done just as well in the city.

If you've been able to read this far....STOP! It's time for supper...and then your homework. ;-)

for Michelle, relII, and Jay!
;-)