Anonymous Poster
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- Sep 27, 2005
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The post by LHSmith about population growth should remind us all that living in a rural area, or "the country", is not going to be possible in the not too distant future (except for the very rich). I grew up in the country, lived in cities for about 10 years, and then moved back to the country. We (me, my wife and our 2 kids) have lived in our current home for 3 years now. The density of homes in this area averages about 1 house every 1/4 mile. What has surprised and disappointed me is the amount of traffic on our "rural" road.
It's about a 25 minute drive to town, so I don't just run into town for a loaf of bread or a jug of milk. Except for going into town to go to work or church, when I or my wife makes a trip to town, we make it worth it by getting to several places. On rare occations we have made a special trip to town just to go for a ride in the Jeep with the top down to get some ice cream cones in the summer, or in the winter we occasionally take the kids to the big city (50 minute drive) to let them unwind at Chuck E Cheese after being couped up in the house because it's been too cold outside for them to get out much. But, in general, we stay home. We have 6 acres of land to play on and we really enjoy going for walks and playing games with the kids, or just tinkering around (garden, yard work, etc). But, my neighbors seem to have a different outlook.
Most of my neighbors run back and forth to town constantly! Many of them make 2 trips into town every day. When they get home from work, they turn around and head back to town. I realize kids like to be involved in after school activities, but too many parents seem to think they have to let their kids do everything they want. One activity is enough. A married couple, who both work in town, will both come home from work and then go back into town to do the grocery shopping. Does that make sense to any of you? Why don't they stop at the grocery store on the way home from work? And then, to make matters worse, more traffic is added from the construction workers running back and forth. One neighbor was having some work done last summer. The construction workers would drive out from town, work until lunch, drive back to town for lunch, then back out to the work site, work the afternoon and then drive back to town to go home. This went on Mon thrugh Sat all summer long! They were very noticable because they all drove trucks that needed to pay a visit to the muffler shop. The country is turning into a sprawled out version of a city.
It's about a 25 minute drive to town, so I don't just run into town for a loaf of bread or a jug of milk. Except for going into town to go to work or church, when I or my wife makes a trip to town, we make it worth it by getting to several places. On rare occations we have made a special trip to town just to go for a ride in the Jeep with the top down to get some ice cream cones in the summer, or in the winter we occasionally take the kids to the big city (50 minute drive) to let them unwind at Chuck E Cheese after being couped up in the house because it's been too cold outside for them to get out much. But, in general, we stay home. We have 6 acres of land to play on and we really enjoy going for walks and playing games with the kids, or just tinkering around (garden, yard work, etc). But, my neighbors seem to have a different outlook.
Most of my neighbors run back and forth to town constantly! Many of them make 2 trips into town every day. When they get home from work, they turn around and head back to town. I realize kids like to be involved in after school activities, but too many parents seem to think they have to let their kids do everything they want. One activity is enough. A married couple, who both work in town, will both come home from work and then go back into town to do the grocery shopping. Does that make sense to any of you? Why don't they stop at the grocery store on the way home from work? And then, to make matters worse, more traffic is added from the construction workers running back and forth. One neighbor was having some work done last summer. The construction workers would drive out from town, work until lunch, drive back to town for lunch, then back out to the work site, work the afternoon and then drive back to town to go home. This went on Mon thrugh Sat all summer long! They were very noticable because they all drove trucks that needed to pay a visit to the muffler shop. The country is turning into a sprawled out version of a city.