You know your neighbor's visitors are from the city when...

[MossRoad]

I've told this story before, but what the heck, I'll tell it again.

When we got married, we lived in the city. Quite an experience. Very racially mixed neighborhood, but all of us were on equal footings as far as income goes. Anyhow, no problems with the neighbors, but burglaries, drunks, and lots of gang activities, and just general decay was creeping towards our block. Not safe to go outside at night. Car break-ins, etc.. My wife and I dreamed of a house in the country, lots of kids, etc... and started looking for land. We found 20 acres about 9 miles from town and bought it. We had trees planted, cut in a road, etc... its on a state highway, and there were three houses across the street; one old farmhouse, one small farmhouse, and one modern house cut out of the farm property on a small lot. Nothing either way for about a mile.

Anyhow, I'm out working on cutting in the road in an old IH2500b tractor loader we bought. The old lady from the center house across the road waves me down and we start talking. Nice old lady. She used to own the big farmhouse with her husband, but they sold it and 5 acres. They kept the small farmhouse on 1 acre. They also sold the lot that the smaller modern house was on about 20 years ago. Anyhow, we got to talking about families, kids, etc... and I mentioned that our neighborhood was getting rough and it will be nice to move out here to the country to get away from the crime.

She looks at me and her face goes sad.... she says her husband got knocked unconscious in their driveway and that whoever did it, grabbed his wallet out of his back pocket so hard that they ripped his pants off of his body and left him bleeding from the head lying half naked on the concrete. Apparently it was dark, the old guy cashed his check at a grocery store in town, drove home, and put his car in the unattached garage. He didn't notice someone had followed him home and they hit him as he came out of the garage. He was in his 80's.

Anyhow, bad people have cars.

 

[k0ua]

Anyhow, bad people have cars.

And that is why I have a handgun. or ten.

 

[MossRoad]

And that is why I have a handgun. or ten.

Yeah... however, I hear a lot of people here talking about not locking their doors, leaving keys in the car, etc.... and am always reminded of that old dude bleeding in his driveway. Let's face it, most 80+ year olds don't have great situational awareness or are proficient in handgun use. And this was around 1990 when she told me the story, so I think it happened around 1985 or so.

I am also reminded of the neighborhood I grew up in. My dad and a partner bought 20 acres and subdivided it. Put in a road, etc... it was the last neighborhood inside the city limits, surrounded by a huge cemetery, deep ravine, lake with 90' steep banks, and farmland. Very secluded. Lots of people didn't even know it was there. We never locked our doors, ever. There was even an old senile farmwife woman that would just walk into people's houses and sit down in their living rooms. We'd take her back home. :laughing: She was harmless.

Anyhow, around 1970 or so, a divorced woman two doors down got attacked in her house. And a couple houses at the end of the block got burglarized and vandalized. So the streetlights came. The yard lights. The floodlights. The doors locked. People bought dogs (we did too) and the car keys came inside. And another neighbor's dog got killed inside their vandalized house. I remember getting my house key from my dad at about 9 years old. And instructions on where to run if something happened. It was strange. I could see the concern in my father's face. And he kept a loaded 1911 in his nightstand. And twice I remember my dad having to use his gun to protect us. Once at night on the road in a rainstorm and once in our house during a storm and power outage.

So.... how'd we get on this subject anyway? :confused3:

 

[ultrarunner]

My experience indicates rural tend to be more self sufficient if that makes sense.

Even simple things like have a few basic hand tools in the house seems to be rare.

Then I will meet someone in the 80 or 90's that is very self sufficient and 9 times outta 10 they were raised in country on a farm or ranch...

I am talking simple things like lighting a pilot light or keeping a few basic supplies like candles on hand.

One of our friends had an old cabin in the Sierra... it had been in the family since the 1930's and had a match light stove... you turned on the burner and lit a match... no big deal.

They let some friends use the place and when they saw the old match lit stove they left... said the stove was a disaster waiting to happen.

The Loma Prieta Earthquake was very real... I lived through it and managed property at that time... some took it all in stride and were prepared... others were totally helpless... as in not being able to get the car out of the garage because the power was out nearly a week.

Maybe the opposite is also true... maybe someone from the country has no street smarts and could find themselves in trouble and not even realize in the big city...

As kids were learned if shots were being fired the safest place was in the bathtub... not sure if they teach that outside the city.

By far the biggest problems my farm side of the family had with city people had to do with spreading manure on the fields... even to the point of having the law called.

 

[MossRoad]

My experience indicates rural tend to be more self sufficient if that makes sense.

.....

Yep. I'm gonna regret saying this, as its gonna be taken as political. So without taking sides, go look at presidential election maps BY COUNTY for the last 4 elections. Its plain to see that with the exception of Minnesota/Wisconsin, the blue counties are largely urban counties and the red counties are largely rural counties. There are way more red counties than blue counties, but the blue counties have higher populations and that's why they've won... Blue is normally associated with the party that takes care of the people with government programs, while red is not. Anyhow, its really interesting, so go look up those maps at google. Try this link.... its an eye opener. And I'm not gonna get into the politics of who's right or wrong. Its just data that's interesting to look at. Go discuss it in the friendly politics forum...

us presidential election maps by county - Google Search

 

[Garandman]

My experience indicates rural tend to be more self sufficient if that makes sense.

Even simple things like have a few basic hand tools in the house seems to be rare.

//

That's on the parents. My kids were born I the city and know how to swim, sail, row a boat, tie knots, light a fire, land navigate, fire guns safely, ride a motorcycle, run a boat, and take the subway. My 16yo daughter knows how to take down an attacker, and more importantly how not to get attacked in the first place.

The most self-sufficient people I know are cruising sailors. They have to their own doctor, mechanic. Electrician, plumber, carpenter, painter, meteorologist, cook, meal planner, entertainment center, and boatwright. All in a salt sea environment that can heel 30 degrees each way.

The good news for New England is that lots of people are leaving for the Sun Belt so we don't have population growth. The world population was around 2.5 billion in 1950, is about 7.5 billion today, and is expected to hit 10 billion by 2060. Hope you like your new neighbors, because the old coastal cities of the Northeast are pretty much full.

 

[Garandman]

And that is why I have a handgun. or ten.

Hand guns are useful. They allow you to fight your way to a rifle.

 

[MF283]

We live on a dead end road, for years, there were only 2 houses, then came city water & asphalt, farms across from us sold, now their's 8 houses on the road, fortunately we have farms surrounding ours on our side, hopefully it will stay that way.
Oh, there are 2 street light's now to:confused3: I could go on & on with the stories, just don't feel like typing that much.

Ronnie

 

[Dftodd]

I watched a Detroit TV station and was cracking up when they were interviewing a lady complaining that it had been days since a tree fell across her driveway during a storm and the "city" hadn't come out to move it yet. As a result she couldn't make it to work. Out here in the country where I live we had more than a dozen trees fall across the road within a 1/4 stretch during a really bad storm. Unreal how many neighbors including myself were out there with chainsaws and tractors cleaning up. We take care of ourselves, not wait on someone else.

Had a neighbor like that in the country. Couldn't understand why that tree wasn't removed from the driveway after a tornado so they could get out. I went out with the chainsaw and cut it into small chunks so they could move them. They complained because I didn't clean up the saw dust, or remove the wood. :banghead: That was the last time I helped them with anything.

Same storm, had the windshield smashed in my truck. Needed fence supplies to contain the dogs, and other supplies. We loaded the chain saw in my wife's brand new car, cut our way out to a main road, and got our supplies

 

[check]

I watched a Detroit TV station and was cracking up when they were interviewing a lady complaining that it had been days since a tree fell across her driveway during a storm and the "city" hadn't come out to move it yet. As a result she couldn't make it to work. Out here in the country where I live we had more than a dozen trees fall across the road within a 1/4 stretch during a really bad storm. Unreal how many neighbors including myself were out there with chainsaws and tractors cleaning up. We take care of ourselves, not wait on someone else.

The only one with a chainsaw in my neighbourhood is...me! I became quite the celebrity one time when a few blocks away from my house the city had cut down a large maple tree, and I happened to be driving by with with my pick up truck, so I got them to throw as much is they could into the bed of my truck. The logs were all sticking out everywhere and a bit too long, so when I hot home with them I decided to chainsaw a few of them while standing in the bed of the truck just to get them to settle down below the top of the truck bed.

When I started sawing, all my neighbours came by to stand around and watch, and even cheer! Half of them wouldn't know which is the business end of a screwdriver.