Small Town Appreciation

This photo is in the annual of my junior year in StL, taken before I knew life would proceed on the flip side of "my" plans. ;)

The summer of my sixteenth birthday reigns front and center in my memories. I would be allowed to date! A particular school chum and I had that first one planned - a burger/movie outing. Were I to tell you how that went, it would be an attempt at writing fiction.

So, what’s the deal, you ask? I still turned 16, I still had permission to go on dates with boys on a pre-approved list, no doubt, but that list was exceedingly short. Non-existent. A month before that birthday we moved to this exceedingly small town.

Grandparents were the only people I knew here. My little sister and I stayed in town for two weeks with one pair because the house Dad and my other grandpa were building wasn’t finished. It was on property next door to my other grandparents’ home, four miles away in the boonies. Childhood memories include trips to outhouses, baths in washtubs and summer drinks from basins and dippers in the kitchens - water drawn from a well at one grandma’s and from a faucet connected to a cistern at the other’s. Though those living conditions had been upgraded by my sixteenth year, in my mind we were still moving to the primitive backwoods.

Moving wasn’t a surprise. The timing was. I was supposed to be a high school grad coming to the country to visit on college breaks. The decision to move to this really small town a year early was a deviation from my parents’ initial plans. A sudden change for me. At yearbook signings the week before summer break, I told my classmates I wouldn’t be around for senior year since we were moving to Doniphan. To where? I described as best I could the location of this really really small river town.

At this Thanksgiving season I’m thankful for my life that developed here. By choice I returned to teach for 32 of the 33 years in that profession. For about eight years I lived by choice in a farmhouse in the middle of 200 acres. (I moved to the boonies on purpose!) I’m back in the house my parents built. It’s no longer so isolated.

As a retiree, I’m especially thankful to live where people know my name. Connections boost mental health, contribute to longer life spans, add to quality of life and enhance feelings of fulfillment. What are you thankful for today?

PS. I didn’t have a date that sixteenth summer but I could've had. A patron of Dad’s store/station sometimes played catch with me when Dad was busy. Once, he asked if I’d join him for a burger/movie. I canceled, still hoping that first date would be with the boy I left behind. Turns out, my first date happened after my senior year started and it was UNFORGETTABLE. At the last minute, the planned double date turned into one without the other girl. So, yep. My first date was with TWO boys, which meant DOUBLE the FIRST DATE JITTERS for me!