Chuck Clark! I know where you live!! :D

Whistle
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And I bet I’m the only person at C & F who can find Tallulah on a map!!

Well, that is, IF it was big enough to put on a map!!! :laughing: :laughing: :laughing:

I grew up in Ashland! I lived there until about 13 years ago!

We may know each other and not know it!

Ever shop at Allen’s Market? Or did you shop in Plains?

How are the cornfields and cows?
I miss farm life…fresh air, open spaces, friendly neighbors and no neighborhood groups with the power to tell you what color you can paint your front door or how short to cut your grass!

Hope you’re doing well “neighbor”! And I hope you’ve got wonderful plans for Thanksgiving!

Anej
(nickname, not given name)

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Anej

Actually, since you do know the area so well, we don’t really live in Tallula. We bought the old Dr. Dorothy Edwards place off 123 about a mile and a half to the south. When you left, the prior owners were probably renovating it. At that point, we still lived in Springfield, so I’m sure I never had the honor of knowing you in person.

Allen’s is still there and still has the best meats in three counties. They replaced the ice cream stand with a little pizza restaurant. REALLY simple little place, but great sandwiches. The tenderloin is to die for.

Shop for WHAT in Plains? Other than a Casey’s gas station / convenience store and a tiny little restaurant that’s only open until 1pm, there are no businesses left. It’s for all intents and purposes Springfield’s most distant suburb. Their high school has won two State basketball championships in three years due to the influx of all the new kids from the far western Springfield suburbs, but they’re alo going broke.

"I miss farm life…fresh air, open spaces, friendly neighbors and no neighborhood groups with the power to tell you what color you can paint your front door or how short to cut your grass! "

I sure don’t miss the suburbs. Nosy neighbors, noise pollution, covenants, LEAF RAKING, blech! Now I just ignore the leaves and over the course of the winter Mother Nature moves them all to Springfield for me.

Tomorrow? I’m driving over to Taylorville for dinner with some of my wife’s elderly relatives. Nice folks, sadly they may not be with us too much longer.

Hope you have a great holiday.

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Chuck,

The Edwards place…I know a Delores (Sis) Edwards, and her son…I think his name is Richard. They were just east of Ashland. Is that where you are, closer to Ashland? (Hmmm.. I’m picturing you near Three Mile Lane…sound familiar?)

Are you surrounded by wonderful, flat farmland? Can you see for miles and miles?
Aaahh…the stars at night must be crystal clear and plentiful!

I live in Maryland, and it’s considered a “rural” area by my neighbors! :astonished: I can’t figure out where they get that idea when there’s 30 houses in our development and the grocery store is only five minutes away!

They think I’m exaggerating when I tell them that we could not see another house from our place, and our playground consisted of acres and acres of fields and woods. Our playmates were cows and pigs. Some of my best friends were pigs! My dad and uncle raised them…and my sister and I always got to take care of the runts.

Bet you didn’t know that it’s easier to dress a pig up in doll clothes than it is to dress a cat!

I am a complete embodiment of that old saying: You can take the girl out of the country, but you can’t take the country out of the girl.

Sometimes I drive my neighbors nuts because I’ve kept my midwestern manners, like waving at every single car that drives by, and taking a dish to an ailing neighbor.

BUT, they always know to come to me when they have a garden or animal problem. Can’t tell ya how many snakes, frogs or birds I’ve had to rescue from garages!

I hope you had an enjoyable Thanksgiving with your family. One of the most bittersweet things about being an adult is learning how important family truly is, and then realizing how little time there is left to spend with them. I haven’t spent a holiday with mine since my mom died 8 years ago. Many relatives moved or divorced, and it wasn’t the same.

So, Pleasant Plains had been to state and won 2 times!! GRRRR! They were our rival in High School…back when A-C Central used to be Ashland High School. I think the year after I graduated they consolidated. From what you’ve said, sounds like Plains had to consolidate as well.

Allen’s surely has the best meats! And Mr. Allen always treats you right.

I take it you play the whistle? Do they still have festivals at Clayville…any chances for you to play, or hear any good performers?

Regards,
Anej

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Hi Anej

Sorry I didn’t respond sooner - after the board was down all weekend, I was unable to get into my internet service for a day - and was then so disgusted i ddn’t log on for three more.

I’m sure this is all Greek to the others on the board. I’ll post a longer reply in a orivate message.

[ This Message was edited by: Chuck_Clark on 2002-12-04 21:23 ]

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Oh,
Please keep it here, I was really getting homesick for ranch life just listening. But I’d never go back to pre electricity or indoor plumbing. The old days and country living weren’t THAT good!

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Sorry, Mack. I just figured all the urban sophisticates here would be bored silly by talk about things like country highways, northern lights and critters. Perhaps I should have realized that December is really the toughest month for homesickness in those now far away. Actually, I grew up in so many places that home seems more like a abstract than a reality, but a decade in the country has more than convinced me that this is where I ought to be.

I already wrote privately to Anej. But if others feel the same way, I’ve certainly no objections to folks adding their recollections or observations of rural life, either in the US and anywhere else they want to talk about.

A few years back, when the Clayville Rural Life center was still a going (if somewhat faltering) reality, one of our more active members was a woodworker. One day when a few of us were out there clearing some brush and getting ready for a craft festival. he and I were talking over coffee. I mentioned that it was nice to work with the old tools occasionally, but he must be relieved to get back to his workshop and power tools. His reply was that what was really nice about living when we do isn’t so much the tools we use - but that if you misused them you no longer had to worry about dying of tetanus or gangrene. Since then, I always try to look a little deeper and see more than just the obvious.

[ This Message was edited by: Chuck_Clark on 2002-12-05 09:21 ]

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I was reading along too… not out of being homesick (having always lived in a relative “city”), but rather out of wishing I could experience country living! And that my children could experience it. :slight_smile: I really want a horse. ::sniffle::

Andrea ~*~
waiting to hear more stories!

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I spent the first 20 years of my life in rural Oklahoma countryside, living in small towns & going to schools where the class size never got over 25 or 30. Before, I was dying to get out of all the barbed-wire pastures & cows & pecan trees & corn fields…but now that I’m completely disgusted with city life from living in Dallas, LA, & now Miami, I’d give anything to have my crystal-clear star-lit night skies back with all the peace & quiet (except for the howling coyotes). Thinkin’ I should pack up & move to Cork, Ireland =)