Having just returned from a trip to reunite with
classmates that I graduated with in high school, I have to adjust to the
culture shock that it created.
While telling a friend about my experience, she said that
when she went to her reunion, she was stunned as to why all of the parents
showed up at her reunion and that the room was filled with “old” people. Culture shock. We all looked like our parents. And some of us must have had some hard
living experiences.
The town I grew up in is very small. But what disappointed me more than
anything else was that the townspeople didn’t support the businesses on
main-street. Most of the buildings
were empty and some were falling down.
They tore down the elementary school, high school, library and several
other buildings used for the city.
What? They couldn’t figure
out how to repurpose them? Someone
commented on the fact that the buildings were not built very well in the first
place. How can that be? In England, we stayed in a building
that was once a cow barn and they were able to figure out how to clean it up
and repurpose it.
We didn’t have cell phone service while there. AT&T and Verizon are not
compatible. We had to drive 50
miles north to get to an Interstate Highway in order to use our phones.
There is something about the famer mentality that I don’t
understand. While driving by the
farms both going and coming home, you would see these expensive pieces of
equipment sitting out in the “weather” or in the fields. Most looked like they were rusting
out. No farmer worth his salt
would be caught “painting” his farming equipment. I remember my parents talking about the prosperity of a farm
because the “out” buildings had been painted. So, if the barn is freshly painted, then they must have had
a good harvest.
That took me to the kind of money I make in my life in
comparison to what my parents made in their lifetime. All I can tell you is that I am so glad I got an education
that would bring in the money to support the lifestyle I now have. Thank goodness for some advance
planning and saving. Even though I
am not enamored with Oklahoma, I was delighted to get home to my comfortable
bed, my puppies and more familiar surroundings.
It will take some time for me to process all that
happened, the conversations I had with the people and the pictures I took to
complete the memories I had growing up.
Mostly, the trip filled me with happiness and gave me a larger picture
of who I am now.
