Not in the city anymore

[kittenpants]

I've been a city girl all my life. Even living in the suburbs of a major metropolis is waaay different than living out here in the country. This is a bit like stepping into the 1950's.

• Elementary school kids walk home from school. By themselves. And are safe.
• I have to turn on my high beams when driving on the roads leading to my house, because a) there are no streetlights and b) frequently there are no other cars on the road.
• There is no rush hour traffic. In fact, I have never seen a traffic jam or road congestion of any kind here in town.
• There is one interstate highway, and it only has one exit for this town. People only get on the interstate to go to a different city, not to get around town.
• People don't lock their cars. Heck, sometimes they leave their keys in their cars. They leave CDs and iPods and such out in the open on their car seats. They don't remove the front panels of their stereos. They don't have car alarms.
• People don't lock their houses. Houses - even rental student housing right off campus - don't generally have deadbolts on the doors.
• There is no waiting for tables at restaurants. If there is more than a 10 minute wait, people will *leave* rather than wait for a table. No restaurants in town have pagers, and people speak of 40-minute waits at restaurants in unbelieving, hushed tones when taking about vacations to strange places.
• Sweethearts give each other promise rings when they are dating seriously but before getting engaged. Even the gay couples do this! I had to look up "promise rings" on wikipedia, because I had only a vague idea, perhaps from a 1950's sitcom.

Bizarre.

But... sweet.

Score one for Nebraska.

Kittenpants 2, Nebraska 1