Kansas
I just got back from a trip to Kansas to see my grandparents. My parents joined me for the trip, and I brought Gabriella along with me. My grandparents live about an hour away from Wichita, in the very small town of Nashville. There is a grain elevator there, a post office, a senior center, and a Lutheran church. There used to be a hospital, where my mother was born. I would guess 25 people live in town, including a black guy, and a gay couple from Chicago. There is one paved road. The closest grocery store is probably 30-45 minutes away. There is a restaurant 7 miles away. There's a large wind turbine project being installed a couple miles away, with a total of 160 turbines to be installed. Visiting Kansas to see relatives is always good for the soul. It's a reminder that you don't have to have everything in order to be happy. My grandparents are in their 80s. Grandpa is a WWII vet, but he never left the states - he was stationed in Tampa. FL. He's almost blind from macular degeneration. He's had two bouts with bladder cancer, and kidney disease. He lived through the great depression, and had aunts that died during the flu pandemic after WWI. Grandma was a nurse, and even attended my sister's birth. She used to take care of the dogs at my aunt's kennel, when it was still in town, but now she takes care of Grandpa. She loves dolls, and has a basement full of stuff. This time I got to take home my dad's first polaroid camera, a Touchdown 70 from the early 70s, for Nik.
During my time out there, we got together with my mom's family, well a lot of them. My mom is one of 10 kids. She grew up in a very poor family. My grandfather cut wheat and was a local sheriff. They rented land to farm and my mom slept 3 to a bed for most of her childhood. But 16 of us got together to eat at a local restaurant in the town my dad went to high school in. 6 of the siblings were there, along with a couple cousins of mine. They had a seafood buffet that night, and I got to enjoy Rocky Mountain oysters (they weren't very good this time) and frog legs, along with the usual fare of snow crab legs, shrimp, mussels, clams, etc.
We also went to my dad's sister's place. She lives in the middle of nowhere, miles from even the closest town. She raises dogs, but they also have horses, cattle, chickens, goats, llama (to protect the goats), and donkeys. We looked at all the new puppies. We talked about the economy. My aunt used to work for Enron, and lost most of her retirement in the Enron scandal. She said she's finally out of the market, and worries about how bad things are going to get. But she figured it would be okay for her, because they have cattle and could always butcher cattle if things got really bad.
It's a really different world out there and I don't think most Americans realize that there are people in our own country that live like a lot of these rural folks do. The home they live in might be worth less than a new car. There isn't cell phone service, internet service is spotty, and the nearest Walmart might be an hour away or more. All of the things that we think are so essential, they don't have access to. It's a good reminder to be thankful for everything I have, the opportunities I've enjoyed. I doubt that I would be where I am today (well, maybe I'd still be a stay at home mom, but I might not have the PhD, the nice house, the "refined" tastes) if my dad hadn't gotten the job in FL and made the move there. I know my grandparents resent my parents for moving from KS when I was a baby, but I'm glad they did. And I still have a foundation that's not built on how much money you make, or the things you own, or even the things you know, but a foundation that based on whether you're a good person who cares about other people. Plus, frog legs, rocky mountain oysters, quail, pheasant, rabbit and sand hill plum jelly are all delicious things I probably would have never tried if I didn't have my roots in Kansas.
During my time out there, we got together with my mom's family, well a lot of them. My mom is one of 10 kids. She grew up in a very poor family. My grandfather cut wheat and was a local sheriff. They rented land to farm and my mom slept 3 to a bed for most of her childhood. But 16 of us got together to eat at a local restaurant in the town my dad went to high school in. 6 of the siblings were there, along with a couple cousins of mine. They had a seafood buffet that night, and I got to enjoy Rocky Mountain oysters (they weren't very good this time) and frog legs, along with the usual fare of snow crab legs, shrimp, mussels, clams, etc.
We also went to my dad's sister's place. She lives in the middle of nowhere, miles from even the closest town. She raises dogs, but they also have horses, cattle, chickens, goats, llama (to protect the goats), and donkeys. We looked at all the new puppies. We talked about the economy. My aunt used to work for Enron, and lost most of her retirement in the Enron scandal. She said she's finally out of the market, and worries about how bad things are going to get. But she figured it would be okay for her, because they have cattle and could always butcher cattle if things got really bad.
It's a really different world out there and I don't think most Americans realize that there are people in our own country that live like a lot of these rural folks do. The home they live in might be worth less than a new car. There isn't cell phone service, internet service is spotty, and the nearest Walmart might be an hour away or more. All of the things that we think are so essential, they don't have access to. It's a good reminder to be thankful for everything I have, the opportunities I've enjoyed. I doubt that I would be where I am today (well, maybe I'd still be a stay at home mom, but I might not have the PhD, the nice house, the "refined" tastes) if my dad hadn't gotten the job in FL and made the move there. I know my grandparents resent my parents for moving from KS when I was a baby, but I'm glad they did. And I still have a foundation that's not built on how much money you make, or the things you own, or even the things you know, but a foundation that based on whether you're a good person who cares about other people. Plus, frog legs, rocky mountain oysters, quail, pheasant, rabbit and sand hill plum jelly are all delicious things I probably would have never tried if I didn't have my roots in Kansas.