Ethyl Remembers: Country Life.

I've wondered what it is that draws me back to Tishomingo County, either in person or in thought.  It's really hard to define.  It's one of those things that exist somewhere inside you and you are not ever just really sure why.  I've been gone over forty years and I still refer to it as going home.  It happens when I cross the county line and head toward Burnsville.
Am I sorry I left?  No, I can't really say I am.  It has been good for me to live some place else.  To see another way of life other than the small town environment I grew up in.  To see how the other side lives. I have experienced so many things and seen so many sights I very well might not have ever known had I stayed put in my home town.
Am I glad I grew up in a small southern town.  You bet I am.  I know what it's like to walk in the woods on a picture perfect Autumn day.  To smell wood smoke as it curls it's way out the chimney, to sit in the porch swing with your sweetheart on a brisk night and admire all the stars in the heavens.  To smell the air full of new sweet grass and in summer to find a thicket of wild plums and lay on your back underneath their branches and eat until you are literally sick from the tart, tangy, sweet fruit.  To fish and wade in the creek,  to ride a bike down a gravel road, being ever so careful to stay in the ruts.  When you live in the city there are nice parks and playgrounds but you never have the same vantage point of the stars you have in an open space on a clear night.
I like the city.  I like the restaurants and shops and malls and theatres.  I like the convenience.  I like the fact there are things to do and places to go.  Never mind if my favorite weekend is one spent at home, going nowhere and doing nothing.  It is still there if I choose to do it.
So which is better.  I would be hard pressed to say.  Maybe six of one and a half dozen of the other?  Maybe not.  I have come to the conclusion that happiness is not so much dependent on where you live but how you feel.  And I have been blessed for I have been privileged to feel both ways of life.  And I am so happy to have come from Tishomingo County.  Even if I may choose not to live there anymore.