A Rural Celebration (8-03-09)

As I walked around the Graham County Fair this week, I could not help but appreciate the life we live here in rural America. Fair time is perhaps the best time to live in the country. All the simple pleasures we enjoy are put on display. During the fair, we feel safe, safe enough to let our kids run around and safe enough to leave our vehicles unlocked. During the fair we celebrate horseback riding and raising livestock. At the fair, our businesses show off their wares and our crafts are judged, recognized, and honored. Perhaps the greatest aspect of small town life that is so evident at a county fair is the one thing we take for granted each and every day: our friendship with each other.

I must have greeted or been greeted by over a hundred people during the two nights my family and I walked the fair grounds. Of course I saw students and parents, but I also saw many other friends and neighbors. In that respect, our county fair is kind of like a large family reunion. We may not be related by blood, but we are connected in our common choice we made to live in the country.

Whenever I meet someone who, like myself, was not raised in a small town, but rather chose to live here, I always ask, “Why Hill City? Why Graham County? How in the world did you end up living in Northwest Kansas?” I am fascinated with the stories I hear.

Usually, the reasons for settling in this part of the world have to do with employment or with family, the usual reasons for any move. I found myself in Grainfield only because they offered me a job. My wife and I moved back here both because of employment and to be closer to her family in Quinter.

Yet, family and employment will only keep a person in one place for so long. Living far from population centers can take a toll if you don’t truly enjoy the rural lifestyle. Some people who move here don’t stay very long, and often our kids, upon graduating high school, express an interest in living in somewhere else, some place larger and more exciting.

Yet, some do choose to live and work and raise their families here, in love with the quality of life they have discovered. Some of those same kids who moved away chose to return as adults because after seeing what the city had to offer, they decided that the rural life is indeed a better life?

I realize that it is not that simple. Not everyone has the luxury of being able to choose where they call home. Some people are effectively trapped by their job or other circumstances. But I am talking about those, like myself, who did have a choice, and chose to live here more than anywhere else.

A case in point can be found in one of our newest residents, local chiropractor Bruce Anderson. Now Bruce could live just about anywhere. He is a bit of a jack of all trades, with experience as a musician, a photographer, a producer, a sound engineer, and finally a chiropractor. Not only is he a man of many talents, but his previous employment experience put him in great demand in many fields.

I learned all this talking (or rather listening) to Bruce during the fair. One of the best parts of the fair is the time you have to connect with your friends and neighbors. Maybe it is all the sugar and salt and caffeine, but something about the fair just makes everyone a little friendlier, a bit more willing to take a moment to talk.

Bruce talked about how he chose to live and work in a small town because after living in a city for so many years, he longed for a slower pace in a more caring community. He could have found a job anywhere, but he chose to live hear. And at the fair, among all the small town comforts, all the friends and fried foods, well, our lifestyle just seemed to make sense.

And while throughout each year, there are plenty of times where one can only wonder at the logic of living so far from so much, at the fair the choice becomes the right choice. At the fair we are reminded why we came and why we remained.

It is a great feeling. I will carry that feeling with me until next year, when the things I hold dear are again put on display and celebrated at the county fair.