Nostalgic Musings on the Charms of a Small American Town

People are many times surprised and curious when we tell them that we are going to our house in a very small town (pop. 102) in North Dakota to spend our summer.  For starters, we live in Southern California which is a tourist mecca year round; so many people pay good money to come and visit the area in which we live.  Why would we purposely leave it during the summer?  (1) So.Cal. is a very populated region and sometimes it's nice to get out of town and see the wild blue yonder.  (2) It's really hot here during the summers, especially since we live inland and not on the coast.  95 -105 degrees days are common, and bearable, but not necessarily comfortable.  (3) Whenever we have our summers at home, inevitably, we focus more on home improvement projects and the like instead of taking family outings and doing fun activities.  When we are away from home, we have left that behind and can focus on having an adventure.  (The work will always be there, anyway, right? But, the years will pass quickly with our children and if we don't take advantage of our time together now, one day we won't have that opportunity.)  And, then, the other question is:  Why go to a small town in the middle of farm land in the northern part of North Dakota that isn't your typical "vacation" spot and just hang out for a month or so?  (1) We own a house in a little town in ND that came about as part of our summer adventure 2 years ago when we bought a house on e-bay in that town.  (The house that we live in and the house that we bought are on adjoining lots, but are not one in the same. For more on that topic, see the beginning of my blog.).  (2) There is something wonderful about really disconnecting from the worries of one's daily life for a time, stepping back and being able to evaluate the year or past years, and not having the chance to daily connect with technology and the like.    (3) There is the harder-to-describe qualities, the je ne sais quoi aspect, of living in small town America that inevitably draws us back after we have been gone for awhile.

Sunrise over the grain silos.

 Here are some of the reasons I love our little town in North Dakota that we are privileged to be welcomed into as very part-time residents:

• Truly genuine friends and neighbors, that are without pretense, and are friendly, kind, generous, and caring.  This is demonstrated in so many ways, but one that really stand out to me is watching a neighbor to houses down that is in his 80's come over to the neighbor's house across from ours and mow her lawn because she is a widow, they are all friends, and it is a great help to her.  Such simple gestures say so much.
• The easy way in which neighbors drop by each other's houses and ours to simply say "hi", bring by some fresh veggies to share, or hang out with each other on their lawn chairs for a chat in the evening.  (This whole concept is completely lost on the Southern California culture in which people are almost always offended or surprised that others don't call ahead to be sure it is okay to stop over.)  I can't even count the number of bags of delicious, fresh-from-the-garden greenbeans we enjoyed during July courtesy of our neighbor's gardens. 
• Attending  church gatherings or town gatherings in which everyone pulls together to make it happen, fun is had by all, and even the out-of-towner's from California (us) are genuinely welcomed into what is going on.  Our kids make friends and play with which ever kids are around and it is as simple as that.  
• Being able to walk (or job) anywhere in town and it only being about a 1 mile loop around the circumference.  
• Having a playground kitty-corner across the street from our house where the girls can go play whenever they want (at the old school yard) and just enjoy being kids.
• Seeing sights that are uncommon to our everyday life in California: tractors driving through town, people driving Arctic Cat and Polaris utility vehicles and four wheelers as in-town transportation, the more senior crowd getting a ride behind an antique tractor on a trailer retrofitted with old school bus seats drinking their Bud Lights as they enjoy each other's company on a ride around town in the evening, driving past the beautiful crops (wheat, canola, sunflowers, flax, corn, barley) every time we go out to the other close by towns for a shopping trip, seeing the combines out in the fields harvesting the winter wheat in July, and the list goes on. 
• The peacefulness that settles over us as we take our own personal retreat from our "other", normal life and take the time to pray, read, be with one another, and just be.  

So, even if we can't make it back to our North Dakota house every summer or if it seems like not one of the smartest investments ever, we will be back and enjoying all of the aforementioned delights for many years to come.  Investments can't just be measured in monetary terms and this is one of those cases.  This experience for our family is priceless.