Country Life, the Good Life

     (This was written several years ago, but I decided to post it now here on the blog. It still rings true...)

Most big city folks have no idea what they are missing when it comes to living in this part of the country. 

One recent morning, the dogs not too long after daylight let me know it was time to get up. it was going to be another beautiful day.

I let them out for a brief jaunt, while I filled the trusty coffee maker. With coffee soon in hand and Augie and Buddy (the dogs) now vying for my attention. I settled down in a chair on the porch to watch the sun break over what I call Yellowbank Mountain in Breckenridge County.

The birds were excited too. I could even hear a couple bobwhite quail calling, and the doves were busy getting the day off to a fast start. Flowers were blooming among the weeds, and bees were already at work. (The weeds are part of nature, so it’s a good excuse not to pull or cut these vital parts of nature.)

Several errands called for a trip into town, and as usual I drove the backway through the country. A few miles down the road in a newly cut hayfield, a doe and her twin fawns cast an eye toward my truck, but generally ignored me.

“Wow, that would be a neAT photograph...If  they’ll just stay there...I doubt if they will,” I thought, but it was worth a chance. I slowly stopped the truck, reached down for a camera, turned back around toward the deer. But, Momma Doe already had led her youngsters a hundred yards back into the woods. Their speed must have been remarkable. I missed the photo, but the picture is firmly imprinted in my mind.

No more than a mile or two down the road, a tom turkey nonchalantly walked across the road. He gave me a look or two and wandered off into the woods.

For about five years, I worked in New York’s Wall Street District. It was an interesting experience to say the least. I spent about four months living in Greenwich Village before the family moved out anD joined me in an old home at Mt. Lakes, NJ.

There are some things I miss about the Big Apple and the whole metropolitan area. The bakeries and delicatessens were great, and they were lots of wonderful restaurants and good entertainment. What a lot of New Yorkers don’t realize is we have many of those things here as well as the wonderful outdoors, plus friendly people.

I was amazed early in my big city tour when a nice young lady working in the same office with me was surprised to learn Indianapolis and Louisville have art museums. She had never been more than 100 miles from New York City, and had no concept of life west of the Alleghenies.

I haven't had success in finding hard rolls and some other deli items back here in Kentuckiana, but the mother and fawn, and Kentucky barbecue, plus Bluegrass music make up for a lot. 

After that recent morning when I saw the deer and turkey, and the busy day which followed, I sat in the same chair and watched the sun go down on my Yellowbank Mountain to the tune of crickets and tree frogs, punctuated by an owl in the distance..

The Big City is a fun place to visit, and life there may be fine for some folks, but for me anything we don’t have here, we don’t need. Some hard rolls with butter sure would be good, though.