Going to the Farm Show!

This is rapidly becoming an annual tradition for us. This will be our second year, and everyone is chomping at the bit (pardon the pun!) to go. My youngest is going to wear the straw Sherriff’s hat he got last year, because, well, that is his Farm Show hat.

Watching the PCN Feed and listening to how friendly and eager everyone is to share reminded me why I moved closer to the middle part of the state, despite my Philly upbringing. A trip to drop my daughter off to spend the night with a friend near Hershey amplified it. As they stood chatting in the doorway, they both commented on how “different” folks in the middle of the state are, compared to their old High School. Adjectives like friendly, less clique-y, normal were thrown about.

I still work in the Philly ‘burbs, so I am still tied into the culture. The traffic, the radio, my co-workers – all keep me closely tied to that East Coast Megalopolis and the hurried, agitated and uptight way of life. I had forgotten - after the rush of the holidays and the cold weather lock down - what I really enjoy about my life.

Going west, seeing the small towns, talking to folks in the store who stop to smile and say hi, watching the Farm Show with the farmers and judges all eager to share their world – It really reminded me that this is the life I was looking for. This is the life I want my kids to know. These are the people I want my kids to emulate. We moved here looking to get back to a simpler life, a quieter life and a life without the nasty, one-upmanship our old neighborhood seemed to have. We moved here to drive past farms and trees, not subdivisions and overpasses.

The priorities here are Family, Church and Neighbors. People - not things. I don’t agree with everyone around here, a much more conservative crowd than I tend to be, and I am not suggesting that we can jump back to 1950 and everything will be jim-dandy. There has to be a happy medium - where we can all get things done, use technology to enhance our lives and still smile and treat EVERYONE around us with respect. Is that too much to ask?

So tomorrow we will go to the farm show. We’ll see the animals, enjoy the food, get more feathers (wink!) – but most of all, we will enjoy the people.

And greet them all with the same smile.