Small Town Minnesota

I grew up where mason jars have always been cool. I'm from a small town in Minnesota. Approximately 1000 people, no stop lights, and you know everyone and their grandma's business. Our school is from 3 separate towns and there is kids from several other surrounding communities. Our district is about 500 kids and my graduating class is 31. We have a gas station because we are on a main highway. We have 3 bars, 4 churches, and several country churches. We don't have movie theaters, bowling alleys, restaurant chains, anywhere to "hang out", or even a grocery store. We don't have crime, fights, or "trouble". The only traffic we have is farm equipment, but it doesn't bother us because they are the people who feed us and more than likely,  we are in farm equipment too. We take Sunday drives by the river bottom going 30 mph, "field-checkin'", eventually getting to a big town where we can stop for ice cream at Dairy Queen (the closest is about 30-35 mins away going 55.) This is where your summer is spent with friends, working for your dad, cleaning shops, machinery, in a field picking rocks (and other things!), making songs and memories, and telling stories. This is where you see either pickups, equipment, or four-wheelers, go-carts, and dirt-bikes on the gravel road. Vehicles are every color but white-because white shows to much dirt. Cars aren't common because they don't have the 4-wheel drive to get through the snow and mud. You see kids flying through the ditch on machines trying to see who can make the biggest splash in the puddles or who can get through the mud the fastest. This is where the kids don't freak out about being dirty and not showering twice a day. This is where boots, ripped-up, stained jeans, and laughter is common. This is where you hear "shop-talk", "crop-talk", livestock, and market prices all day long. Starting as a little kid, you learn that when the markets are on, you are quiet. Kids learn how to understand the markets before they know their alphabet. This is where kids learn responsibility, respect, and  manners BEFORE they start school.
So many of us call our town "Hick-ville" but it's because we would rather be "hicks" than "city-slickers."
I know many kids who think that small town life is boring, pointless, and frustrating. They just want to escape. And I get it. I do. But I find small town life special, a blessing, and exciting. We get excitement from the cows taking the road to the neighbors house, looking in their window, watching the Timberwolves with them, then leaving a nose print on their window, instead of going on the road and coming home after a small walk. I would never want to live in a city, let alone a town. I like to live in the country, the middle of nowhere, it's my sanctuary. Life is fairly simple: what you see is what you get. People here are honest and always try their hardest, if not, they won't get business-and word spreads FAST. Life in small town Minnesota is quiet (but it can also be LOUD), there is always trucks going by, roads are small, the school parking lot is basically pickups, girls help with everything the boys do, and more than likely, when you babysit someone's kids, it's because they babysat you, and their kids will babysit your kids. Our towns are like a large family. Of course there is gossip but we are together when it counts the most. You know everybody's name and where they grew up, probably where their parents grew up, and you know all of this without the internet, because people here talk, with WORDS, it is an amazing thing, really. I LIVE for life in a small town and plan to raise my family and have my career in my amazing hometown.
I am blessed. Unbelievably blessed. I can't imagine living anywhere else. Even though word spreads faster than you can say "what?", our community comes together and supports everyone when there is a need. When we had our fire, our community was there immediately. I can't imagine living somewhere where the whole area doesn't stop to help you. Help came emotionally, financially, and physically. And the help never stopped. We still get it, three years later, because that's what you do in small town Minnesota, you support. With those homemade meals from church families, to benefits, free babysitting, clothing, schools who make sure EVERYONE has the opportunity to do everything they want, and the friends who just pop in to make sure you are doing ok.
It is Friday night. Since last Friday, EIGHT young men have passed on, TWO girls were found unconscious, SIX escaped a house fire, several elderly have also passed, and a few have been diagnosed with cancer. This has all happened with in a 75 mile radius of us. Everybody is asking "why? I just don't understand." I don't understand either, but I don't think we are meant to. God has a plan, He knows what He is doing.

Our small communities have been shook up and turned upside down this past week, but with love and support from one another, we have survived. And we will continue to survive and support because that is what small towns in Minnesota do. We survive, support, and smile through it all. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5DnNxDTjbQ