Something Happening Here: Head for the Hills, Mountains, and Other Remote Areas!

Something Happening Here image of mountain

< /tr>

Newsletter August 12, 2007

Culture Shock Ain't What It Used To Be

I moved out of the urban environment in June, 1982. The place I moved to, a relative ghost town of population about 40 or so right across from this huge, star-shaped mountain (as seen from the air), was without radio reception, had poor TV reception and you could only get 2 TV stations out of Midland-Odessa, had no air conditioning, and there were more animals than people. Further, the housing looked different. The houses were mostly the same size as you might find in a suburb of 1982, but the floors were not tiled the same way--mostly linoleum, the kind you might find from the 50s--the rooms were smaller, the furnishings were older looking, the ceilings were so low that I felt cramped, the windows were slide up-slide down and nary a window opened out, and all the doors had screens on them. Oh, and, very few locks. In fact, the most remarkable thing about living 3 miles from a ghost town is that no one locked their doors at night (and no one, of course, shut the front door in the summer).

Not only that, but I never had imagined that anywhere in the USA could be a place where the only time one could here rock music was at occasional times when atmosphereic conditions let one hear it from Odessa, Texas. Naturally, I had expected to be saddled with country music (note: except for Willie Nelson and a few others, I HATE COUNTRY MUSIC!), but I never expected that was the only music I'd be able to listen to! (Okay, okay...Alpine, Texas also had KVLF, which mostly played music from the 40s! Imagine! Except for 2 hours on Sundays when they played music from nearby Sul Ross State U.) As for TV...well, I'd get used to not having it. Especially since I had gotten used to not viewing it for the last several years anyway, excpet for PBS. Back in those days, I was a "bleeding heart liberal." Which brings up another point: I had mentioned on my home page that folks who moved into rural areas had to get used to the fact that at least some of their neighbors would be died in the wool Republicans. But in 1982, THEY WERE ALL REPUBLICANS! Here I was, leftist to the core (and had, ten years previously, been, what I will call, so far left you could shake a stick at it! So I had become "more conservative" as I went along!) and having to live among neighbors that thought Ronald Reagan was the second coming! (Another note: Though I will never think of Reagan as anything but a medicocre President, I'll give the Gipper credit for one thing at least--when Reagan nixed giving college grants--free money--to graduate students in 1981--money I was expecting to claim to finance my further education for a Ph.D. in Psychology from The New School in NYC--I had to give up that idea, at least for a year, then start school the following year after I worked to secure my funding. Needless to say, I never went to New School. I moved to Flordia and moved in with parents, got work, and met my future husband, who lived in this place I'm describing in this article. That is, without Reagan, I'd never have married him and never had a chance to live in this beautiful place we have now with two great kids! I'd probably be still stuck in New York City! Thanks, Ron!)

Okay, okay...I had heard such places existed! But, to a yankee who had been brought up to believe that only inbred redneck yokel southerners were stupid enough to like country music, go to some snake charmer Baptist Church and vote Republican (now that's funny...my parents were registered Republicans!) or vote for some George Wallace (or "Scoop (Dem-Boeing) Jackson" Democrat), it wasn't as if I ever expected to actually meet these kinds of people!

But, meet them I did! Not only that, I survived them!

But not just redneck-types. The rural remote has people one would NEVER, and I mean never, expect to find in a city-suburb. The rural remote is the last refuge for war veterans afflicted with post-traumatic stress disorder; for convicted child sex offenders who live in places like this not because they want to escape their past, but because they don't want to live in a land of temptation, that is, a neighborhood loaded with cute kiddies for them to fantasize about; for people who don't want to be found (usually men escaping alimony payments); desperados; dissidents; escapees from cults; folks who must move because they are too notorious where they are now. Out where I am, I can name at least one person who fits each category of the above. If you want all normal people all the time, the rural remote is NOT for you! As they say on the USA Network, "characters welcome" (registered trademark and copywrite and all that for you legal eagles wanting someone to sue!).

Now, why did I entitle this "culture shock ain't what it used to be?" Because, here's why: 1) if you had broadband where you were in the city, you can have it out here as well as long as you are willing to shell out $50-60 a month for satellite internet, which, of course, is slower than DSL and T-1--however, you must have it installed professionally, thanks to some idiot FCC rule about only pros can install "two-way" communication systems (upload and download); 2) If you can't stand the thought of all country music all the time, buy yourself either an "XM" or "Sirius" satellite radio for about $15 a month plus equipment (which you can install yourself); 3) get yourself either "Dish Network" or "DirecTV" for about $40 a month plus equipment (which you can install yourself). That way, your internet/radio/TV habits don't have to change at all, and you won't miss anything. And, if you really can't stand losing the feeling of being in a big city/suburb, get yourself: a closed-circuit TV apparatus so you'll think THEY are spying on you, bars on your windows so you'll feel safe from the gangsters that are 50 miles away, a couple of Fila Brasilero* dogs to terrorize neighbors that are unlikely to visit you (or your local law enforcement should you require it!), and a few 1,000 watt outdoor lamps so you can feel like you're in your old backyard when you look up and can't see any stars at night. (* a Fila Brasileiro dog is a powerful mastiff breed used by plantation owners in colonial Brazil to hunt down runaway slaves.)

Like what you read? Then subscribe to the Something Happening Here Newsletter! I do not have a set time for it to come out, but I try to make a newsletter once a week or as much as possible with hints and tips on how to live better and more naturally on your rural remote land. From handling garden insects to collecting valuable resources like water and firewood to raising your children to dealing with neighbors, I believe my 25 years experience living on the land can help you make the most of your rural remote life.

Click here to read the first newsletter about how we fix out dirt driveway after rains washed them out, dealing with mice, and more. Click here to find out how to I used herbs and natural products to help with allergies, cold, and other respiratory ailments. Click here to read Part 1 of the "Gloom and Doom" scenario and here to read Part 2. Click here to learn the ten essential items you must have to begin your new life on your rural homestead. And click here to stop worrying about what we cannot change and change only what we can.

Home | About | Why Move? | FAQs | Contact