Gotham vs Mayberry

I was born and raised in a small town and lived in small towns in South Africa for the first two decades of my life. Then I went to live in London. For the next 35 years I lived in big cities. 25 of those years were spent in San Francisco till I moved to this farm in the middle of nowhere in Oregon about 4 years ago. I sometimes miss city life - for about a minute or two.

I miss the opera, symphony and ballet. I miss being able to go to world-class restaurants and eat great food. I miss the free opera and symphony concerts in the parks. I miss the book stores and the intellectual stimulation and I miss people-watching and seeing the tourists having fun.

But, as I said, this nostalgia only lasts for a minute or two because then I begin to remember the things that drove me away from the city. I don't miss the traffic jams, the crowds, the noise, the pollution and the constant dog-eat-dog competition to survive.

I especially don't miss the "alone in a crowd" feeling that I always had in the city or the unease and the constantly looking over one's shoulder when walking at night lest a predator be lurking in the dark. I can live without the feeling of being prey; without that always present potential for hostility.

However I must confess that I probably would not have been able to live in the boonies before the Internet came along. Without the Internet, I would feel stifled and isolated out here. Sure it's charming to watch reruns of "The Andy Griffith Show" where Gomer and Festus could spend half a day arguing over some trivial detail of small-town life but, in reality, that could get pretty tedious.

If I did not have the Internet as a contrast to the uneventful life that I live in the sticks, I'd probably be fairly frustrated. I'm not saying that I don't enjoy our little local dramas but, after a morning spent talking about livestock with my neighboring fellow farmers, it's nice to be able to go on-line and read Victor David Hanson.

Also thank goodness for the Internet when it comes to shopping. The pickings are slim in the mall or at Wal-Mart's Supercenter in the nearest big town. I'm not a big consumer but there are a few things that I like that are not available here. Fortunately I can buy them on the Internet.

Life in the boonies is not boring if you prefer the company of the birds and the bees to the two-faced phonies (or worse - thugs and gangsters) of the city. Something exciting doesn't happen everyday in the boonies but it's not boring.

Why - only yesterday we had a drama here on the farm. One of our new guinea-fowls gave us quite a shock. I had noticed over the past few days that the smaller of the two guinea-cocks had been ostracized by the bigger cock and the three hens. Unlike regular chickens, guinea-fowl flock. The chickens will roam alone all over the meadow but the guinea-fowl stick together in a tight pack while foraging.

Well, the little cock kept being left behind by the rest of the guineas. He would get lost in the forest by himself and call pitifully for his fellow guineas. Yesterday he did not come home to roost when all the other fowl did. Andy set out to find him and came back to report that the little guinea-cock had committed suicide.

Actually he may not have deliberately killed himself. What had happened is that he had caught his head in the terrible native blackberry brambles that we have here and had struggled so much and become so frightened that he had pooped his intestines right out of his anus. There he lay with his guts between his legs stone-cold dead.

Now nothing as weird as that happens in the city.