Reply #12: The four "rules" for successful living in my neck of the (deep) woods. [View All]

[Fly by night]

Thanks for the post. Though I have lived in several nice urban areas (SF Bay area, DC) and some not so nice (Atlanta), I much prefer life in my deep Tennessee hollow.

When I moved back here over 25 years ago (after serving in the Carter administration and working as a researcher at Stanford), it took a while to get re-acclimated. For instance, when my still-big-city motormouth would dominate the discussion at the local country store, I often wondered why so many of my neighbors would respond to my verbal diarrhea with a simple (and succinct) "Well...". It took me a while to learn that this was short-hand for "Well, are you done yet?"

As I became a member of this close-knit community by purchasing a flat-bed truck and hiring out to haul hay for my neighbors, I gradually learned that there are only four "rules" you have to follow here both to get along, and to be left alone, in this community:

1) Say what you mean and mean what you say. (No "culture of deception" here)

2) Do an honest day's work. (Never leaving a hay-hauling job until the last bale was in the barn, no matter how hot or how threatening the summer thunder-clouds were, proved my worth early on.)

3) Take care of yourself and your own.

4) Don't bring headaches down on the community.

With adherence to those four simple rules, anyone who is fortunate enough (as I was) to discover this place could (in time) be welcomed by the old-timers (some of whose families have lived here since post-Revolutionary War times) to call it their home too. To enjoy the serenity of a pink-hued sunset (I'm looking at it right now) just before the fireflies awaken for another lilac and honeysuckle and magnolia-scented evening. And the pleasure of being left alone to live my life as I choose.

The country folk among us know how fortunate we are. But we are also thankful for the people who choose to live with millions of others in this country's megalopolises. Because they don't live here.

To each her own. Thanks again for the OP.