Rural Communities Are Still Relevant

Across the Fence #500

This is “Across the Fence” column #500. I guess that’s sort of a milestone. I’m very lucky to have had the opportunity to write this weekly column for almost ten years. Most of my stories deal with rural living, what it was like growing up in a rural community, and how that life we once knew has changed.

Several years ago I attended a talk by author Ben Logan at the Boscobel Hotel, where he discussed rural humor and storytelling. He was worried that we’re losing the rural community. I have that same concern. Each year, more and more farms disappear and suburbs pop up on what was once farmland, just like the dandelions that appear on our lawn each spring. Some people look at them as beautiful yellow flowers, others regard them as weeds that are encroaching and destroying what was there before.

Times have changed in rural America. There was a time when all the neighbors got together to help each other harvest the crops. Threshing became a community event. Now neighbors aren’t needed to help each other during harvest. Huge pieces of machinery have replaced bodies. But as Ben Logan said, “Just because we don’t need each other as much any more, it’s no reason to isolate ourselves and be alone.”

Many of my stories speak of those times when rural life and farming was still an entire family activity and the community was another member of the family. Just like some families, everyone didn’t always get along. But it was a time when farm people and small town rural people worked together. I’ve always resented it when someone makes snide or condescending remarks about farmers and small town people. The old saying that you can take the boy out of the country, but you can’t take the country out of the boy, is still very true in my case! Who else would admit to having been knee deep in a manure pile and even brag about it!?

When I’ve explained to some newspaper editors what I write about in my stories, they have no interest in even reading them. “No one’s interested in those subjects any more,” they tell me.      

Ben Logan also said, “It’s a funny time. You know, The Land Remembers has sold over a half million copies. A publisher said if I were trying to get it published for the first time today, there would be no audience for it now.” Fortunately, people are still discovering and reading it.

Perhaps the publishers and editors think no one would be interested, but I beg to differ. There are still many people who enjoy taking a trip to the country via the print media. I think the problem is that so many publishers and editors have no rural background these days. They only know cities and urban people and think the rest of the world is a wasteland, devoid of culture, humor, and stories to be told. They’ve never experienced rural life. They don’t understand rural values and rural humor. They’ve never looked at a night sky without city lights blocking the majesty of it. They don’t seem to understand that the world is full of people who DO HAVE rural and small town backgrounds and memories.

Times like this have changed, except in Amish Country.

I sent several stories I’d written to a young editor of a weekly newspaper. He wasn’t interested, but at least I know he read “Night Lights” because he said in an email, “What’s your point? I don’t get it!” 

That editor wanted me to spell everything out and tell him what he was supposed to think and feel. I replied to him that rural people are smart enough to know what the point is. They bring their own life experiences and feelings to the story and the story becomes their own. They don’t need me to tell them what they should think and feel.

I found it interesting that “Night Lights” even touched a woman who was raised in New York City and had no rural background. She wrote, “This is a very soothing and lovely story. I especially love the metaphor of the neighbor farmers’ lights being like the lights of ships out in the sea. Also, without explicitly emphasizing the difficulty and harshness of the work farmers do, you still get that hardship across somehow. This story makes the work sound fulfilling and even heroic. As a ‘city kid,’ I enjoy reading these slices of farm life very much! Makes me feel I missed something by not growing up in the country” –Lisa

Ben Logan tells of a similar experience. A New York City book reviewer wrote that he loved The Land Remembers, and said, “How can I be nostalgic for a life I never lived?”

Is there still an interest in rural stories? I think there is if they’re given a chance to be read. Not just by those who were raised, or still live in rural and small town settings, but also by big city people like Lisa, who can learn about a slice of life they never experienced.

I believe the rural community is still relevant. It may have changed in character from what it once was, but it’s still alive and well. It won’t be lost completely as long as we remember it, celebrate it, and yes, I’ll even keep writing about it.

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