Feels Like Home 8/18/2024

By: Jennifer Richardson Holt

It started with a shirt my daughter wore to school. Of course, it is a shirt that I chose and bought for her. And if we’re honest, it’s because I liked it far more than it was because I thought that she would like it if we’re being honest.  Probably wouldn’t mind having my own version of it to be fair. It was a simple muted pink, which I knew that color would get me points with her, hence I went for it. It had glitter which, let’s face it, works well for both of us.  But on it there were some flowers here and there and the simple script saying Small Town Girl. I saw this shirt and knew she had to have it. She had to have it because she is. And so is her mother.

When I was younger, I had these ideas in my head that once I was an adult I was getting as far away from where I grew up as I could.  To me there was nothing more appropriate than making my hometown a dot on the map in the distance.  I didn’t dislike where I grew up. It was a pretty good experience, my childhood.  It was just a very small town and when you’re young and probably foolish, you just want things to do. You want excitement and newness. Probably you just want anything other than what you have. I supposeit is a grass is always greener scenario.  But that is where I was. I had ideas in my head which I admit are somewhat ridiculous to me now, of living in New York City. I cannot exactly tell you what it was that made me want to do that, but it seemed like a fun and exciting idea for a teenager and early twenty something.  The lure of fun I suppose is a pretty big draw for someone who is young.  There was just no way that I was going to stay in my teeny tiny town.

Then, as one does, I grew up. I didn’t really go somewhere far off for college. That was probably a factor that figured into the grounding beginning. I didn’t move away for my education. Then the job I began during college turned into a permanent position.  There was more reason to be content where I was.  Before I knew it, I had met my husband who came from a town that used to be small but had begun to grow exponentially. Once we got married, he moved here to my small town.  He says it reminds him of what his hometown used to be before it became enamored with expansion.  That’s also why he was very approving of our daughter being raised here. This place reminded him of home.

By the time I was married, me leaving here was pretty much a lost cause.  I am close to my parents to whom I am very close. We aren’t terribly far from some of my husband’s family.  And the thing is, it seems that I have grown up enough to see the unmistakable appeal of living in a small town. First, with just the slightest bit of effort, you can get to know people. You can be friends with your neighbors and get to know the parents of your kids’ friends or folks who go to your church.  There aren’t so many people here that you get lost. With a large population there is no way to not disappear into the crowd. When the people group is small and you are vested in interests like the local (and only) school, suddenly you all have something in common.  We all have the same sign, with the same colors, cheering on the same team in our yards.  To at least some extent, we love the same things.

Interestingly enough, it’s not just me that has found the appeal of this place. I am continually amazed by the number of people that grew up here that continue to return to this place to raise their families and live their lives.  A huge number of the teachers in my daughter’s school graduated from here.  Countless numbers of the students in the local school have parents who were also students here.  The new principal at my daughter’s elementary school is from a larger city to be here at a small rural school.  Clearly there was some sort of appeal. And one thing I am quite certain about, it surely was not the paycheck.

I have come to discover there is nothing quite like driving your daughter to school looking at morning glories wrapped around the fence posts of a cotton field. Just recently I loved that as we drove by freshly cut pastures my daughter closed her eyes and said, “Ahhh, the smell of hay.”  I was surprised as she told me how much she enjoyed the scent. Her small circle of friends and their parents, that’s not something she’ll get in a big city. Counting chickens and cows on the way to school is not a luxury afforded to many.  No, she won’t have countless activities at her disposal when teenage entertainment is a must.  But she’ll have a community that is her family.  She’ll have friends she has grown up with.  And of course, on some very special mornings, she’ll have the intoxicating and endearing fragrance of freshly cut hay.