Clark County Home
End of the Ride in the Country
|
An American tradition has been rapidly disappearing from the countryside in the past three decades. The proverbial load the family in the car for a ride in the rural areas for recreation has lost its zeal. It’s been at least thirty years since my wife and I loaded the kids in the car for a ride in the countryside for recreation.
There have been a multitude of reasons for the decline in interest in this form of recreation. Some that immediately come to mind include television which is the preferred form of recreation for most Americans. It’s convenient and inexpensive. Gas is no longer 31 cents a gallon like it was in 1970. Today Americans have more money to spend on recreation. Twenty-some dollars for a round of golf is not a problem. People no longer go once a year to Cedar Point or Kings Island. Instead they buy a season pass or have a second home at Indian Lake or on the Ohio River. A fifty dollar sporting or music event ticket is not a problem either for many Americans. It almost killed me when my wife made me pay $107.00 a ticket to see Simon and Garfunkel, who haven’t performed together for twenty years! She thought it was worth it. Of course she did; it was my money! Likewise, there are many sad reasons for the decline in a family drive to the country. For many families today, both parents work. To save on childcare expenses, many choose to work different shifts like my wife and I did for twenty years. There was not much time for recreation when the whole family was finally together for a day. Research shows that most families no longer eat meals together at a dining room table. Many “camp out” in front of that wonderful box called a television or a computer. They now travel the information highway called the internet instead of John Denver’s country roads. Sad but true, many families choose to go their separate individual ways and are seldom together even for meals. I am amazed how many middle and high school students I see eating together in restaurants in the evening during the week with no parents present. Demographics have been a major reason for the decline in family country drives. Why take a drive in the country when you already live there? Farmers no longer have sole possession of the countryside. Many now live there so they have a drive in the country everyday, to and from work, plus hauling the kids to school or sporting events, etc. “Even if you don’t live there, your relatives and or friends do, so you constantly drive the country roads.” Today, we basically live in our cars, so driving is a part of everyday life, not a purposeful pursuit. Possibly, we no longer drive in the country for recreation because it is ugly. Several years ago a German couple was visiting America and came to Ohio to visit. I asked them how they liked Ohio. Their response shocked me. They said “It is ugly.” I asked why they would say that. Their response was in Europe, people live in towns and the countryside is farms. With houses and driveways dotting the countryside instead of green meadows, they perceived our state as ugly. Another reason it might be ugly is because it has been “trashed.” My former secretary whom is a farm wife, Nikki Smith, asked me to write an article one day on the idiots who don’t mind trashing up the country neighborhood. Nikki, this one is for you. When I was growing up on the farm in Brown County, I never once remembered anyone in the family walking down the road to pick up trash. People actually respect other people’s property rights and took pride in their neighborhood. My farm, like Nikki’s, is on a state highway. We never mow the yard or the fence line without picking up the trash which was never ours in the first place. Last week, I mowed the yard and went into the house for a drink of water. I came out 15 minutes later and one of Nikki’s idiots had trashed my yard. Last year, I was mowing a pasture way off the highway. I heard a crunch and proceeded to investigate what I hit. I heard a hissing noise and I had cut a $300.00 tractor tire on a beer bottle that had been thrown along the highway or directly into the creek that flow through the pasture. When a big rain came along it washed up on top of the bank into the field and was hid in tall grass. It wasn’t mine. I’m one German who hates the taste of beer and none of my Angus cows are old enough to drink. I’m old enough to remember in Kentucky the bottle deposit cost more than the pop. Maybe we need a beverage deposit and spend the proceeds on farmland preservation. If you don’t believe the countryside is trashed it’s because you don’t live there or it’s the heroic efforts of Debra Karns, Sheriff Kelly and the thousands of volunteers who clean up hundreds of tons of trash each year in this county alone. Inmates last year recycled over 100 tons of trash. Can you imagine what the countryside would look like today if no one picked up roadside trash for a year? At least Nikki and I don’t live on a secluded road. Landowners there find couches, washing machines, microwaves, carpet, water heaters, etc. Down by John Waymires’ one day I saw a pink bathtub. Maybe people believe it will turn to fertilizer. Ugly is a perception. My grand-daughter, Kayla, from the desert of El Paso thinks Ohio is the most beautiful place in the world. She believes that, because someone picked up someone else’s litter. Keith L. Smith, Associate Vice President for Ag. Admin. and Director, OSU Extension TDD No. 800-589-8292 (Ohio only) or 614-292-1868 Updated: May 2004 |