A GREAT PLACE FOR CHILDREN

I got a new perspective on rural Southwest Alabama as a great place to raise children recently. My family came to visit and I got to see my grand daughter enjoy being here. She lives in a very nice neighborhood in North Carolina which has great schools and lots of playmates for her. She lives in a small town near a big city with all the right lessons and activities available to her. What she doesn’t have is the small town atmosphere with a train that runs by several times a day where she can stand in the middle of the street to look down the hill and see it come by blowing its horn to announce its importance. She doesn’t have a yard big enough to romp in and chase the neighbor’s cats trying to befriend them, but frightening them instead. She can’t walk around the block to the picture show (or as she calls them, “the movies”). She doesn’t live in an old house that has its own ghost.
When we walked down the street, and were greeted by everybody we met, she was amazed.
That doesn’t happen where she lives. She isn’t allowed to play outside at her house unless there is a friend to play with. It is the big city after all. Here she could run outside any time she got ready and nobody had to worry.
We took a stroll downtown. She commented “This is a village isn’t it?” A village is what little towns are called in Germany where her other grandparents live. I allowed as how that was probably a good definition of our town from a global perspective. I must admit, though, that we used to laugh at one of the local English teachers who were prone to affectations when she said “In the little village where I grew up” when referring to a little town just up the road. We thought she was just trying to romanticize the little spot in the road where was from.
I was glad all the trees were decked out in their fall finery for her visit. We gathered some of the leaves to put in an arrangement for the tea party we hosted for some of her friends and the dolls. We put classical music on the CD player, made hot tea to be served in a special china pot, lit candles and served up the treats we had made. Each person, child or adult, male or female, had their own little china doll as a tea companion. Each person had to introduce their doll and tell a story about her. In big cities, you can go to special tea rooms for parties where everything is provided for a fat fee. There are hats and clothes to dress up in. Here we have to make our own goodies and provide our own props, but the enchantment is the same. The only difference is that ours was homemade. We have to make our own fun and in the process, stretch our imaginations.