Eh having a horse does have some advantages, the ranch I used to work you could never work on quads the terrain was to rough, and a good cutting horse is truly a world class athlete in its own right, they KNOW cattle and some of the better ones even work them on their own.

Anyway the main difference for me has been that people will help you here, people you don't even know, that was rare where I lived before.

Define rural.

I live a few hours from DeaconBlues and our areas look much the same with homes on a few acre plots filling up entire vallies. Up until 2007 you did not want to be on the road connecting two nearby towns here at 4:30 PM because traffic filled up two lanes solid with folks from somewhere else who talk about their rural lifestyle. Maybe it is just me, but I thought rural is mud on the tires and and even one hour of 4-wheel drive without another car in sight.

I just finished a work stint in a small town of about 5,000 people. They to me are rural. But 15 miles outside of town is a cluster of buildings left over from one of those illegal 1960s Arizona real estate developments which the locals call tweekerville. One local guy told me that the kids from out there often were obviously inbred. To the town's folks, they are rural as in Deliverance. Go a bit further and on the other side of the paved road and there is another group of hard core druggies occupying an empty ranch. The locals arm themselves before going near that place. Maybe rural means those druggies.

It seems to me that there are regional differences. Generally speaking, folks in northern areas like Montana and British Columbia seem to me friendlier than Nevada or Arizona folks - excluding, of course, the northern Idaho bigots.

I have lived in some small towns, the smallest was in central California on the coast about 15 miles from San Louis Obispo. It was a main road with two gas stations one at each end of town, it had one general store in the middle, the store was the hardware, sports, grocery, post office and bank under one roof. A sign out front on the other side of the road said population 63, when I got my post office box they changed the sign to read 64. I lived there a year and in that time the population went up to 66 and down to 63, two babies were born and one family moved out. I lived outside of town and my address was second driveway past bridge 2975 on the left, it was about 15 minutes drive east. The town today is much larger as there are streets on both sides of the main road, look it up, San Margarita north on 101 to hwy 58

That is rural.

Today I live between two growing towns of about 12k each, and 20 miles from the twin cities still in the country.

River

What a small world we live in after all. I know that store.

I have houses and have lived in both extremely rural (no gas for 25 miles) to high urban (downtown San Fran and Vancouver) on the West Coast.

Regarding "friendliness" I would say that urban people are much more generally friendly. Rural people are extremely friendly to people they know well, but are very reserved with outsiders. Furthermore in small communities people are way more private and less outgoing. They may seem outgoing in that they might wave and yell "hi there", but they really won't share a lot about themselves -- in a small community things quickly become a soap opera. In urban or suburbs, people you meet will tell you a lot about themselves, will feel free to act more outrageous, etc. because they don't have to worry about lasting repercussions that occur in small communities. I find the friendliness in rural communities more artificial and forced -- i.e. you feel you have to be friendly with everyone; whereas in urban setting if someone is friendly to you they are truly friendly because they have a choice. I find it really tedious when I spend half my year in my rural house to have to be cordial to people who are really not interesting to me and who even I dislike, yet I don't dare get on their wrong side. So I sit on the porch serving dinner to people who are racist, homophobic, etc. I find they are also much more repetitive.

I do like rural living for many reasons, but not for the rural type of community.

There is a Nasreddin story that is relevant to this discussion.

Nasreddin and a friend were sitting in the market chatting when a stranger came up to them. The stranger said "I have just moved here from a far country. You were recommended to me as a wise man. Can you tell me what the people here are like, so I will know how to deal with them?"

Nasreddin replied, "Tell me what the people were like in the country from whence you came."

The man replied, "There the people are all wonderful, friendly and you can trust them completely."

Nasreddin: "The people here are just the same." The man went off satisfied.

A little later another stranger appeared, and the same question was asked "I have just moved here from a far country. You were recommended to me as a wise man. Can you tell me what the people here are like, so I will know how to deal with them?" Again Nasreddin replied "Tell me what the people were like in the country from whence you came."

This stranger replied, "They are backstabbing crooks, cruel and not to be trusted."

Nasreddin: "The people here are just the same."

After the man had gone off Nasereddin's friend questioned him. "You gave these two men completely different answers, how is that possible?"

Nasereddin: "People, like water, seek their own level."

Transward

There is difference of attitude in people from different subcontinents, countries and different cities of the same country. That is natural.

Riverwind (imported) wrote: Tue Nov 08, 2011 8:29 pm Right now I am streaming the classical station from St Louis where I once lived, its a good station. never was into rock, hate opera and country western but love bluegrass. go figure.

River

I find that Rural people are more reserved. I don't know about westerners. As a kid I lived in several places. One of which was Point of Rocks Wyoming. That was rural, to do any kind of business we had to go to Rock Springs,WY 40 miles away. I bought a house built in 1880 and 3 acres to get away from the suburbs. Now the suburbs are expanding toward me. Riverwind, Check that classical music station, they may be all Christmas music until the 1st of the year. I like Bluegrass music as well. Search for KDHX 88.1 in St. Louis. That is an independent radio station. They have a Bluegrass show every Sunday from Noon till 2 pm

Giving this further thought, I lived on the west coast my whole life well until 1995 when I moved to St Louis, one of the things they said when I arrived was, 'if you last a year, you might stay' meaning most people from either coast have a hard time moving to the middle of the country.

I must add that the pace is a little slower here, people stop to talk to each other, more inclined to have a block party. Maybe its the weather, like now up here in the twin cities area its cold, below zero tonight and it will stay that way until March. Because of this I think people in the midwest tend to be more reserve, help their neighbor, a bit more conservative, support their local sports, high school on, I will say this, it is different then the coast, east or west.

River

I really liked the people of Milwaukee as friendly and sincere,

as opposed to the people of Nashville who were just, friendly .

Been watching Fargo for the first times. Do they really talk like that West of Milwaukee? Yah?

Or is that a period piece? Accents are disappearing as mass media offers Standard American English.

Often it is not the pronunciation but rather the rhythm patterns of the speech. Yah?

Californians, the urban and suburban really lost the ability to "invest" in friendships. More of a use, abuse, because someone is relocating soon.

Moi