I Always Knew I Was a City Girl at Heart

     My Grandaddy always tells his favorite story of me as a little girl. I was about two years old and was walking out of their house in the Holler (the name we call the road I used to live on). I had made it down about three of the steps when a huge bumblebee flew up right beside me...and what did I do? I threw my hands up in the air, started to scream and ran back into the house as quick as my chubby little toddler legs could carry me. To this day, I am still absolutely terrified of bees...it's turned into a phobia. Infact, if one gets near me, I will shake uncontrollably, and as embarassing as it is, I will still scream and sob. It makes me wonder how I lived all those years in the country without suffering from a heart attack. :-) 
     There are so many things I LOVE about being raised a country girl, though...the quiet nights where I could just lay in my bed where the only sounds that filled my ears were the whipperwills, crickets, and wind in the trees. Just being able to walk out the front door onto your porch and being surrounded by trees...not another house in sight...WOW!  I miss those days.
     BUT..then there are the things that I absolutely DO NOT miss that have totally convinced me that I'm pretty much city-fied now-a-days. For example, this winter while my poor Mother was snowed in for almost two weeks, I had my road plowed in about two hours and was at Wal-Mart the very next day...and the fact that I can drive to Walmart in five minutes THRILLS ME! My power NEVER goes out...hasn't one time in the two years I've lived here or the three years that Caleb has...and that sure makes me smile, because this is one girl who can't stand the thought of life without electricity....although, I do have pretty fun memories of a house lit with candles when I lived in Craig...and Mom lecturing me and my little brother about being careful not to burn the house down *grin*...I don't think I'll ever forget stuff like that. And then, there was that one time that Andy accidentally knocked the candle off of my bedroom dresser and it spilled hot wax all over my carpet...which NEVER came out, by the way. It's okay, though, because everytime we looked at it, we never forgot Mama's lecture about "how we could have burned the house down" *smile* and how we all laughed about it afterwards. *sighs*  I really hate that I had to grow up sometimes...because I had such an amazing childhood, filled with wonderful memories; family, friends, and fun!
     But, as a final say, even though I absolutely loved growing up in Craig County, it took growing up in the country for me to realize that I'm a city girl at heart! But, at the same moment, my heart is always torn between the city and country...yes, in the city I don't have to worry about bugs or the downside to snowstorms, but in the country, I feel a sense of renewal and calm...there seems to be no rush and the way of life and living seems to be from a simpler time! :-)