Recently I made a trip to New York and saw all the cultural activities available. Most of these things I have never experienced. Growing up poor in West Virginia did not allow for many cultural experiences such as plays, museums or library visits. As I was on this trip I thought of the differences of growing up in New York and Ellamore, WV where I grew up. The cultural things I did growing up was swimming in the river, playing softball in a field with friends, learning how to quilt, reading, reading and reading some more. I can garden and can vegetables. I can cross stitch. I can change a flat tire. I know how to cook deer meat.
Every place as their own set of culture. A few weeks ago I was in Wisconsin and their way of life is different than New York and West Virginia. So was Texas when I lived there.
Not everyone can live in New York or Chicago or Dallas or Ellamore. Not everyone can learn what I did growing up. But the one thing that we call need to learn is to read, read, and read some more. Reading is power and can give us all a shared culture. Have you read lately?
1 comment:
Those that didn't grow up in Ellamore (or some place like it) don't know what they missed!
Your blogpost made me giggle... I often look for shock on faces when I tell people that I grew up using an outhouse until I was 16 (in the 80's). Our summer vacations were spent gardening, and my grandma was my closest neighbor (1/4 of a mile away)! My passion for reading started in Ellamore, too. I read quite a bit now, but I wish I had more time for it now like I did back then.
I appreciate how small the world is, and how it has come full circle that you and I have so much in common (including where we are from and how we were raised) and that now I am getting the opportunity to work with and learn so much from you.
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