THOUGHTS ON LIFE IN THE BOONIES

I live in the Boonies; the honest-to-God, oh my goodness, “why on earth do you live THERE?” Boonies. In American culture, the Boonies are a pretty recent phenomenon. Up until World War II, everyone was in either the city or the country. The city was where the action was, the excitement, and style. The country was where the farm boys were. While we ridiculed our farm boys, we also venerated them. That long tradition of American rural pride from the Green Mountain Boys of Vermont to the occasionally ominous Good Ole Boys of the South to the Tom Joads of Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath. Those fictionalized farm boys with stars in their eyes, and names like Clark Kent, or Jim Kirk, or even Mr. Smith, on a trip to Washington, are not boys of the Boonies.