Visiting in the country side can be an exciting experience for an 8 year old girl whose home is in town. She seldom has an opportunity to see life in such a totally new environment, an environment where there is hardly a vehicle to interrupt the serenity of the outdoors, where everything is new to her young eyes, where the ordinary scenes to most is excitement to a second grader whose entire life has been a street address on a city block whose ‘outdoors’ consists of a small front lawn and an even smaller back yard. Her one glimpse of nature is the tree that graces the front yard bordering a busy street. But there is an occasional respite. She has an occasional opportunity to accompany her mother who is a church volunteer who visits a member whose health prevents normal participation in worship services. She brings the church to him and her daughter, the 8 year old, has an opportunity to tag along. To some the visit would be more of an
obligation than what it really is to her, an adventure she longingly anticipates. And just what makes the visit so appealing?
In order for the volunteer to have time with her church friend, the man of the house entertains the little girl by taking her on a tour of his farm-like home site. Although by comparison, the site is modest yet to a little girl used to the confines of the city, it is a “real’ farm complete with the trappings associated with such: a “forest” of pine trees nearby, a barnyard where chickens roam and cluck, two canine friends and perhaps best of all, access to a golf cart vehicle that she enjoys riding in to view the great outdoors.
The seldom travelled road adjacent to the home site offers her views foreign to her uptown eyes. There are the fields nearby where crops are growing, all strange and wonderfully new to her. There is the feeling of freedom she experiences as she rides in the open seating of the vehicle, an experience that seemingly never loses its novelty and thrill. But there is still an overflow of excitement yet to experience.
The family has two young dogs, Jack Russell bundles of endless energy.
They know no strangers and when she arrives, she is greeted affectionately as only puppies know how.
The two seem to try to outdo each other as they greet their friend who gladly reciprocates.
A special time is when the bundles of joy play fetch-the-ball, never tiring of the sameness of the activity.
But all good things must end so as the mother ends her visit, the time to return back to the busyness of the city arrives and with great reluctance, the 8 year old must leave the great outdoors, the busy pen of chickens, the “enchanted” forest, the farm safari and the energetic puppy friends.
When you are having fun, time flies.
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Bill Lee, PO Box 128, Hamer, SC 29547