Don’t Speed Up

There is just something about small towns that takes many of us back in the best way.

Yesterday morning, Cole and I started our drive to bring a car back to the Montana property from Mitchell, South Dakota. 

As we headed west down the interstate, I started to notice something as I listened to the local radio station announce bull sales, wish its residents a “Happy Birthday” (by name), share about funeral services, and talk closely about their community. 

And this morning, waking up in Hall, Montana, I noticed it some more. 

The local ranch supply store here doesn’t take credit cards, and they don’t use email. Paperwork is still actually paperwork, and when I found that out, it made me thankful I grew up in a time when old-fashioned paperwork was how things were done.

Small-town America isn’t concerned about keeping up with the Jones. 

We’ve quickly run into this current age of technology, but I think many of us are truly beginning to miss good things from the past that shouldn’t have been left behind (like neighborhood ice cream trucks!). 

I think we can learn something from those in small-town USA who didn’t let those good things go. 

People need people and relationships in real life–and not just on a screen they hold in their hand. 

They need to know how to compose a sentence, spell words, do basic math, and find an address without using an app (do our kids even know what a Thomas Guide is?).

I think a shift is coming. 

Many of us miss the way things were, and I think we owe it to our kids and future generations to bring some of those ways back. 

If our kids don’t grow up to be capable in their human relationships and with the actual physical work of their hands, it’s going to be a mess.

What are the good things you think of from the past that you now miss, the things you’d love to see again today?