Hay Bales to Highways Part 2

The continuation of one country-turned city girl's story. You can read part one here.

...Moans and groans of, "Urgh! What's that smell?" rang through the old house that night after my mother had just turned on the stove for the first time to make us dinner. As the kitchen was filling with smoke and the air was tinged with some unnameable smell my parents ran to the stove to turn it off and investigate. Upon lifting the lid of the stove we discovered the culprit--a poor little mouse family--may they rest in peace--see, I told you--there were critters EVERYWHERE and I do mean EVERYWHERE! It was a long time until we got that mouse smell and that mouse problem under control...

Anyways, I grew up free as a bird being able to ride my horse, explore the fields, play in the pond, roam the woods, traverse the trails on a 4-wheeler--you get the picture. I do love me some country livin! My childhood was full of the chores that come with living in the country--planting seeds in the spring, baling hay all summer, stacking wood all fall, and then the winter would come.

Ah Winter!

You are but a fond memory to me. You see, in South Jersey our winter consist of occasional showers and temperatures that hover around the 40s but in Upstate New York it's a whole different story. We have things there like "lake effect snow" (code for a whole crap load of snow dumped on ya'll everyday without stop), 4 or 5 months of winter (oct-may)...etc.

So even though I embraced country living I had always wanted to see a bit more of the world so after high school I packed off to college in southern Ohio. I was very comfortable there as our dear college lay between a forest, wide open spaces and some cornfields--I was right at home...although I must say there were many things that made college better than home--friends available 24/7, all the book learnin' a country bumpkin who loved to read could ask for, and a certain music man who caught my eye my very first week of school--i'll never forget the first time we met...

to be continued...