My Hometown....one week late.

Aight...so I am behind the 8 ball on this one. Baseball. That's all I am going to say. Ok, so what DON'T I love about my hometown? I am a Grant County kid thru and thru and still have deep love for that valley. I am filled with a sense of belonging when I enter, and a sense of longing when I exit. It is very difficult to describe how I feel about it...it's just my home. I know...it's my ZION!! (Thanks Ma and Pa, for the vocabulary lesson.)

1. Homecoming. Spirit Week - students all dressed up to a theme during the week. Hippie Day, farmer day, etc. Too fun. Parade. Snake. Snake is an AWESOME Mt. Vernon phenomenon. All of the high school kids and some of the jr. highers, would all hold hands and run through all of the businesses in town...in a big long snake-like chain. Too fun. We loved the fact that we got to see the inside of the bar. Risky business. The Bonfire. We country kids KNOW how to put on a bonfire. We seriously had fire department volunteers standing by with a pumper truck to douse any problems. Holding hands with your Mr. Right Now, knowing you would be together forever...or at least until the dance was over. Dance - pretty dresses. Big hair. Sore muscles. See, us kids that we athletes, were expected to play harder than average to win the all important homecoming game...and then go glam it up for the evening of partying. Side note: Sports does limit kids getting into trouble! We were too dern tired to raise too much hell. Not to mention being student body president, homecoming court, etc...Fun fun fun.

2. Rivalries. Small towns are all about sports rivalries. Crane. Prairie City. We always had extremely high attendance for those basketball games, and it would be standing room only. Literally. Barn burners as we called them...usually really close games and so loud and amazing for me to watch growing up. We were at the games starting as little tykes...idolizing the players and NOT BEING ABLE TO WAIT for our chance in the sun. You saw EVERYONE you knew. AND, you had to pray that the fire alarm for the town didn't go off, because our fire department is volunteer based (see above). That bell rang, and there went three of your starting five hustling out the door. Love it.

3. Magone Lake - Mecca for Mt. Vernon kids. Close to home. Good times, throwing each other off the docks, swimming out to the log, scoping out the John Day boys. Loud music, ol' beater rigs. I always remember time spent as a child, too with close friends and family....Magone is still with me. A VERY special place.

4. I guess this is pretty arrogant of me, but I loved that everyone knew me. They knew I was smart, they knew I was a "good" kid, and they all had my best interest at heart. The sense of community was VERY strong. I knew all of my parent's friends and most of the community had my back. It all goes back to that old axiom..."It takes a village..."

5. Crazy redneck boys. Our town had a very high percentage of boys that didn't have properly working vehicles, loved to shoot anything that moved, believed a ride in a hay truck was romantic, and felt happy and content just to be in the woods. We were simpatico! That's me in a nutshell! Those type of boys are now hard to find. Most of the time, I was friends with said boys, as I didn't have alot of relationships in high school, but you could easily be one of the guys and you were accepted as their peer. If you could shoot straight and help carry a drive line that had fallen out on the highway.

6. Getting a pop. Mentioned in Rhonda's post. Getting a coke is a long-standing tradition in our town. In retrospect, I should have considered setting up a pop stand on the corner by the post office. Getting a coke was driving around looking for cute boys. Either in one's own town, or the neighboring town. Sometimes I think the whole GETTING of the coke was lost all together.

7. Cinnabar Mt. Rendezvous. This was our little town celebration. Started in the late 80's, I believe, and named by a contest. Laura Lemons won the contest and got to name the event. It was first held as a mountain man style festival up in the woods, with pit barbecue, muzzleloader shooting events, and great fun and hilarity. Kid centered, everyone and their chicken would turn out for it. Later on, it was moved to town....but still a great time for the town to gather and celebrate. We always did saw contests, and it was fun for us kids to cheer for our Dads and bet on who would win the wrapper throw, the sawing events, etc. As I think about it now, it seems like more fun for us....these guys worked in the woods all week, and then had to do this stuff for "fun" and our entertainment on the weekend. Anywho...dunk tanks, two legged races, parade....VERY GOOD STUFF!

8. Most of my family was in the valley when I lived there. I know now how blessed I was to live there with a massive tribe of people who loved me and wanted what was best for me. Dad's side and Mom's side...I was a lucky little girl to have aunts/uncles/cousins around every corner.

9. Damon's Store/Shorty's Gas Station - Two local businesses that we went to all the time. Damon's was the main store in town, and I loved all of the candy Lola had out for us to peruse. Going down to get the mail with Dad was a treat...sometimes he would let me go get some candy. I remember holding his finger. He wouldn't hold your hand, per se, to keep track of you, but would put his index finger down for you to hold onto...I thought that was cool. His fingers seemed SOOO BIG!!!! Shorty was always giving us kids a hard time and teasing us...Dad used to go there to get gas and oil for saws. Shorty was a character, and a long time Mt. Vernon supporter. Good man, he was.

10. Trick or treating. I loved trick or treating in our town. We only had a few unstable places that we weren't allowed to go to. Otherwise, Ma and Pa knew who lived in EVERY house. Can you imagine? Every house, save a few, were fair game, because they KNEW the occupants. Amazing. Trick or treating was cool....because Dad drove the van, left the sliding door open, and he would drive along really slow so you could exit and enter as you pleased. Since we lived out of town, and had no candy handy outy obligations, Mom could be there too, to join in the fun.

Must I stop at ten? I got more. I am sure our little town had it's fair share of problems, but we sure didn't know it. It was Eden for us. :) Loved this topic!!!!!