I hate black-eyed Susans.
That’s how my friend Lianne started her article on the Hub about growing up in rural Greenbush, Ontario. Lianne is my savvy guide to all things Alberta politics. While working in Ottawa she met and married Ryan from our church youth group, I dedicated their sons and we enjoyed more than a few coffees talking faith and politics. Lianne works as the Chief of Staff for the Alberta Legislature Speaker, Nathan Cooper.
Growing up on a farm, Lianne learned to measure time by the rhythms of nature. Black-eyed Susans meant the end of summer and back to school.
Rural Life
“My husband knew he married a hillbilly. He came with me to NASCAR, and he loved the stars. But I’d look out the window of our suburban home and think: “look how close our neighbours are”. It was time to get out. I wanted my boys to hate black-eyed Susans too. I dug my NASCAR t-shirts out of the closet and started packing. My relentlessly patient husband got on board, and we moved to an acreage. 
For kids across rural Canada, my childhood was just like theirs. For us, responsibilities came at an early age, hard work was a point of pride, and helping the neighbours was expected. Everyone pitched in all the time. Almost every rural family embodies these values and a sense of community that relies on each other, not some far-away government program. When the tractor gets stuck your neighbour and his bigger tractor come over to pull you out. When the farmer down the road shows up because their cows got out, it doesn’t matter if you are mid Christmas dinner, you put your boots on and help. That meant us kids too—feeding chickens before catching the bus to school, throwing hay bales in the summer, or helping to mend fences.
University Life
When I left for university, I started to notice the tangible difference between how I grew up and how my friends in the city grew up. I dressed differently; my t-shirts were of every NASCAR track I had been to. There was never much point caring about clothes, who would care? The cows? I didn’t watch much TV growing up and Sundays were for church. All the cultural references were lost on me. I was an ice cube thrown into a pot of boiling water.
The aspects of my life that I treasured and clung to were mostly foreign to my peers. They didn’t know about black-eyed Susans; they couldn’t see the Big Dipper. I felt like an outsider. Hillbilly was not said as a point of pride—here it meant that my life experiences were inadequate, that I was not cultured in the right ways. The labyrinth of social norms was meant to highlight that I didn’t belong. I went to the GAP and bought a turtleneck.”
COVID Life
Lianne dives into the divide that exists between rural and urban life and was magnified during COVID. She pulls aside the curtain and invites understanding. It’s the Christian thing to do, eh?
Did you grow up rural or urban? Please join the conversation and leave a comment below for Lianne. Thank you.
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Black-eyed Susans, NASCAR and Lianne Bell
We need to be careful about generalizations. It’s true that rural people have strong community ties but urban dwellers can also experience the same commitment to their neighbours. I grew up on a farm and then moved to an urban environment like Lianne. In my experience, connectivity with the community had more to with my marital status than where I lived. As a single person I was not interested the society around me, but once I married and then had a family my perspective was totally different. Our family was very engaged in our community and yes, knowing our neighbours definitely made life better.
Rural and urban people do have different perspectives. My first job coming off the farm was working at a Fairmont hotel. Oh boy. I rubbed shoulders on a daily basis with people with such diverse experiences. I heard opinions and views that were so different than mine. Looking back I realized that I had had very little exposure to diverse perspectives and that people in my rural community had a more homogeneous way of thinking.
Thank you Retha for joining the conversation. Isn’t it interesting that marital status can have a significant impact on our connectivity. The job at the Fairmont sounds interesting. When I travelled to Ukraine, I heard and saw things that opened my eyes to unseen values and perspectives.