Definition of "Rural"

Peacock · #1 01/28/08, 11:44 AM

This question came up on a different (not related to rural life at all) mailing list I'm on; someone wanted to know the definition of "rural" or "country." Not the actual dictionary definition of course, just what do people consider it to be?

This offers a tremendous opportunity for us here, I think, for one of those "you know you live in the country when..."

Someone suggested that "rural" was when your mailbox isn't attached to your house but it's down by the road. I think that's a pretty bad definition and I suspect this person has never been out of the city! Mine is by the road, but so are boxes in most newer subdivisions. You get extra points if your mail carrier only goes one way down your road so your neighbors have to cross the road to get their mail, I guess. I amended that definition and said that it's rural if the address to the box near your house is not your house number, but a Box #, RFD or Star Route. Or if getting your mail requires a vehicle of some kind because it's too far to walk.

Let's see...You're rural if....
--you have a well
--you can hear roosters crowing from your porch
--the roosters ARE crowing on your porch

Add yours!

Rocky Fields · #2 01/28/08, 12:03 PM

Hey.

RURAL-Anything not in the city.

RF

gina kay · #3 01/28/08, 12:03 PM

You don't hear any artificial noise besides a tractor going down the road. No neighbors voices or sirens. Instead you hear roosters, cattle mooing, donkeys hee-hawing, and geese flying south. After dark you can go outdoors only your undies and no will know it. You can park your truck in the yard and leave the keys in the ignition..the thief would have to get past the cattle, including the huge Brahman bull,at least 5 dogs, horses, multiple cats and chickens. In fact, where's my house keys(haven't seen them in years!).

Macybaby · #4 01/28/08, 12:47 PM

Rural - when pulling in the ditch to let an implement coming the other direction get past you is normal.

- If the wind is right you can occasionally here a semi going down the interstate - 5 miles away. (otherwise you hear NO traffic)

Cathy

trixiwick · #5 01/28/08, 12:52 PM

When you own a pair of African geese and the neighbors are so rural by nature that they don't complain about the noise (partly because their donkey isn't much better)

.

pookshollow · #6 01/28/08, 02:10 PM

Let's see . . .

When a car drives down your road, and you remark on it - "hey, someone just drove down our road!"

When the UPS guy won't get out of his truck until you assure him that the geese won't hurt him.

When you need binoculars to see if the flag on your mailbox is up or down.

Kmac15 · #7 01/28/08, 02:46 PM

If the directions to your home include the words "when you hit the dirt road" or "when you run out of pavement"

jd4020 · #8 01/28/08, 02:52 PM

-When your house and outbuildings are in the middle of 250 acres --I've seen new houses built in the country, right across the road from an already existing home, and they have enough acres to build a little further back. sheesh!
-the lane is a mile long (people often mistake it for a gravel/dirt road)
-strangers won't get out of their vehicles because they don't know if the loose dogs are friendly or not--some of them, I'd just asoon they'd stay in their vehicles and not get out!!!
-the train tracks are just far enough away to sound romantic when the whistle blows-rather than in the back yard, going through town
-fields of corn, hay, oats, and beans
-Grain bins, barns, out buildings for different needs and machinery
-no one complains about the noise you might make--machinery, 4 wheelers, go-carts, drying bins, loud children playing boistrous games in the yard at any time of the day or evening, howling with the dogs and coyotes etc.
That's what country means to me, and, oh, in magazines when they show how one can decorate with "country stuff" by hanging it on the walls? I don't hang it for decoration, I use it.

#9 01/28/08, 02:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by edayna

Let's see...You're rural if....
--you have a well
--you can hear roosters crowing from your porch

You're country if the roosters belong to you and they've got a flock of hens.

Lots of folks live in rural areas that are really little more than suburbanites on big lots. Country is more than that.

.....Alan.

**ladycat** · #10 01/28/08, 03:04 PM

Even though I am inside the city limits of a tiny town, I am rural.

I can hear roosters crowing (not just my own roosters!)
I hear horses neigh, cows moo, and coyotes sing.
We have owls, skunks, possums, armadillos, and all sorts of other critters.
I can see wheat growing (during wheat growing season), from the front yard.
I hear tractors and other farm machinery.
The only paved roads within 15 miles of me are the 2 highways.
Traffic on the road we live on is scarce.
There are few street signs and houses aren't numbered.

I could go on and on.

MaineFarmMom · #11 01/28/08, 03:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pookshollow

When the UPS guy won't get out of his truck until you assure him that the geese won't hurt him.

Last fall the UPS truck pulled up. I listened for the van door to open but it didn't. After a few minutes Mark still hadn't come to the door. hmmm.... I went out to the back porch to see if something was wrong. A replacement driver was working that day. He wouldn't get out of the truck because he'd been bitten by a goose once and my three tom turkeys were in the driveway. They love(d) the UPS truck when it idles. They make their own idling noise and gobble to it. When I convinced him they wouldn't bother him he almost sprinted to me. Then he stood as close to me without touching me as possible. He hasn't been back since.

Rural is when directions to your farm include, "When it looks like you're going to drive into the lake, turn left. Keep going until it looks like you're going to drive into the church then veer right. Go to the first stop sign. Don't get worried when you've driven 35 minutes and still haven't found the sign, you're almost there!"

LisaInN.Idaho · #12 01/28/08, 03:53 PM

The term rural doesn't really seem to apply to where we live. "Boonies" or "backwoods" fits better I think. (Actually, I'm not really sure what backwoods means exactly but it does sound right..

Jim S. · #13 01/28/08, 03:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rocky Fields

Hey.

RURAL-Anything not in the city.

RF

I'll second that! It's a no-brainer. Love all the definitions and divisions, but fact is, if you ain't in the city, then you is in the country.

Murron · #14 01/28/08, 04:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by LisaInN.Idaho

The term rural doesn't really seem to apply to where we live. "Boonies" or "backwoods" fits better I think. (Actually, I'm not really sure what backwoods means exactly but it does sound right..

I think "Far, Far Away Land" is appropriate, Lisa! LOL

LisaInN.Idaho · #15 01/28/08, 05:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Murron

I think "Far, Far Away Land" is appropriate, Lisa! LOL

It seemed like that when we first moved here but not so much any more.
Funny how that works.
To me, the word, "rural" has agricultural connotations and there really isn't farmland around here, so it doesn't feel rural to me. It feels like the woods and mountains.

Terre d'Esprit · #16 01/28/08, 05:48 PM

I work for an medicalorganization that serves rural folks. One of our presenters at a meeting defined rural like this: Where the number of large animal bites exceeds the sexually transmitted disease rate for that geographic area.

Peacock · #17 01/28/08, 06:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jim S.

I'll second that! It's a no-brainer. Love all the definitions and divisions, but fact is, if you ain't in the city, then you is in the country.

No, I don't think so. There are the suburbs and the "ex-urbs" in between. A lot of suburban people think they are country. But having 5 acres doesn't make you country if there's a shopping mall 15 minutes away.

My house, where it is located *feels* rural, but it is most decidedly not. I can go on a beer run and be back in 10 minutes. Uh, I mean an ice cream run. Yeah, that's the ticket.

LisaInN.Idaho · #18 01/28/08, 06:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by edayna

No, I don't think so. There are the suburbs and the "ex-urbs" in between. A lot of suburban people think they are country. But having 5 acres doesn't make you country if there's a shopping mall 15 minutes away.

My house, where it is located *feels* rural, but it is most decidedly not. I can go on a beer run and be back in 10 minutes. Uh, I mean an ice cream run. Yeah, that's the ticket.

Well heck. I can even do that. The local saloon where you dodge the fruits of the proprietor's trapping endeavors (think bobcats hanging from the rafter's dripping into a trash can) and boxes of "Spotted Owl Helper" is just a few miles down the road. You have to time it right though...too far into the evening and you may walk in on a bar fight.

oldgaredneck · #19 01/28/08, 09:01 PM

my definition of rural? When you can actually look up and see stars without having to worry about "light pollution" from a nearby town....

**ladycat** · #20 01/28/08, 09:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by oldgaredneck

my definition of rural? When you can actually look up and see stars without having to worry about "light pollution" from a nearby town....

Yeah, that. When the sun goes down here, it's DARK except for the moon and stars. And no sounds except nature (except for the occasional big rig rolling down the highway).