I Pity Change

I pity all of you that will never get to live in the county. You probably all think I am crazy, but I really do. Sure sometimes it sucks, limited shops, limited people, lack of live music.

But we have something else you will never have in a city. A sense of belonging, we are unified in our isolation.

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So yes, I pity you all who will never get to experience the country, people here think differently to people from cities. We take our time to do things, get to know each other, do it right the first time. Instead of rushing in getting it done as fast and haphazardly as possible.

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Not everyone’s experience of the country is the same, it’s all different. I mean if you live in town (I live in town but not ‘in town’, on acreage is the best explanation) you might never get to go swimming in the river, go camping at the dam, walk around barefoot, go motor bike riding on a track you mowed down the creek earlier on your ride-on lawn mower.

These are all things that are part of my childhood, though I don’t go bike riding anymore. I have done it, I have been there. I have walked around the creek, I have gotten bike tires and feet full of catheads from my own stupidity.

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The sad thing is it is changing now, it’s become more and more like the city. You see where I live is not a small town, Dubbo is a city it has been the entire 11 years I have lived here. However the street I lived in has changed, I can remember being 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10 and having a gang of kids. JB, Jeremy, Tristan, (sometimes Bryce) and myself. We used to have battles down the entire street, go around on push bikes all day and wage wars against ‘the little girls’ (all our little sisters).

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We didn’t care that I was 8 and Jeremy was 11. It didn’t matter because we were in our domain, we owned the street and we knew everyone so we couldn’t get into trouble. Now JB lives in a fancy estate (I still see him sometimes), Jeremy goes to boarding school in Sydney (I caught up with him last month, first time I had seen him in like 2 years. He is 18 now!), Tristan got into the wrong crowd, drugs and such so we don’t talk anymore. Bryce I still see all the time, he is in my year and goes to my school and me, I have changed so much from the little tom-boy I used to be, I still am a boy but I fell into my music, I got smart at school, I changed how I dressed, I went through my bad period.

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Do I see kids on the streets now? No. Almost everyday I walk my dog (Pat, he’s beautiful) and I don’t see anyone. To busy inside watching TV, playing the computer/X-box.

The country is changing and I don’t like it.


All pictures taken by me.
October 26th, 2007 at 05:16pm