The Hancock-Henderson Quill, Inc.

Bragging Up Home

by Dessa Rodeffer, Quill Publisher/Owner

July 28, 2010

Did you ever catch yourself feeling like you just don't measure up to big city folk just because you are from a small community.

Trying to explain to someone from the city about cows, pigs and corn and that, "No, we really don't have a Wal-Mart or a McDonald's" because we are too small, may make you buy into the assumption that we're lacking in something.

It is true, we don't have the same opportunities that the big city folks do, but they don't have the opportunities we have either.

Because we live in small towns and farming communities with smaller incomes we also lack many of the fancy cars, clothes, and vacations that others may enjoy, but we have such things as talent shows, county fairs, and the Queen and Junior Miss and Little Miss pageants.

Of course, you hear these pageants are teaching kids that they have to be beautiful to be looked highly upon, and many folks don't believe in them.

In watching our Queen pageant, I had a strong feeling of pride for our small towns and our country ways just watching these young girls express themselves.

I feel what really matters are the values we learn more than what we can buy and I see it being taught more easily in our small communities.

Maybe it is just because we don't have all those other things in the way.

In watching Shelby Crawford, Maddie Cooper, and Luci Kane give their final farewells as last year's pageant winners, it was obvious that they had gained a lot of pride and poise rather than vanity.

In fact, it made most of us very proud to be living in our small communities where everyone supports and cares for each other.

Each expressed their thanks to their parents, relatives and those in charge of the pageant, and expressed how much they loved where they live.

They felt this was the best place in the world to live and were tearful about ending their representation for each of us.

The minute they are crowned, they go to work. Not what you think a Queen would do. They handed out ribbons, rode in parades, attended community events from our county to Springfield, putting pride in everything they did.

Sometimes we think the grass is greener on the other side of the fence, but it really isn't.

What is gold is in our own back yards.

It is more often in the little things and the simple things in life that make it so grand. Thank you Shelby, Maddie, and Luci for showing us there is no place like home.