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It’s "I Grew Up Country Day" – How will you celebrate?
By Carol / March 18, 2015 /
We expect you celebrated St. Patrick’s Day. Hopefully with enough restraint to leave room to celebrate a far newer day.
Have country roots? Let’s celebrate.
Since Iowa Governor Branstad signed a Proclamation declaring March 18, 2015, “I Grew Up Country Day,” 50+ folks have joined our Facebook page where we encourage, collect and celebrate stories of growing up country. If you have a story to tell or would like to hear from other country folks, please join us.
We don’t have enough folks all in one place this year to stage a parade – maybe next year. Which doesn’t mean we can’t celebrate. My fellow country girl memoirist Shirley Showalter and I offer a few suggestions:
1. Do something you did growing up country:
- Bake cookies or bread,
- Invite a neighbor over for coffee,
- Take a walk in the Back 40 or a nearby park,
- Visit someone in the hospital.
- Spring is almost here so get out in the yard or garden – reconnect with the land.
2. Pull out the old photo albums, trigger some memories, and share them with someone – a family member, friend, neighbor.
3. Jot down a memory or two about your country life.
4. Join us at I Grew Up Country, our new Facebook page, and share those memories with others who have country roots.
5. Take a walk down Main St. in a small town. Enjoy the fact that you can smile and say ‘Hi’ to everyone you meet and not feel in the least strange.
6. If you have older relatives – parents, aunts, uncles, cousins – who grew up country, ask them to tell you a story.
Shirley’s sugar cookies – appropriate for St. Patrick’s Day and I Grew Up Country Day.
7. Spread the word about I Grew Up Country. Here are a few ways we’re doing that.
- Shirley, Millie Kalish (author of Little Heathens), and I were interviewed on WHO-Radio. Grab a cup of coffee and listen to the podcast of “Mickelson in the Morning.”
- I started today on the KCWI-TV “Great Day” show. To watch, click here.
- On March 30, 4 p.m. ET Shirley will be interviewed by John Busbee on station KFMG 99.1 about her book Blush: A Mennonite Girl Meets a Glittering World.
I will spend much of today caring for a friend who recently had surgery. Shirley is baking cookies to share with neighbors, using the sugar cookie (“cakes”) recipe in her book.
Please do celebrate I Grew Up Country Day and tell us what you did. We’re eager to hear.
I helped celebrate “I Grew Up Country Day” by writing a blog post about it. Thanks for the inspiration! Below is the link:
ens-intransit.blogspot.com/
Thanks for joining in the celebration, Elfrieda. Your post about how your family lost your country and how you came to peace about that is a wonderful read. I hope everyone takes a look.
My mom grew up on a farm. Once my grandpa passed on, the farm was sold. It’s a sad thing, but the family farm is disappearing.
It’s true there are fewer family farms, Chuck. Many people are like you with a close family Connection. Our goal with “I Grew Up Country” is to encourage people to capture those memories.