Someday Maybe

I won’t lie.  I absolutely love living in Lincoln at this point in my life—it’s a thriving community for young adults.  But I wouldn’t want to have been raised anywhere else besides Odell and that is the whole hearted truth.  In Odell, I felt safe (and still do) at all times.  Growing up in a small town with a small school really provides you with great opportunities and a stable life.  I was given more opportunities than one can imagine, and I know I wouldn’t have gotten the chance if I had gone to a larger school.  I was able to be involved in every single club and every single sport—all I had to do was sign up and have the ambition to be involved.  I also made my best friends in that town, with whom I am still very close with today.  There’s just something about small town people, almost like we all have the same mentality and desire to do good with our lives.  So why, even though I love Lincoln, am I back in Odell for the summer?  Simply because I love the easy laidback way of life it provides.  It is my hometown and always will be.  Maybe someday if I have children I hope they get the opportunity to grow up in a community that is Odell or like it.  Because I think one of the best things that can happen to a person is to be brought up in a small town.

Small Town Eats

You might think that in order to get some amazing food, you’ll have to go to some fancy restaurant in the city.  But! I know differently.  Growing up in Odell we would have to drive over an hour just to get to an Applebee’s.  Therefor we would instead drive to one of the nearest towns and eat there.  So over the years I have come up with my favorite small towns to eat at in Southeast Nebraska. (And in my opinion, they're all better than Applebee's :) )  Here’s the list:

5. Side Trek Bar and Grill-Harbine, NE
If it’s a Thursday night, and your friends are going out to eat, you can just about guarantee they’re headed to Harbine for wings night!  Therefore if you want to try it out, head to this town of 49 on a Thursday.

4. The Salty Dog-Steele City, NE
There isn’t too much in this town besides the bar, but the food and atmosphere is fantastic! The best night of the week to go is definitely Thursday—Mexican food night (Looks like you'll have to make the decision between Harbine or Steele City though!).

3. Legends-Clatonia, NE
This recently opened restaurant is definitely worth a trip! It’s not just an ordinary small town bar, but actually a very nice restaurant complete with amazing chicken and a salad bar.

2. Criner’s Corner-Endicott, NE
If you like pork chops, than you absolutely need to visit the little town of Endicott!  I love pork chops, and this bar makes the absolute best I have ever had. EVER.

1. The Kross Eyed Kricket-Odell, NE
Of course I have to make my town #1 --because well it is the best :)   Visit this bar, and you’ll receive the greatest service around from the Fringer sisters, oh and they also make the greatest cheesy potatoes!

A Night With the Girls at the Lake

Chance of storms, but it doesn’t matter.  What else are we gonna do on a Wednesday night?  We pack up the food, fishing poles, and of course the nightcrawlers we caught the night before.  Destination: Big Indian Lake.  It is just a few miles East of Odell, and five of us girls head that way for the night after work.  We pull up and claim our spot.  Mandi gets the grill going and starts making the hamburgers.  We all sit around and talk as the sky darkens in the North.  We all conclude that if we were lost in the wilderness, if we had Kerstin and Mandi with us, we would survive—must be something to do with them growing up with older brothers.  Anways supper is amazing; with one of the best hamburgers I’ve ever had (Kudos to Mandi)!  FINALLY, it’s time to go fishing, but the sky is turning an even deeper shade of blue.  The girls get their lines out into the water, as my sister makes me put the worm on her hook (Don't know if she'd ever be able to survive in the wilderness).  And then the lightening starts.  Our perfect day has come to an abrupt stop, and we drive home in blinding rain, but it was still a good one here in Odell, Nebraska...and there's always next week to do it all over again.

You Know You're from (Odell) a Small Town When..

We’ve all read those lists, ‘You know you’re from a small town when…’  Well I’ve decided to choose the most relevant facts that apply to my own hometown and make it its very own list.  Here we go!

• Everybody knows everybody:  This may seem crazy, but it’s actually very true.  Even if they’re 50 years older than me they still say, “Oh yes you’re Daylon and Kay’s daughter aren’t you.”
• All you needed on a Saturday was a bonfire and your friends (or someone’s shed if it was too cold outside).
• And when all else fails, driving around on the back roads to nowhere worked just as good to make it a successful night.  
• Always thinking your hometown is the best around.
• And that the town next over is trashy. (This has evidentially been going on for generations, my aunts used to think a nearby town was the one full of ‘advanced’ girls, and well everybody still has the same thoughts today about that exact same town.)
• The town paper (Odell has the Village Voice, not technically a newspaper, but it works) is always full of the latest news about the local 4-H clubs, honor roll students, birthday wishes, local sports teams (t-ball on up), etc.
• Sports are king.  Whether you like them or not, that’s what’s going on Friday night.
• And when the big game is over, win or lose, it’s time to gather at that designated place (for us it was the glorified back parking lot or a trip downtown) 
• Since there isn’t a movie theatre or bowling alley around, we make our own fun no matter how absurdly crazy it might be (Remember our giant slip n slide on the 4th? Or the one time we rode by brother’s stroller down the hill?  So much entertainment for free :) ) 
• Being able to leave your car and house unlocked at any given time of the day (Unless you’re on senior sneak and those juniors are plotting against you)
• Senior sneaks still exist because your class is small enough to be able to afford it (I graduated in a ‘big’ class. We had 26 people.)
• Peace and quiet is completely normal, even downtown, any given night of the week.
• You pretty much have the same hair stylist from the time you’re a child to being an adult.
• You know everyone in your town so well that it’s impossible to find anyone to like, they’re like your brothers!
• You can play with fireworks any given time of the year, who cares because…
• There’s only 1 ‘cop’ in town, and he definitely won’t be giving you ticket!
• There’s that one feared person in town that everybody has a story about.  And they probably have more than one nickname, but I’m not gonna name names here!
• And then there are the legendary people of the town, most of the time teachers that taught not only you, but your older brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, parents (In Odell a few that come to mind would be Mr. Rupprecht, Mrs. Pavlik, Mr. Wallinger, Coach Shoff....the list goes on and on).
• There is inevitably the existence of a ‘Lover’s Lane’ somewhere outside of town.
• It’s an everyday thing to see the stars at night—and yet it never gets old.
• Rain was not only good for all the local farmer’s crops, but also for the minimum maintenance roads—mudding time. 
• The County Fair was quite possibly the biggest event of the entire summer.  It’s where all the small town kids gathered for those four amazing nights.
• There is no keeping secrets, as soon as one person knows, they think it’s okay to tell someone else, but before you know it the whole dang town knows! 
• There are the big families whose last names will forever be associated with the town.  
• If for some crazy reason someone says something negative about your beloved town, you feel as though they’ve killed a little piece of you.
• And when they say something nice, you smile as if they’re talking about your pride and joy.
• Because in the end, it’s that town that made you exactly who you are today.

Nightcrawlers

It’s midnight on a Tuesday, but why am I just now getting home with muddy feet and hands?

The answer: Nightcrawler hunting!  With plans to go fishing the next day, it is a must that we go catch us some worms.  Mandi started the night by getting the supplies ready, then we headed into town to pick up our friend, Kerstin.  We cover our flashlights with red streamer and head to our first spot.  After only 10 minutes, we decide this place is no good and move on.  We then go to where the old school used to be—a huge open lot, but with lots of houses surrounding it.  As we wonder around in the dark with our flashlights, I realize how lucky we are to be living in a small town.  Anywhere else and the cops would be pulling up any minute because of suspicious activity.  Anyways, once again we have no luck again.  So with the mosquitoes biting us and crickets chirping in the background, we head across the street.  We find a couple here!  And then Mandi finds a big one, or at least what she thought was a big one.  Turns out she tried to grab a snake, yikes!!  After that fiasco we head to our final destination…Kerstin’s front yard.  This turns out to be the best place yet.  Within a half hour we have around 50 worms, and have also managed to get ourselves completely covered in mud.  We are prepared for some good fishing to come!

The Diller Picnic

I've mentioned Diller before (basically my second hometown), and this past weekend was their annual celebration--The Diller Picnic.  It's something I've looked forward to every year for as long as I can remember.  Events include pasture gold (yes playing golf in a pasture with tennis balls), a carnival, parade, fun run, etc.  The parade is always one of my favorite things as it is a very unique site to see the sidewalks of this small town so crowded with people.  While watching this year, and thinking about my blog, I began to wonder what a person from New York City would think about this small town's parade.  Instead of having huge balloons and beautifully crafted floats, this parade includes area resident's restored tractors, farm equipment, the Diller-Odell High School band, and well basically any one from the surrounding communities that want a spot in line.  Some people may not be very impressed with this, but for us here in southeast Nebraska it is something to look forward to, as it's a guarantee you will run into some old friends you haven't seen in a while and will spend the rest of the night catching up and reminiscing, while music plays in the distance and the stars shine bright above you, and sometimes I don't think it gets any better than that.

The Heart of a Small Town

I think it is important that I take the time to mention what my favorite thing about small town life is, and that is the people.  The perfect example came through on the 4^th of July, and I’m sure every small tight-knit community has a story similar to this one.  This post is not meant for bragging about my hometown, but another small community close to us.  Last November a young member of that town passed away, and at that time it was easy to see by posts made on Facebook  and Twitter how much the community was like a family and came together in times of sorrow.  Several months later, they were still remembering this young man with a fireworks show to pay tribute to him.  When I pulled up with my friends, I could not believe the amount of people that had come out to remember this young man.  And that’s just it, in a small town every member of that community is there for you in good times and bad, and not just for a day, but every day of your life. It’s during times like these that I am so thankful to be raised in such a community where friends are more than just friends, but where they are also a part of your family.