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.

4th of July, Small Town Style.

Grilling + Friends + Family + Cold Drinks + Giant Slip n' Slide + Fireworks + Big Kid Jenga + America's Birthday = One of the most fun day of the year!  Yesterday was definitely a 4th of July for the books.  After spending the morning cutting up wood, gathering tarps, hoses, and a hole lot of baby oil, it was time for the fun to begin.  We staked down a huge tarp in the back yard and decided to make a game out of it--2 teams, the goal: slide down, bounce the ball into your drink, drink it and run back.  First team to finish wins.  I have no idea how many rounds we played, but man am I sore today!

Next it was onto Jenga.  I've never seen one this big, but it worked successfully.  Luckily I made through each time I was up, and Mandi (the creator of the game and the girl on the left side of the picture) was the loser :)

After supper, we washed up and like every American out there, big city or small town, headed out to watch some fireworks (Although we watched them in the middle of  a field ;) ).  Happy 4th everyone!

The Truth in Country Music Lyrics

You always hear those songs on the radio, the ones about small towns by country artists, some new some old.  But which ones get the description right on the mark?  That’s what I will be deciding today.  I give you my list of the top 8 country songs that got small town life right:

8. Famous in a Small Town-Miranda Lambert
I’ve always loved this song, and the main chorus has a lot of truth built into it.  The line, “Everybody dies famous in a small town,” is spot on.  Everyone knows about everyone, so when that fateful time comes, the person will be a celebrity as everyone shares memories and stories about that famous small town person.

7. Hicktown-Jason Aldean
Although I do not consider myself or most of my fellow ‘Odelliens' to be hicks, this song does a great job of describing small town life.  My particular favorite line is, “Girls are getting pretty, spraying on their Whiterain, they’re gonna get a little rowdy tonight down at the football game.”  Yes, Friday night football games are something you get ‘pretty’ for as a high school girl, because it is usually the main event of the entire weekend.  Coincidentally, the cheerleaders at my high school (although I was not one) had two cheers about getting ‘rowdy’.

6. Small Town Southern Man-Alan Jackson
This song hold a special spot in my heart, because it describes the life of my dad (who although absolutely hates country music) to a tee.  Listen to the song’s lyrics, this is what matches up exactly with my dad: He was born the son of a farmer and a small town man, he was brought up working on the land, he fell in love with a small town woman (my mother, they were Odell High School sweethearts), they married and settled down, first they had four daughters (I have 2 older sisters and 1 younger sister), then a few years later came another, a boy (my brother Korey), he wasn’t planned.  Seven people living together in house that was built with his own hands (my dad owns a construction business, and built the addition on our house).  So as you can see it’s almost like this song is a biography of my father’s life.

5. Tattoos on this Town-Jason Aldean
“There ain't a corner of this hallow ground, That we ain't laughed or cried on. It's where we loved, lived and learned real life stuff. It's everything we're made of. It sure left its mark on us, we sure left our mark on it. We let the world know we were here with everything we did. We laid a lot of memories down, like tattoos on this town.”  I love these lyrics, it describes where and how me and my friends grew up.  My class actually wanted to use this song for our high school graduation.

4. Water Tower Town-Scotty McCreery
Everything that is said in this song is the absolute truth about Odell.  I don’t even need to explain the lyrics because if you listen, everything is spot-on (minus the sweet tea, I think that's a southern thing, everyone just favors iced tea around here).

3. Small Town USA-Justin Moore
2 things about this song--The first verse of this song reminds me of myself my senior year of high school.  Some of my classmates couldn’t take being stuck in our small town anymore, but I personally wasn’t ready to leave, it was what I loved.  Secondly, the contrast that is shown in the chorus is perfect—we go out on Saturday nights, but on Sundays you can bet your last dollar we will be seated in church right along with our parents.

2. Merry Go 'Round-Kacey Musgraves
These lyrics are sadly perfect.  Although I love small town life, these lyrics remind me that everything isn’t always perfect.

1. We Rode In Trucks-Luke Bryan
Here my friends, we see perfection in lyrics.  Everything about it reminds me of growing up in Odell and this is the one song that makes me want to go home more than any other when I’m away at college.  Plus the first line is the title to my last post, so it obviously fits in perfectly with my thoughts.

This could totally be the scene for a music video to one of these songs right??

Heaven on Earth

Do you ever have those moments when you think to yourself, "I am so thankful to be exactly where I am right now?"  Tonight I had that happen to me.  It was perfect out this evening and really unusual for June in Nebraska--70 degrees, no humidity, no wind.  My brother, Korey, my sister, Jordie, and I decided to take advantage of it.  We headed on our normal route down our gravel road with our dog, Ruger, along just to go for a quick walk before supper.  We talked like normal, and I asked Korey (who is 11-years-old) my usual question of, "So do you like anyone these days?"  Instead of getting his usual response, "No! Why do you always ask me that?" I got a quick smirk instead.  Of course me and Jordie squilled with excitement since we had never gotten this sort of information out of him before.  We dug for details, but only got the girl's name, which we then informed him that we thought they would be adorable together.  All the while I was thinking to myself, it's crazy how fast he's growing up and will actually talk to us about this stuff now.  After throwing some rocks over the bridge into the crick, we headed to the lake just in time to watch the sunset.  It was absolutely perfect.  As I set there watching, being perfectly content with where I'm at in life, I remembered something my dad once told me.  "We live in the most beautiful place in the world, and no one even knows it."  I don't think anyone would believe this, unless you were born and raised here, but I find it to be the absolute truth.  So tonight I find myself being reminded of how lucky I am to live here in Nebraska and in the small town that I love so much.  I've traveled a lot of places, places that where the people that grew up in there would never even think of traveling to Nebraska.  But that's just it, Nebraska is not a place to vacation in, Nebraska is a place to live--it's Heaven on Earth.