Country Folks

I am writing this entry from a motel on Highway 26 in Blue Mountains. The thing about driving out of the city is that right about when the last building drops below the horizon, everything begins to slow down. The highway is no longer 100 km/h instead it drops down to 80 km/h. High-rises and malls with car noises and crowd chatter are replaced by corn fields and farmland with the music of birds and swinging flora. Instead of 100+ horsepower mustangs, these folks own the original 1 horse power mustangs, no oil change or gas needed, and instead of polluting the air it fertilizes the orchards.

After checking in to the motel we decided to go for a drive around the village which is approximately 15 minutes away by car. On the way to the village the traffic became very slow due to construction on the road. While I waited for the traffic to begin moving again I spotted a group of kids a few cars up the road armed with bags full of apples approaching the helpless cars. "Here we go again," I thought. "Why can't I go a full day without somebody trying to sell me something." As one of the youngsters approached my passenger window I prepared to signal to him that I wasn't interested, but just then the always benevolent and never 'arrrgghhhh' wife of mine opens the window. Fine! I fished in my pockets for a $20 to be prepared for whatever price this little creep would try to take us for. "Would you like some free apples?" asked the boy. Would I like some free apples? Are you kidding me who hands out free anything anymore, let alone free apples? In Toronto if you get offered something free it's most likely deepfried or illegal. I had to put away the 20 dollar bill in order to free my hand to be able to receive for free the very apple I did not want to buy. Who gives free apples away?

Later, on our way back from the village just off Highway 26 I saw a sign advertising honey at a good price. I pulled over and approached the little table by the side of the highway where the honey containers were. The table was in the front yard of a house whose owners I could not see anywhere. What was peculiar about this picture was that I didn't see anyone selling the honey. There, in front of me were several jars of honey and, most interestingly a topperware full of cash. Are you kidding me guys!? Really? Cash? Just lying around, no need for surveillance, or any sort of care? I must have stood in front of the table like a moron for about ten minutes trying to decode this unfamiliar situation. I kept thinking, "this is a trap man, they got snipers in the cornfields!. Touch those jars and you'll get shot. Just walk away..." Then, when I was about to get back in my car and drive the hell away, a smiling lady comes out of the house and waves at us. "Hi folks, just grab a jar and put the money in the box."
She must have read the confusion in my face for right away she said "You are from the city aren't you?"
I just could not believe that you can leave a box full of money and the product you are selling unattended, and not only not have it get stolen, but get the product to sell itself while the box swells up with more money from nice and honest customers. Mind boggling! Apparently however, this is just how business is done on this side of the country.

I love my high-rises, sport cars, and technology infested city-boy society, but it takes a few jars of self selling honey and a self guarding money box to poke a hole in our sophisticated cloud of egotistical realism, and realize that we need to preserve the country folks lest the world implode into a useless goo of materialistic bullshit