+
“A balm for the soul”
  review on Goodreads
GOOD PEOPLE Book
upworthy

urban areas

Pop Culture

Rural residents share things that people who've always lived in cities won't understand

Humans share so much in common, but our daily lives can be drastically different.

Country life has its own unique quirks.

If you were to travel around the U.S., you'd see probably note some cultural differences between various regions, from the East Coast to the West Coast, from the South to the Midwest. But what really gives Americans different experiences and perspectives is rural life vs. city life.

Americans have a huge expanse of land we call home, some of which is made up of densely populated cities with intertwining highways and some of which is vast farmland dotted with small towns. Rural and city folks share the most important things in common, of course—the desire to live in peace, the ability to take care of our families, the need for a community we can count on, the appreciation of beauty and nature—but our daily lives can look totally different from one another in sometimes dramatic ways.


Someone on Reddit asked, "Rural folks, what are the things city folks won't understand?" and the answers are a fascinating peek into life in the country for people who have lived their whole lives in cities. Here are some of the most popular responses:

There may not be traffic, but there are tractors

"Legitimately being late for school or appointments due to being stuck behind a tractor."Bimblelina

"I would always leave my house super early when it was planting season and harvest season."Sadimal

"We drove our tractors to high school one day per year to celebrate the agriculture that was all around us, wild times."TwinTowwa69

"When I was dating my now wife, we were long distance. I grew up in the middle of nowhere Missouri and has several farms around where I lived. One time I was talking to my then girlfriend on the phone and told her 'Ah crap, I'm stuck behind a tractor. Gonna be a long drive.'

She was silent for a moment before saying '....a tractor? What?' Then it occurred to me that her having grown up in a suburb of Atlanta, had never experienced such a thing."paddjo95

Personal wars with the wildlife

"You or someone you know has a personal vendetta against a wild animal in the area."NFL_MVP_Kevin_White

"I've never seen my father be more creative than when he's plotting against a racoon that has wronged him." reinvent___

"Oh my gosh yes. My dad's at war with a woodpecker. He’s even printed out an info pamphlet on woodpeckers and wrote in big letters “know thy enemy”. The amount of whirligigs and nets around the house is insane."jbird8806

"My uncle was in a war of attrition against beavers for literal decades." KMM2404

"Two of my neighbors have a shoot on sight policy for groundhogs. The one who is the most mild mannered was riding down the road on his side by side, and I see him slam the breaks, do a turnabout in a driveway, then heard a gunshot, then he sped off. Saw the groundhog the next morning. The other one, every time I hear a gunshot I wonder 'snake or groundhog?'"TacticoolPeter

So many random cows

"I own a house that sits smack in the middle of three cattle farms. The other night, I took my dog out to pee well after dark. There was a weird noise, and a pair of glowing eyes at the end of my driveway. It was, of course, a cow. I called my neighbor to the North. He drove his UTV down, inspected the cow, didn't recognize it, and called my neighbor to the south. He sent his teenage son over in a car with no catalytic converter/muffler. He also didn't recognize the cow. Finally, my neighbor from the West was summoned on his ATV. It was his cow. The rest of us stood there drinking beer and watching the Western neighbor drive his cow home with an ATV. Good times."EarhornJones

"My neighbor keeps her horses on our farm because we have some pastures already fenced in and the horses keep the grass level. One of the horses, Rose, loves to get out of the pasture and mosey around the farm — more than once she’s walked up to the house and bumped her nose against the window where I’m working inside to say hello. So of course I have to pop outside and pet her and then walk her back. 🤷🏼♀️ She’s a darling.

Neighbor also has a cow named Star who likes to come up and visit her equine sisters. A bit later, when my neighbor realizes the cow’s missing, I’ll see her trudging up the lane with a lead and then the cow meekly following behind her." Elphaba78

"Our cows got out last year for two days and I swear every old man for five miles was stoked to watch for them and help put them back. Word spread like wildfire they were out. Old men were texting on a group text and mounting their atvs and calling my husband. “I seen them on Troy’s place!” It was super helpful and entertaining."farmchic5038

So many random vegetables

"Leaving your car windows closed at church in the summer so you don't come back out to a car full of zucchini"Armyjeepguy

"There’s no escaping the zucchini. It will be left on the hood, or the roof, or the gardener will straight up accost you after mass and shove a bag of it in to your arms, or trick your children into bringing bags of it out to the car."MrsMeredith

"I'm from western Iowa. Instead of zucchini, it's always sweet corn."ProfessorRoyHinkley

"This is exactly the example I use to explain to people the difference between the city and the country. If you live in the country the only reason you lock your doors to your car is the people don’t put vegetables in it. No one believes it’s not a joke."Overall_Midnight_



There's no such thing as a quick run to the grocery store

"You need to carefully plan out your shopping needs because that trip to Walmart or Home Depot might be a two hour round trip." lockednchaste

"Moving rural taught me how to cook. I had to build up a well stocked pantry and freezer because the grocery store was an hour away. I had to learn how to plan meals because you needed to know what to thaw out. I learned so many substitutions because sometimes you just didn't make it to town and the milk, eggs, butter or what have you ran out. All that also got me more comfortable just throwing skillet dinners together because sometimes there just isn't time for recipes, but I knew what worked well together.

Also, canned and frozen foods. Fresh produce is only good for the first few days after grocery day." HplsslyDvtd2Sm1NtU

"I was on the phone with someone one day and realized I forgot milk at the store. They were utterly flabbergasted that i said it was going to have to wait until a few days later to go get because I was not going to do an hour minimum of driving total just to get one item." HobbyHoarder_

Pigs are much scarier than you'd think

"Full-grown pigs are massive, and terrifying. And they can and will eat someone if ever they get the opportunity."Heroic-Forger

"I'm reminded of my time at the University of Iowa. A fellow I knew, grad student age, but he wasn't actively attending, walked with a cane because of a gimpy leg. He'd broke it when he was a child, but he'd tell anyone who asked that he was mauled by a sow. He said the city people would just laugh it off as a joke. The country people would look at him in horror and say, 'And you're still alive?!?!'" – DrHugh

"Having to explain to my kid why everyone was so scared when Dorothy fell into the pig pen in Wizard of Oz was surreal. I can't even remember when a healthy fear of swine was instilled into me."tikierapokemon

"I've worked with wolves, literally had some of them lick my face. I was significantly more uncomfortable being in a pen with a large pig."Learningstuff247

Talking about the weather isn't just trivial small talk

"Weather changes your life. I've sat on the porch with my parents watching hail destroy our wheat crop days before it was due for harvest. There's nothing you can do. You just watch. I've also stood in a circle with my parents and older brother in the yard while we prayed for rain. For farmers, weather is destiny." Cranialscrewtop

"I took an English lit class in college and we read journal of a woman in the 1860s. Several people were really turned off by how much she wrote about the weather. As the only farm kid in the class I tried to explain to them how much of your life is dictated by the weather. Most of them just stared at me like I was nuts."msjammies73

"I'm not a farmer, I am from Nebraska. My relatives who live in a city in another state their whole lives don't understand why people here talk about the weather so much. It determines the local economy in a lot of ways."bubbajones5963

The sweet sound of snowy silence

"Standing on my back porch in winter and there is absolute dead silence." vankirk

"The absolute quiet during a heavy snow fall. I went out during one once to take pictures. Got some great shots but the experience of being the only one around is the closest I’ll get to being a pioneer and being the first to see something."naughtarneau

"I miss dead silence at night. I grew up with it in a small town, but since college I’ve lived in places with actual civilization. But whenever I’ve brought friends back to my town for a weekend, they’re freaked out by the nighttime silence." Petules

"Silent and DARK. I've lived in huge cities, suburbs, and back-end-of nowhere unincorporated areas. How dark it gets at night just amazed me in the rural areas."Nearby_Reality_5412

"It’s so beautiful. My favorite thing every year is to go for a jog during the first snowfall. No sound but your feet, your breath, and that soft sound of millions of snowflakes landing at once. It’s a bit of peace you just can’t get anywhere outside of a cave."xdrakennx


The Reddit thread has more responses, from not flushing the toilet during a power outage to why having multiple guns doesn't make you a gun nut, that are interesting reads about rural life. And of course, a reverse list could easily be made by city folks for people who have always lived in the country. The better we understand one another's basic daily experiences, the better we're able to see through one another's eyes and understand one another's perspectives.

In the heart of Glasgow, Scotland, you'll find a tiger, a few swimmers, a giant woman, and a pair of break-dancing puppets.

No, this isn't some sort of lucid fever dream. It's street art. And in Glasgow, it's given the city center an eye-catching face-lift.

Photo by Jeff Mitchell/Getty Images.


While street art is now a common occurrence in Glasgow, that wasn't always the case.

Graffiti and urban blight began to creep into the city center during the 2008 economic downturn. The city council stepped in to promote public art as not only a way to clean up the city, but also an opportunity for local artists.

“The reason we promote murals is to brighten up drab and dark areas in the city, gable lanes, and other parts of buildings and also to deal with graffiti hotspots," said the Glasgow City Council group manager, Jane Laiolo, in a video about the project. "And it’s also an opportunity to develop artists from former graffiti artists in many cases to becoming small businesses in their own right.”

Photo by Jeff Mitchell/Getty Images.

That's because local grants and scholarships help fund these large scale, dynamic projects that turn once dreary street corners, alleys, and walls into imaginative, delightful works of contemporary art.

"I try to do things that are fun and interesting,” said Smug, the artist behind many of the murals. “ I’m aiming for kids ‘cause everybody loves 'Toy Story'… Everybody loves 'The Simpsons.' It’s stuff that the kids like. It’s stuff that adults like. And not that I’m trying to be a people pleaser, but it’s stuff that I like as well.”

Artist Rogue-one brightened up a popular but drab pedestrian underpass with shadow puppets.  Photo by Jeff Mitchell/Getty Images.  

To make it easy for locals and tourists alike to experience the murals, the Glasgow tourism department put together a walking tour.

Tourists and locals can pick up detailed maps and follow the short route to see more than a dozen murals. It's a great way to experience the city and interact with many of the local shops, eateries, and residents at the same time.

While nothing beats the real thing, you can take a virtual walking tour through the Glasgow city center and check out 15 photos of the stunning pieces:

1. Never smile at "Crocodile Glesga" in Charring Cross.

Artist Klingatron took advantage of the environment and incorporated existing brickwork into the scales and used an area missing a brick for the eye.

Photo by Jeff Mitchell/Getty Images.

2. Beard + Bird = One amazing mural.

Photo by Jeff Mitchell/Getty Images.

3. Take off into the great unknown with Glasgow's "Space Man."

This colorful piece on Argyle Street is by Ali Wyllie and Recoat.

Photo by Jeff Mitchell/Getty Images.

4. Or hitch a ride on the "World's Most Economical Taxi."

Muralist Rogue-one is the man behind this popular, charming mural. Those bricks behind the car? They were painted on an existing brick wall.

Photo by Jeff Mitchell/Getty Images.

5. Sea creatures have a space in city center too. Be they tentacled....

Photo by Jeff Mitchell/Getty Images.

6. Or speedo-ed, like these swimmers by artist Sam Bates (aka Smug) to celebrate the 2014 Commonwealth Games.

Photo by Jeff Mitchell/Getty Images.

7. Smug also painted these murals that show off Glasgow's flora and fauna in all four seasons.

Photo by Jeff Mitchell/Getty Images.

8. And don't worry about the giant woman in his "Honey I Shrunk the Kids." She promises to set you back down.

Photo by Jeff Mitchell/Getty Images.

9. With some of the murals, it's hard to tell what's real and what's not.

Photo by Jeff Mitchell/Getty Images.

10. But if you're lucky enough to see a zebra with a martini ... that's probably a work of delightful fiction. Probably.

Photo by Jeff Mitchell/Getty Images.

11. Students of past and present dot the mural at the University of Strathclyde.

Photo by Jeff Mitchell/Getty Images.

12. And this campus mural, dubbed "The Wonderwall" is a tribute to some of the school's great thinkers and incorporates three seven-story gables.

Photo by Jeff Mitchell/Getty Images.

13. This gentleman is one of the "five faces" in a series of portraits done on pillars.

That gauge must have taken a long time to work up to. Photo by Jeff Mitchell/Getty Images.

14. Ever seen a giant panda on an urban street corner? Now you have.

Photo by Jeff Mitchell/Getty Images.

15. And what's street art without a street musician or two?

Photo by Jeff Mitchell/Getty Images.

The street art of Glasgow inspires and enchants.

This project has brightened up the city and bolstered the artists in the best way.

“I think the general perception of all these murals is very positive," said muralist Rogue-one in a video about the project. "I think a lot of people are quite positive now. They come and say hello to me.  Taxi drivers ... say they love them and there should be more of them."

And since some of the works are temporary, new art appears all the time. It's the perfect blend of surprise and delight ... and tigers. Can't forget tigers.

Photo by Jeff Mitchell/Getty Images.

I live in a city and I own a car, so parking is never far from my mind.

Will I get a space in front of the house? Is it worth driving downtown, or should I take the bus? Do I have to parallel park if I want to try that new Thai place? (If the answer to the latter is yes, we're ordering in.)

Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images.


Just a few months ago, if you'd have asked me about free parking, I wouldn't have had a strong opinion.

I'd probably shrug and say something to the effect of, "It's good, I guess."

And, on the surface, what's not to like? It's convenient. It's time-saving. It makes neighborhoods accessible and encourages travel.

Free parking is all of this and more. But, sadly, it's also not actually free.

GIF from "Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt."

My wife heard a report on the radio about the hidden costs of free parking and came home fired up. "You have to look into this," she said. So I did. And I couldn't believe what I found.

As it turns out, free parking costs drivers and non-drivers a substantial amount of money.

Listen close because I'm about to reveal some huge secrets, and I might change your mind about free parking while I'm at it. Here's what you need to know:

1. Land: They paved paradise and well ... it wasn't great.

In most U.S. cities, parking is the single biggest land use. Not parks. Not schools. Not small businesses. Nope, all that land is going to paved beds for sleeping cars.

In fact, nearly 200 square miles (or 14%) of incorporated land in Los Angeles County, California, is devoted to parking spaces. That's more than 18 million spaces or just over three for each automobile registered in the county. But Los Angeles isn't the only place where cars at rest have created a serious problem.

Overall, there are approximately eight parking spaces for each car in the U.S. according to a report published in 2010.That's wild! And while the number of local spaces per car depends on the community, many spaces actually go unused fairly often.

As more and more people move to cities (the United Nations estimates 66% of the world's population will live in urban areas by 2050), this is going to be a big problem because congestion, traffic, and space will be of the utmost importance.

So yeah, free parking is a terrible use of space and keeps communities from achieving the mixed-use buildings our urban future requires.

Photo by iStock.

2. Hate traffic? Free parking isn't helping.

When gas prices go up, people think twice about driving. They might start to carpool, consider taking the bus, or even ride their bikes. (Hats off to those brave commuters.)

But we don't treat parking like gasoline, which is kind of weird. Most destinations offer it for free, and when they don't, there's often street parking close by. This encourages drivers to circle their destinations, looking for free or reduced parking. An estimated 30% of cars driving in central business districts are actually looking for a place to park. It wastes time and gas and increases harmful emissions.

So, yeah, free parking is also messing with the environment. Still on the free parking train? Just wait.

3. Free parking is paid for by everyone, and people who don't drive essentially pay twice.

Many cities require new buildings to offer off-street parking. It gives these stores, restaurants, and businesses a larger footprint. And this leads to sprawl, which is a big challenge for anyone who doesn't drive or can't afford to drive. Don't believe me? Take a city bus across town.

Photo by Jewel Samad/AFP/Getty Images.

Plus, the store or business has to foot the bill for the parking lot, and that fee is often passed on to their customers in higher priced goods or services. So when you buy your milk at the grocery store, you're paying for the privilege to park out front, even if you walked there.

Starting to hate free parking? Yep.

4.  If we're not thinking about parking, we're not thinking about the future.

As writer Emile Rusch of the Denver Post said, "The future of parking is no parking."

Hear me (and her) out: As populations move toward more urban centers, something else is moving with them — technology. Autonomous cars, an idea once relegated to a Jetsons-like pipe-dream, are making their way into our communities.  Luxury automaker Volvo recently announced it'll have autonomous cars on the road by 2021. And Uber is testing pilot models.

Uber is preparing for the autonomous vehicle revolution with pilot models of their self-driving cars. Photo by Angelo Merendino/AFP/Getty Images.

These self-driving cars will open up new opportunities for ride-sharing. Users could conceivably request a car; work, read, or relax on their commute; and have it drop them off at their destination. Just one shared autonomous vehicle could take as many as 11 cars off the road. It also frees up their parking spaces.

Photo by iStock.

Some cities are preparing for this not-so-distant future by building parking garages that can be converted to something else like retail or office space down the line. Others, well, aren't. Parking isn't even on their radar, and that's a big problem.

Soon, we could have empty parking spaces everywhere, costing us extra money and taking up valuable space in crowded urban areas. Building free parking lots just isn't a smart decision.

So what can we do? One solution is a concept you might be familiar with: surge pricing.

Smart parking meters and spaces charge drivers different prices based on demand. In this scenario, parking in a popular new shopping district would be more expensive than parking by an old strip mall. Street parking near a church might be four times more expensive Sunday mornings than Thursday nights. Demand pricing based on location or time of day forces drivers to think twice about how and when they travel to their destinations.

Photo by iStock.

Donald Shoup, Distinguished Research Professor in the Department of Urban Planning at UCLA and one of the world's foremost parking experts is all about demand pricing. He suggests pricing parking spaces so that about 15% (or one or two spaces) are available on any given block. To keep business owners and residents happy, Shoup believes the revenue generated from the higher prices should stay in the neighborhood and go toward sidewalks, removing graffiti, and improving roads.

"Demand-based pricing is remarkable for how little planners need to know to do their job. They simply compare the actual parking occupancy with the desired parking occupancy and every few weeks they nudge prices up or down accordingly," Shoup said in an interview with Xerox. "Seeking the optimal occupancy becomes the new way to set prices, and it can replace intense, emotional, political choices with evidence-based decisions."

Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images.

Smart meters with demand pricing are already in use in San Francisco and Seattle, but taking them nationwide will be a costly endeavor.

Many other cities use smart meters for payment but haven't tapped into demand pricing.

Putting smart meters in place, changing zoning requirements, and building forward thinking cities around alternative forms of transit isn't easy or cheap.

But neither is progress. And come to think of it, neither is free parking.

Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images.

True
Starbucks Upstanders

Did you know that in some cities in America, it is illegal to give food to someone who is homeless?

The list of cities that criminalize feeding homeless individuals isn’t a short one. In many cities, it's also illegal to sit or sleep in public areas, leaving homeless individuals with no safe place to spend the night. These laws are essentially making it illegal to be homeless.

Image via Starbucks. All photos used with permission.


Jerome Murdough, a 56-year-old homeless veteran, was trying to sleep in the stairwell of a building on a cold night in Harlem in 2014. He was arrested for trespassing and put in jail. Susceptible to heat due to his antipsychotic and antiseizure medications, he ended up dying in his cell, likely as a result of overheating.

Murdough’s is an extreme case, but it highlights the absurdity and cruelty of how we’ve tried to tackle homelessness in this country. Instead of measures being put in place to help individuals without a home gain stability and safety, they're often punished for their circumstances — making it even harder to get back on their feet.

Lloyd Pendleton saw the flawed way homelessness was being addressed and thought there had to be a better way:

In particular, Pendleton took issue with the requirements homeless individuals had to meet before they could receive help.

He recalls that the conventional wisdom in the late 1990s was that a homeless person needed to be "clean, dry, and sober" in order to receive housing assistance from the very institutions designated to help them. He wanted to give people — especially those who are chronically homeless — the chance for stability first, so they could get back on their feet, instead of requiring them to try to address these issues in the midst of chaos. The solution is so simple it seems rather obvious: housing first.

Housing is key. Housing means stability.

Recognizing this, Pendleton stepped up and implemented a "housing-first" method of rehabilitation in Salt Lake City, Utah. And the results have been incredible.

Pendleton said, "In 2005, we decided to do a pilot, which ended up with 17 individuals off the streets, straight into housing. 22 months later, all 17 were still housed. It was a powerful turning point for us."

Families are able to get their feet on the ground and live a "normal" life again, within a supportive community. Residents have a chance to take care of medical issues. To get their teeth fixed. To reconnect with their families. To take care of the problems plaguing them so they can move forward, healthy and confident. Most importantly, to have hope.

In the 10 years since the program’s introduction, Utah reduced its chronically homeless population by an incredible 91%. Cities across the country have looked to it as a model for effectively reducing chronic homelessness.

Said Pendleton, "You can never end homelessness, but you can give them housing opportunities. That can be done."