(Continuing in the AP avoidance meme)
USAToday had a recent article on shrinking towns in the Deep South. Read it and try to remember the last time you sat on the porch and listened to the crickets as night fell.
Try to remember swimming holes, stick ball, creeks with mutant frogs, riding your bike for miles on end, picking burrs out of your clothes, walking through pastures (watch out for the cow paddies!), shelling peas, snapping beans, shucking corn, hiding in a barn, catching fireflies, riding a horse, riding a tractor, chasing chickens, eating fresh-picked blackberries out of your hat, creepy boys down the road, red clay in your cleats, the smell of a well-oiled catcher’s mitt, knowing all your neighbors, white gloves at church, dinner on the grounds, homemade ice-cream, the first breeze of the day, old lady perfume, fresh cut grass, fried chicken, real Coca-Cola in the little green bottle, homemade biscuits, eating peaches so juicy they ran down your chin, the cool snap of the evening at high school football games.
Try to remember.