On the drive home from work yesterday I heard a good topic of conversation.  One that I think about often, and now one that I will throw out to all of you.  Is it better to grow up in the country or the city? 

Well, from my perspective I have a few thoughts and they include both the pros and the cons.  I grew up in the country, a small little town with many other surrounding towns.  From what I know today I would never trade it up for anything else in the world.  The year of 1977 was not a popular year for births in the small town of Moosehorn or for the surrounding towns for that matter.  So I started kindergarten with a very small class.  As the years progressed a few people moved away, a few new comers and also a few of the students failed a grade here or there.  Yes children of today it WAS possible to be held back a grade if you couldn’t read, write or do arithmetic! Imagine that!  By the time I hit grade 9 there was only 9 students in my grade.  But these were good years I have to admit.

See, while we were growing up in the country there were always things to look forward to, like the day trip to Winnipeg to go shopping for school clothes and school supplies.  What fun it was to eat in a restaurant!  Oooo McDonalds!   What a treat!  Or the good old Bonanza!  Who remembers that place?

In other times of the year we had fun things to look forward to like, beach day on the last day of school.  The school buses would load up the entire school and we would spend the day at the lake, another bonus for the town we grew up having a beach so near by.  And then as we got older we had more organized fun, we had Sunday Night Volleyball at the school, there was regular mixed curling leagues that we got involved in and then the weekend bonspiels.  Then every other weekend it was being at a friend’s house with our “other mother’s”, at least that what our friend’s mothers felt like to us.  There were the socials and baseball tournaments and regular baseball league to go to during the summer.  I can honestly say that living out in the country was NEVER boring.  There was always something to do, somewhere to go and someone to see.  We always had some sort of school outing, sport or music event but we still had time to be ourselves, have fun but also have the rest that teens need too.  Sometimes we didn’t get the rest, but that was by choice to stay up and all night and watch the sun rise and the hangover began to creep up on us. 

Another part of growing up in the country that was good, and this is from my parent’s perspective, is that 99% of the time our parents knew where we were, who we were with and they also knew the parents of 99% of our friends as well.  And if we were up to no good there was always someone else around us who saw what was going on and word most always got back to our parents.  There were eyes and ears everywhere!  So there wasn’t too much that we could get away with.  Even if we drove Dad’s car a little too fast through town, Dad was sure to find out!   We had fun and we had genuine friends.  We also had chores!

The other part of country life that I learned was about general household duties.  Since a lot of us lived out on the farm or just out of town, or even in town for that matter we all had chores.  For some of us it was helping feed the cattle or other animals, make hay in summer, cut the grass, carry in wood and work out in the garden to have great vegetables for the winter.

And then there is the city life.  I look at my nieces and nephews and city life is much different and complicated than what I had as a kid in the country.  First of all I notice that kids in the city don’t have nearly the freedom that they have in the country.  It’s simple; the city can be more dangerous.   There is traffic; lots of strangers and you just never know who is out there.  Parents don’t know other parents very well, or even all the children.  Parents seem to be working more where they don’t always have that third eye on their children at all times.  Parents don’t have time to become integrated with their child’s school, to see the kids and their personalities, or the teachers.  In some cases parents are happy to drop their kids off at school and head to work because it’s almost like a big daycare.  Parents don’t always get to hear what their child has been up to, or not up to for that matter, because no one cares to know each other.  Only when there is a BIG problem with their child are they notified, then it’s too late. 

People in the city really don’t care to get to know one another.  I can’t tell you how often I hear people say that they have no idea who lives right next door to them, no matter if they live in a house or an apartment.  People build these 6 foot tall fences around their homes because they don’t want anyone to see them and they don’t want to see anyone else.  Yes, I can understand where privacy is sometimes warranted, but come folks, get to know your neighbors,  It makes for a happier and safer neighborhood.

The one thing that I think city kids have a larger advantage over the country kids are in the highs schools.  There are so many different options for students to choose from in Winnipeg.  High school students really have a great choice in taking the life path in school that is more tailored to their personality type, talents and wishes.  There are your arts, music, trades, academics, co-operative works and so forth.  My choice in school was taking the university entrance courses, business courses or power mechanics.  So city kids, consider yourself lucky!

 Well with all my blubbering on here about almost nothing I guess what I really want to say is that I’m happy where I grew up, I wouldn’t want to change it at all.  And as an adult now living in the city there are still pieces of the country life which I really miss, mainly the social activities because here in the city that just doesn’t happen.  I really find the city boring, and everyone is always too busy.  I wish I had the opportunity of high school like the city kids, but I didn’t.  Instead this is the place where I met some of the my best friends in life…. And also a few enemies!   Besides, living in the city makes the weekend trips home back to the country all that much better! 

I really need to vent about the housing market of today.  Now I’m not that old, but I have had some experience purchasing a house, therefore I’m not a first time homebuyer, but rather a upgrade home purchaser now.  So many things have changed from 9 years ago up until recently.  I really don’t like the way the market is running and how the real estate board is allowing the market to be run.

Back 9 years ago a house wasn’t so hard to buy in the sense that there were lots of home for sale and not too many buyers. But when an offer was written on a home and given to the vendor the vendor could only look at one offer at time and from there decide to accept, reject or propose a counter offer.  This way both the buyer and the vendor had a chance at buying and selling a home.  But don’t look for that today! 

It’s getting kind of frustrating as we have been house hunting since mid November and we haven’t seen too much that is worth our bid. But we have bid on a few, not many, but a few.  With the last house it was a crazy bidding war, the phone was ringing off the hook, realtors asking “How bad do you want the place?  Do you want to bid higher?”  Well last I knew this wasn’t an auction sale, I put in a offer on a house asking the vendor if he would like it.  And good golly, I’m not impressed with what realtors or telling their vendors now about the deposit that goes along with an offer.  Back in 1998 I put down a $1000 deposit with my offer, this is to show good faith in my offer and to also protect the vendor if I decide at the last minute that I’m not taking the place.  Well now realtors are telling their vendors to only look at offers with a HIGH deposit, in the range of $5000 or higher.  I think that is nuts!  It doesn’t really benefit anyone other than the realtor since they hold the check in trust until the entire mortgage goes through.  So has this been the money making scam of real estate companies to make a dollar on the purchaser by holding their money and making interest on it??  Dirty dirty diryt!  That’s what I think.

Last week I spoke to someone who recently purchased a condo in Alberta.  I asked about their deposit with their offer to purchase.  The person told me that their Alberta realtor suggested that 1% of purchase price is sufficient for a deposit with payment.  Hmmm… think about that, doesn’t that seem reasonable??  So I’m looking at a $200 000, shouldn’t my $2000 deposit be enough?  $5000 is more like 2.5% and probably 2.5% is what the real estate company will end up making in interest on my money.  I just don’t think it’s right.  This whole real estate business has just become such a game!  A game that I’m not so sure I want to play!

 I know that I shouldn't get my hopes up too high because that just sets me up for disappointment and I really hate that.  But I'm still hoping.  I think one of the best features about this place is that it's so close to my work.  I really hate my drive and I've always been spoiled by living so close to where I work.  On a really ambitious day I could walk to work and very easily bike.  It's awesome transportation for Greg to get to work downtown.  It's a very quiet neighborhood and there is everything around us that we would possibly need on Pembina.  I'm going to keep hopeing and wishing... and until I know the final answer I won't sleep!  Then it's going to be high gear to get my place up and ready for the market.  Oh the stress!!!!!