I don't think there's anything else in this world that gives you a feel for what life has in store for you later like growing up in a small town.
It's one of those things that sort of teases what life may be like in your later years, and it feels as if you grow up quicker than most 'city folks' do in that regard.
I'm sure you've seen the cartoons and the posts on social media that compare generations of kids side-by-side. "Kids Today Have iPhones and X-Box, While I Talked Like a Robot Into the Blades of the Big Fan in the Living Room". That sort of thing. They're funny cartoons that compare lifestyles between the Not-Exactly-Rich, But-Not-Exactly-Hurting-for-Money and the Hot-Dogs-with-Pepsi-and-Nintendo-Was-the-Bomb-For-Us crowds. Looking back on my childhood, I'd say they were also right on the money.
Life growing up in Conquest was, well....slower-paced. I guess that's the simplest way to describe it. I don't mean that in any kind of derogatory sense, either. It certainly wasn't the city, and it wasn't even a town like Outlook or Rosetown. No, what we had was better. We didn't have the D&E, we didn't have an arcade venue, we didn't have a 7/11, and we didn't have a movie theatre - we just got our parents to drive us to all of those! No, but seriously, although we didn't have those sort of amenities, we certainly made do and had years of fun without them. That kind of no-access lends itself to all sorts of creative outlets. Were all of those outlets squeaky-clean and wholesome fun? Pfff, of course not. But then again, sometimes it felt good to do a little bad. Well, "bad" of course 小蓝视频 pretty relatively tame stuff compared to what we see in today's world. Yikes.
Some of the best memories of my life come from days, evenings and nights spent in Conquest. They come from school days at Conquest School, they come from weekends hanging out with the guys (and girls), and they come from all manner of family activities and get-togethers.
I remember going to Kindergarten with two other people in my "class". I'll tell ya, now THAT was priortized learning! No kid can ever say they didn't get enough attention from their teacher if the entire class could dress as the Three Musketeers for Halloween. There was Jared, there was Mark, there was me, and there was Mrs. Derdall. Or, as we all called her, Mrs. D. There was coloring, there was reading, and there was storytime in the corner of the classroom, where I would stare at the long, colourful calendar that came down the wall like an inverted 'S' that I still remember to this day. I swear! I've told you before, I believe, that I still remember that calendar and I still live each month like we're "going down the inverted 'S'".
Funny note - I also remember coming to school on a day that I wasn't supposed to. Remember the schedule that Kindergarten kids adhered to where you went every second day? Well, I guess I got the schedules mixed up and went to school. A few minutes into what I thought was going to be the beginning of my day, I noticed Jared and Mark weren't there. Sure enough, Mrs. Adair told me that I'd come on the wrong day and that I was free to go. OK then! Time to go home for some cartoons, too much sugary cereal and bugging my mom all day.
I remember track and field days at Conquest School. We had the ample amount of space that could house several schools worth of students in a laundry list of events, and so that's exactly what happened. Outlook and Macrorie students would be bussed down to us for the day, and I'd get to hang out with my buddies from Macrorie. After some ball throw and other events here and there, the day would basically just be a write-off from school. I can remember hanging out at the Elks Park after events, or going down to the store for a Freezie. Sometimes the whole day would wrap up with a bunch of us at the Conquest Cafe, grabbing a bite to eat with other families. Those were the days.
I remember when I was in high school, coming home to Conquest every day was sometimes like a sense of "returning to normal". I'd be at school all day, or I'd be hanging out with the guys all night, and I'd come home and it was just a time to decompress. I'd have some chores to do out at the barn, and I'd have some stuff to do back at the house, and that was a-OK with me.
I remember when I was in a band with a few other guys, we were called Drift. It was Kevin, Jared, Barrett and I. There were so many jam sessions down in my basement that I've lost count. We would jam, we'd take a break, we'd grab something to eat, then we'd jam some more. More often than not, we'd pop in a Metallica tape in the VCR to "learn from the masters" or we'd listen to some music to try and gain some form of inspiration. Then, when we got tired of jamming, we'd head out for the night and sort of skulk around Conquest. We'd talk about life, about music, about where we wanted to be headed in life, about anything. We'd play a little Knock-Knock Ginger if we got bored, or we'd grab a few eggs from my fridge and huck them wherever we chose.....typical teenage crap, y'know? It's all a part of growing up.
Where am I going with all of this Memory Lane stuff? Well, that's a very good question. You see, I have days in which I don't seem to recognize the place where I grew up. Too many people have gone over the years, while others have moved away, and in their place are new faces with new names and different origins, and on top of that, the years have gone by far too quickly for my liking. (Well, does *anyone* like it?) My dad died nearly 9 years ago, and it'll soon be one year since Mom's untimely passing, and those two just made Conquest what it was for me. Through their parenting, they made it a place that I loved to call home. Now that I'm 36 and they're both gone, I just don't know how long I'm going to remain.
I guess we'll just wait to see what happens. Life's a journey and a question mark rolled into one. We never really know what's coming next, nor should we.
For this week, that's been the Ruttle Report.
