Do you live in a rural area or do you live in or near a college town?
Perhaps you are one who dwells in a large metro area and enjoys the big city living?
Have you considered how where you live affects your daily life?
The lives of your family?
I live in a rural area, one county over from a college town, about 30 minutes away.
I actually grew up on a dairy farm outside of this college town.
It is still the same now as it was then in the respect that the University provides many jobs for people in several counties surrounding the college town.
Its students also provide income for the businesses in that town, so it benefits the local economy.
I am curious.
If you live in a college town, are academics or sports what you hear the most about?
I am curious.
And the reason I am curious is because of an incident that happened just last week in regards to an event that was happening in the college town.
It's the University's biggest rival and is often referred to as a "backyard brawl".
The big game was played on Labor Day weekend.
News articles were reporting that hotel rooms were sold out long ago and the few that still remained were charging $500 a night.
I realize sports plays an important role in college life.
I honestly get that.
But what I don't get is this...
All schools in the county where the University is located were closed on Friday before Saturday's big game because of all the anticipated overflow of traffic!
So because of one college football game academia was put on hold.
It disturbs me.
What are your thoughts...especially if live in or near a college town?
Is this the "norm" now?
Please let me know in the comments.
I live about 20 minutes from a college city and the big thing is - you guessed it - football. When there is a home game, you avoid that area of the city because roads are blocked off and traffic is insane. My son and daughter in law live not too far from there and go nowhere on game days. I grew up in a small town in upstate NY and loved it. It was farm country and even the town where I went to school was fairly rural. Not fond of big cities and would love to live in a more rural area once again.
ReplyDeleteWe have always lived in small towns or rural areas our entire married lives. Where we live now (and have for the last 25 years) is the most rural and it took me a bit to get used to it. But I absolutely love it now...especially the fact that there is not a lot of traffic to deal with. We raised our children in a small town, and it has always amused me that our quiet shy daughter lived in one of the world's largest cities when she and her husband went to Mexico City as missionaries. And even when they returned to the States to live, they chose city living. Our son on the other hand, who tends to be the more outgoing personality wise, still enjoys small town living.
DeleteHello! Well, in the part of Pennsylvania I live in, Penn State Football is everything! Although we do not live near Happy Valley, we know not to ever try to drive through there on the day of a game! went to an all girl Catholic college, so, as you can guess, I don't get the hype! LOL Have a cozy day, my friend.
ReplyDeleteWell, hello, friend! Thank you for sharing your thoughts here. I received an associate's degree from a small business college in the area where I grew up. Maybe that's why I am like you and don't get all of the hype. LOL It just really bothers me that education is shut down for a day because of a college football game.
DeleteI have a lot of thoughts here . . . but I'll try to be brief. :-)
ReplyDeleteWe moved a lot, so I have lived in the country, the city, and small towns. My favorite kind of place is between the sizes of a town and city. In the more rural or small town areas, I didn't like having to drive a long way to find a dentist or decent shopping, etc. (of course, we have Amazon now, but there is some shopping you want to see in person). But I don't like the crowdedness, traffic, or crimes of a big city.
We have lived in cities that have colleges, but we have never lived in a place dominated by a college til we moved to Knoxville. In some ways, it's neat. When you see people in grocery stores, restaurants, and Home Depot wearing school colors on game day, it fosters community feeling.
But I don't like that athletics seems to be the dominant thing. When I look at the local newspaper app, especially during football season, there seems to be more stories about college athletics than anything else.
And I don't like that so much money is involved. When a coach retired a few years ago, he received an unbelievable amount for a pension. I don't remember the exact amount now, but it was huge. And if I remember correctly, even coaches who have been dismissed for poor performance have received huge payouts.
In fact, it disturbs me even in the pro arena that athletes and entertainers are among the highest paid people. But they only earn the big bucks because people are willing to pay that much to be entertained. We don't value people like teachers and nurse's aides enough for the hard work they do.
I would assume that the big game you mentioned is an annual rivalry, so I would think the schools have incorporated that day off into their calendar and lesson plans. There are a certain number of school days required, so I feel fairly sure they added the lost school day in somewhere else.
But as a general rule, yes, it bothers me that everyone knows the star players but no one can name the valedictorian or academic award winners.
Barbara, thank you for sharing your thoughts here with us today. We have many of the same feelings when it comes to college sports. In our area, sadly, the people who come into a place of business wearing school colors seem to have the idea that it gives them "privilege". They are some of the rudest people I've ever met. So, I don't get that same sense of community as you do.
DeleteI TOTALLY get where you are coming from in regard to the amounts that the coaches are paid. You know where I live, and you are so right about even the coaches who have been dismissed for poor performance receive huge payouts.
You are probably right in your assumption about the school cancellation having been added in to the school calendar. But if it was, it was not announced until late the night before that there would be no school that Friday. I hurt for the kids in our country as I watch less and less attention being paid to the academia side of school, and in my humble opinion, this was just another example of it.
Thanks again for your input here. I always appreciate hearing your thoughts.
That is odd that the school would make the decision to close the night before. I was thinking that if this was an annual rivalry, they would have incorporated that weekend's busyness into their schedule.
DeleteMe, too, Barbara.
DeleteGood day to you, Dianna. For the last 6 years we traded the city life for the country life. We only have a community college satellite site in town. The nearest collages are in Spokane. Gonzaga is the largest and best known which at it's roots was a Catholic founded college. Gonzaga is not known for it's football program but is nationally known for it's basketball program. There is a 'Christian' college in Spokane, too, Whitworth. The football program in our little town is the most widely supported of all the sports. I am not aware of any days off for football. I've never been aware of school closures for football games but I know when the Seattle Seahawks (professional football) won the super bowl many businesses and schools looked the other way for the fans to flood downtown Seattle for a parade. The thing I'm not a fan of is when churches cancel Sunday services for the Super Bowl.
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing about the sports in the colleges around you, Ellen, and for sharing your thoughts about them. I can't ever remember there being any school closures prior to a game like there was this past weekend here either...this was a first. And I totally agree with you when it comes to churches closing services for the Super Bowl.
DeleteHi Dianna. The population where I live is around 45 thousand people. We do have a smaller University here and a community college. Like you, I attended community college and received my associate's degree. I'm not a fan of college football or football in general, so I don't get the hype. It bothers me to hear the University was closed the day before the big game. There are so many football fans here where I live. The Carolina Panthers are huge here along with so many ASU, Duke, Carolina, and NC State fans and the list goes on and on. People seem to go crazy over football and I just don't get it. Hope you are having a great day!
ReplyDeleteHello Julia. Thank you for sharing with us about higher education facilities there in your area. Thank you for understanding why I was bothered that schools were closed the day before the game. The really crazy thing about it is that just a few years ago a new school was built and guess where it was built? Yes...in the same area where the University is. So, they created their own congestion where traffic is concerned. Even though we don't get it, I guess what it all boils down to is that the world is going to be the world. Yes?
DeleteI don't like crowds, so I would stay away! 😊
ReplyDeleteBelieve me, dear Sandi, that's exactly what I do! Or if we HAVE to go in that area, we go during the hours that the game is in session. :)
DeleteYou already know where I live. In a quiet little rural town in the woods. :) Since I'm not interested in sports I had no idea it was like that around college towns. Crazy!!
ReplyDeleteYes, it certainly is, my friend. And you know which college town I am referring to, as well.
DeleteWhen I lived in CA, in a college town, all I really heard was academics and theater as my husband was on faculty there. He volunteered in the theater arts dept but taught computer science. Now in Ohio, you can imagine, it's ALL sports even though I live in an OSU extended campus town.
ReplyDeleteI totally get that, Willow.
Deletewe mostly lived in small college towns most of our marriage and they never did anything because of a football game or any sport. Now Pittsburgh museums will close if there is too much traffic and limited parking because of a baseball game or a 5k run or something like that.
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing that, Karen. Pittsburgh isn't that far from us and we fly, we always fly out of that airport. It's amazing how sports oriented parts of our country have become.
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