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It may seem absurd, but I come from a place where streets are named after hobbies, ala “Gun Club Road,” and business opportunities abound. I mean, where else can you offer deals like “discount mullet removal” or run a laundromat/tanning salon combination?

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Practically everyone had worked at the Wal-Mart or the Dollar Tree. Or the drug store. Or the gas station. Or the Kohl’s. Or the JC Penny. Or the K-Mart.

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When I was younger I used to live by the woods and could see a cemetery from my back porch.

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One day, about a year-and-a-half after I had started working for my boss, he called my father at work and asked to come in for a meeting, one Christian man to another.

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Growing up on a farm binds you to the land in a different way than kids who grew up in town.

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We don’t have indoor plumbing.

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Rural life has always been a trope of country music; many country musicians come from small towns and sing about the people and places that shaped them. But where Blake Shelton and company get it wrong, some country stars get it right.

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You’ve never seen open space like that.

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Fields. Football. Flyover. Fried Food. And Fat People. Cows. Conservative. Camo. Country Music. And Car Racing. Midwestern stereotypes. Yes. True? Sure. But it’s certainly not all there is here. There’s so much more to the Midwest. So much more.

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When you’re in rural New York; you’re really not in a rural area. You’re just a few hours by car from various metropolitan cities.