Flatlanders, Cows, and Rural Life – My Reflection on Life In Vermont

The first thing that comes to mind when you think of Vermont is lively green mountains, pastures filled with cows and various barnyard animals, a beautiful autumn, punishing winters, and small town community. I have lived in Vermont my whole life. I was born and raised in Vermont, and I wouldn’t want to be born anywhere else. I’ve lived in the same house, on the same mountain and in the same town my entire life. I rarely leave my local area, only on occasional trips to Burlington or Williston. This is true for most small town Vermonters.
I absolutely love the location of my house. I live in south Starksboro, a very ancient community that is tucked away in a valley within the mountains above Fuller’s flats. I wake up in the morning to the smell of coffee brewing. There is a large window to the north side of my house, which overlooks the valley and fields below the perch my house is built on. There are very few houses nearby, the closest neighbor a field’s length away. South of my house is untouched wilderness, with the acceptation of small local logging companies. Electricity comes and goes like a tourist in the fall seeking the foliage. I’ve heard rumors of people saying “City dwellers live a happier life.” I find that hard to believe, and they obviously have never lived in the country, where life is laid back and easy.
I believe one isn’t a true Vermonter unless they’ve lived near the frontier of wilderness. The common person who comes from another more modernized state is called a “flatlander” meaning they’re out of state, come from a flat land, and they have no idea how to live outside of suburbs and cities. The country and the city can be compared in a very discreet way. In cities, the streets are packed with people, while in Vermont the fields are packed with grazing livestock. In a city, there are tall menacing skyscrapers and radio towers, in Vermont, there are tall graceful pine trees and towering mountains. In cities there are polluted gray skies, and in Vermont the skies are a peaceful blue, and the only time they are gray is when the weather is bad.
The most symbolic thing in Vermont for me has to be the cow. The cow is the very heart and soul of agriculture in Vermont. You cannot get higher quality milk anywhere else; Vermont milk is the best. Some flatlanders may see cows as stinky, dumb, and worthless creatures, and do not understand how much agriculture effects them and our daily lives. The Vermont cow tends to be more pure than the other cows in other states, which may have been mass produced or chemically enhanced to produce more consumables. Vermont meat and milk is the very best, and it will stay that way for a long time.
Vermont can be too small sometimes. It can be a very depressed state, which suffers deeply from cabin fever. Sometimes I feel I’d be happier elsewhere. I would like to get out to other places and see the world, but like my relatives before me, Vermont will always be my home. One of my cousins moved as far as Arizona but even he got homesick and returned after many years of living out of state. There is something in the Vermont air that everyone loves, and once you’re a Vermonter, you’re always a Vermonter.