Rural Roots: Growing Up in Southern Illinois

As farm kids become a smaller and smaller minority, I'm more than happy to say I grew up on a farm! What's it like to live on a farm and come from a small town in the middle of America's breadbasket? It's worlds apart from the big city. Our family farm is 3 miles south of Carmi, Ill., a town of about 6,000 people and five stoplights. Since this is a farming community, it's not a strange sight to see tractors or farm trucks loaded with grain going down the middle of the main street. A lot of men drive around in four-wheel drive pickup trucks and listen to the grain market reports every day. Carmi has one junior high and one high school, and these are where I spent my secondary school days. Before that I attended a country school until seventh grade.

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