Rural Banter

Author: ERICA GOODMAN

Travel along NY Route 4 on any weekend and you will probably reach your destination a few cents poorer.

Just over the Vermont border in upstate New York rests the small town of Whitehall. The hamlet of about 4,000 people asserts its title as the birthplace of the U.S. Navy. The high school advertises the biggest celebrity it has produced, Tim Layden, a journalist who covers horse racing and skiing for Sports Illustrated. But unless you are a naval historian or a town citizen, these attributes go unnoticed.

What else is Whitehall known for? The infamous "coin drop," an institution in itself for the rural community. Although small towns lack the heavy traffic of metropolitan areas, they are not excused from obstacles to motorized travel. From firemen dressed in their yellow suits to cheerleaders with pom-poms in hand, organizations in need of funds halt traffic, backing it up between the town's two traffic lights. It's a social affair for the townspeople who have the opportunity to chat while waiting for the light to change.

Roadblocks on many a county route or village main street are not uncommon. In the summer months, men and women sporting orange hard hats and matching reflecting vests swarm the rural byways. They stop traffic in order to safely complete their much-needed work of mending the damages incurred to the pavement throughout the rest of the year. Frost heaves leave mountain roads split-level and rutted. The asphalt receives a daily beating from the repeated travel of milk and fuel trucks and farm machinery. No, swerving drivers are not under the influence of alcohol or any illegal substance but are just doing what they must to avoid the treacherous potholes.

If not for philanthropic endeavors or road reconstruction, natural occurrences are likely the cause of traffic jams. It's a constant game of dodgeball as cars screech to a halt to avoid animals darting out along the roadways. Deer, a crepuscular animal, tend to wander out of the woods and fields just as dusk settles in, a time when the dimming sunlight tends to trick the eyes. Wild turkeys are, unsurprisingly, not the fastest moving creatures, especially when they try to lift their weighty bodies and fly across the road. Keep that in mind and you might save a windshield someday. Wandering cows are no speedier and much larger, oftentimes making it faster to physically shoo them back into the pasture than to wait for them to mosey past. And with storms also come road damage, from downed trees to flooded brooks.

Sure, the city folk can complain about the congestion and the traffic of their urban centers - stoplights at every block, hordes of people pushing over the crosswalk, etc. etc. Well, those outside of the cities have their own list of travel impediments. And no matter how bothersome slowing down our rapid pace is, stopping to watch a family of ducks amble across the road is often well worth the interruption.