The Village I Remember

There is a saying that it takes a village to raise a child. Parents can’t do it alone. It takes a family – an extended family. In the primitive societies from which we evolved, a child was the responsibility of not only his parents; he was the responsibility of aunts, uncles, grandparents, clan members, even the tribe or village as a whole. He was a member of a society. He didn’t live among strangers. He lived and walked among people who had faces and names. He knew them and they knew him. They belonged and each had a duty, even a desire, to respect and look out for the other. We are born with this need for social connectedness. When this need is met, the result is conscience and love. When this need is not met, the result is family and community problems. Today, with our urban sprawl and big, consolidated schools, such a village is hard to find. However, this is the type of village in which I grew up and that’s what this story is about – the places and the people of my childhood.