Critters sing all the way home on Hwy 27

Harnett County School Board meetings are so congenial I thought I was in a prayer meeting today.

On my way home, a thirty-minute drive to Cameron, I enjoyed the rural views and rustic buildings and wondered how long it would last.

I recalled driving North Carolina Highway 27 some years back on the way home from the beach and rolling down the windows on this stretch of lonesome blacktop. Fond memories of family farm visits wafted inside while the rolling landscape seemingly moved in time with singing cicadas and cricket frogs.

“People in rural areas live at a different pace, a gentler pace,” I told myself about how the board of education members treated one another so kindly.

I hit a pothole and realized with nearly 112,000 acres of Harnett County farmland, heirs are holding million-dollar tickets to luxurious retirements, and developers are fine tuning marketing promises to keep a rural feel in their subdivisions.

Pass by any of the 13 subdivisions and try to feel the lonesome blacktop. Try to hear the singing creatures that are healthy environmental indicators and anyone knows what happened there -big money.

When the population increases, the environment’s health indicators decrease.

People who do not appreciate and acclimate to the gentler rural pace of endearing places like Harnett County impact future generations.

Simple as it may sound, the future of Harnett County is in the heirs’ hands. If they find a way to preserve the farmland, they preserve the culture.

The future of the school board is likewise at stake, because newcomers may not acclimate, which means students are impacted, and they are the future.

I look forward to the next Harnett County meeting.

See you on the backroads,

Stephanie

Moore Family Farms