by Jenna Shirley Scoresby

You know how you don’t appreciate what you have until you’re removed from it? It took moving away from Rexburg to see clearly the blessings I received from growing up there. I thought it was appropriate with Thanksgiving coming up to make a list of the things I most took for granted in my Madison County childhood.

Range-free Living: Within walking distance from my home I could drop off the rope swing into the river at Cheney’s, picnic at Twin Bridges, ride bikes in the mountains, hunt for arrowheads on Roundtop, and go inner-tubing in the canals. With nary an adult in sight. That’s a happy childhood.

Release-time Seminary: This is a blessing I totally took for granted. I just assumed this happened in all high schools. I regret that I took the word “release” too literally and spent way too many seminary hours eating waffle fries at Arctic Circle. It’s a good thing I didn’t have to endure early morning seminary. At it was, my bus showed up at 7:15 for my 45-minute commute from Archer. And curling my bangs was a half-hour ordeal in front of that. I would have been up before the neighbor’s rooster.

No f-words in the high school hallways: Now I know there were potty-mouths in my graduating class, but I didn’t realize until I left the city and worked with teenagers in other cities just how clean hallway language was at Madison High. This is a huge problem in the Arizona town I currently live in. I can’t recall hearing an f-word blatantly shouted during my trek from Mr. Bates’ science lab to the gym for P.E. Teens generally have cleaner mouths in Rexburg. Granted, kids still got pregnant in high school there, but cussing about it was unacceptable.

The Sand Dunes: Bonfires and “Old Keg” (root beer) parties in the summertime, sledding in the winter. Rexburg would be pretty dull without the dunes.

Abundant Teenager Job Opportunities: This is one advantage that really fuels my desire to go back and raise my kids there. For the small fries, there are lawns to mow, gardens to weed, raspberries to pick, babies needing sitting. For teenagers there are spuds to harvest, houses to clean, pipe to move, a plethora of fast food restaurants- and most in friendly and safe environments. For those anxious to flee Rexburg upon graduation, but still be relatively close to Mama, there are hotels to clean in West Yellowstone and Jackson, WY. I have no idea how my AZ kids, who will be teens in just a few years, will ever learn to work. It’s going to be harder here than it would be in Rexburg.

A “No Locked-Door Policy”: Of course there are a few exceptions- I remember hearing rumors about a neighbor walking into people’s unlocked houses when she knew everyone would be at church to steal prescription drugs. But for the most part this is a blessing. For the past six months my dad has been in and out of hospitals with back surgeries. During his last stay my mom told me about coming home day after day to a fridge full of food for dinner. In Rexburg, it’s ok to leave your house unlocked and it’s ok to enter your neighbor’s house, uninvited, when no one is home.

What other town can give you all that?