Nostalgia for country roads?

"Take me home, country roads," John Denver sang. It was a huge hit. And I must admit that I have a ton of pleasant memories associated with what is now Brewer Road on the northeast edge of Booneville, and others like it. We would go barefoot all summer, and it was a sign of your manhood that you could run on a dirt road barefooted. Sometimes when it was really hot, the dirt would become a skillet, and you could stand on it, so you would have to dash to the shade of a large tree.

On the other hand, dirt roads were dusty. Everything at a house along a dirt road was covered with a film of grit, and the houses were impossible to keep clean. Back in those days many cars did not have air conditioning, including ours, and so when we drove in the summer we had to have the windows down. If you passed another car, or if you followed a car at all closely, you had to eat dirt. So, the memories are definitely mixed in nature.