Geography 101: Let's Talk About the Places You Love
 

I grew up in a very rural environment. The closest Wal Mart was 40 miles away. Our town had three cafes but no fast food restaurants. The truth is, I didn't even live in a town. I lived on a farm 8 miles out of town (1700 people). Our county was the poorest in the state with a total population of around 12,000.

Entertainment didn't come through a tv or "monitor" in our Pentecostal home. As kids we played wiffle ball, nickel hockey on the table, and velcro darts in the hall. The church kids got together for swimming, basketball, football and of course - the Pentecostal favorite - softball.

Our area was wooded and filled with many clear running streams. The big river that ran through the community was called "The Canoe Capital of the World". It was a hunter's paradise. A fisherman's paradise. A nature lover's paradise.

When I grew up, I moved to the city for several years. I couldn't handle it. I eventually moved away from it.

Where did you grow up? What was it like? What are your favorite memories from your hometown?

I was born and reared in Alaska until I was 14 years old and I loved it.

My favorite places that I have been to are;

Alaska
Southern California
Tennessee
Texas
Canada
England
Scotland
Italy
New York
Colorado

These are off the top of my head and in no particular order.

Cotton, you were born in Boston....you were the son of Increase Mather. At an early age you wrote prayers to your classmates, rebuking them for their wicked ways. At 11, according to some accounts, you spoke Latin fluently and had gone through most of the New Testament in Greek. You had begun to learn Hebrew grammar. You graduated from Harvard at the age of 14 (the youngest graduate of Harvard at that time)...You put aside your plans to become a physician to go into the ministry. You married 3 times and buried most of your 15 children.

You have had many idiosyncrasies...and were described as pedant, neurotic, megalomaniac, and a reactionary...At all costs you wanted to preserve the "Old New England way". The Puritan Revolution that you attempted to cling to was never as all important as you portrayed in your writings.

For all your efforts, you did not invigorate the religion of your time. Jonathan Edwards came along a little later and did that. It is said that "you wrote too much and thought too little for that"...It is said that you often modified or shifted your intellectual positions. Your style of writing was so antiquated that it's almost too difficult for modern readers but you did give provincial Boston a place in the sun.

Most remarkably, I never knew colonial Boston had a Wal Mart only 40 miles away!

What should I do with such a little smarty-breeches? Burn her at the stake?

Alaska huh? What part?

I grew up in place much as you did. I now live close to Lake of the Ozarks, Missouri, a retirement community, though I am to busy to go out on the water.

We love to travel and have been to England, France, Italy, Switzerland, Bahamas, Cayman Islands, Russia, Belaruse, Arkansaw, Estonia, Germany, and brief layovers in Ireland and Austria.

Our favorite place is the Northern Italian/Swiss Alps. We plan to return there soon. I wish I could live there.

Having said that, it is always good to come home to our circle of friends and family in Missouri.

http://i107.photobucket.com/albums/m...ton_Mather.jpg

Cotton, you were just a typical Puritan. You had no facial hair but for Apostolic standards, you might not have been approved of today.

Cotton needed a hair cut ,boy he needed a flat-top.

I think my lifestyle may have been a problem for Apostolics. We Puritans drank ale like water, believed in parishoners remaining silent in church, and three hour sermons at every service.

That picture doesn't flatter me at all. I would prefer my avatar picture.