The Big Smoke - Town Vs City

The Big Smoke

Lindsay is a small town 130 kilometers north east of Toronto in the heart of the Kawartha Lakes. With a population of roughly 25 000, it is a self-sufficient community providing a small town feel that I can call home.

Is living in the city better than living in the country? The question is one that’s been disputed since the beginning of urbanization. A question, that many believe there to be no universal answer to but more of a personal preference. Living in both environments has allowed me the opportunity to answer that question. Living in the country is far superior to living in the city.

Four years ago, at the end of my childhood years, I moved to Newmarket Ontario from a little town called Lindsay. It was quickly apparent that the Country and City were two very different worlds, as an effortless task in the country became a mission impossible.

In Lindsay, I would wake up to bird’s song and a cool summer breeze circulating the freshest air through my window. The gentle rustling of the leaves from the 150 year-old oak tree makes me finally get out of bed. Going downstairs my mom tells me I must go to the store and pick up eggs and milk. I straddle my 21-speed bicycle and jet off on the old train track path that ran behind my house. Five minutes and I’m in the heart of town. Reaching Kent Street I hop off my bike and begin to walk it. Biking was not allowed on the sidewalk. It was only a short walk to the store anyways and I like looking in the shop windows and seeing familiar faces. I walk past half a dozen people I know, greeting them with a smile and a wave or a friendly, “how are yeah?” Reaching the grocery store, I lean my bike against the storefront window and buy a dozen eggs and a gallon of milk. It cost me $4.25 so I decided to buy a pack of gum. Instead of walking back down Kent Street I chose to take the river path home. I pass men fishing and people launching their boats getting an early start on their day on the lake. People walking their dogs leash-less and a father and son skipping rocks into the river. Returning home I waited for my mom to finish making breakfast passing the time by watching my father work on his motorcycle. A splendid country morning.

About three years to that morning it was moving day. Selling our six-bedroom house with an acre lot for around 300 thousand dollars we moved into a smaller house in Newmarket costing near double that. My mom often called Toronto “the big smoke.” I quickly realized why as it was mid-summer and smog alerts were all over the news. I also soon found out how difficult it was to run that same errand I had three years before. Heading out this time in my truck, I knew the grocery