The Great Plains and Canadian Prairie

Nothing in Common 

     This chapter is by far the toughest to connect to Massachusetts and will therefore probably be my shortest blog page. 
     My mom worked for Air Canada for fourteen years and she and her Canadian friends always said that they U.S.-Canadian boundaries should have been drawn vertically rather than horizontally along the 49^th parallel.  The U.S. eastern seaboard has much more in common with Quebec and Ontario than the Midwest or the Great Plains.  Saskatchewan and Manitoba have much more in common with the Midwest and the Great Plains.   
     I’m sure there are many more things in common that it seems.  I’ve chosen a couple of things from the chapter that were interesting to me.

Aging in Place

     This was of interest to me because my 92-year-old grandfather lives in the same home that he built and that my dad grew up in.  It’s in Braintree, Massachusetts.  My grandmother passed away two years ago.  She was 93 three when she passed away.  They have many neighbors who have also in the same home for a number of years.

 Here is a photo of my papa's house

     In the textbook, “aging in place “refers to the farmers in the Great Plains and the Canadian Prairies who live in isolated, rural settings (Mayda pg. 361).  While Braintree is not an “isolated” place, it is a small town with a “main street”, local stores and a small community feel to it.  I looked up “aging in place” in Massachusetts and found that there are programs that actually support this concept.  The idea behind these programs is for elderly people to stay in their homes by modifying their living space and using technology to adapt their homes.  This has become an option so that elderly people don’t have to move into retirement homes.
     According to an article at WickedLocal.com, Newton, Massachusetts is the leading township in the area of aging in place.  Over 20 percent of Newton’s population is over 60.  Rather than being a place where the aging community has low-amenity locations, the city of Newton offers modes of transportation and community activities that allows the aging population to continue to be active and to contribute to the community. 
     A woman named Marion Knapp wrote the article found in the link below.  She has lived in Newton, Massachusetts for over 40 years and she got her PhD when she was 70.  Her dissertation was on “aging in place”. 

http://www.wickedlocal.com/newton/opinion/opinion_columnists/x12621968/Knapp-The-meaning-of-aging-in-place?zc_p=1

 Suitcase Farmers

http://www.massfarmstands.com/images/MONTAGE23.jpg

     Massachusetts certainly doesn’t have the history of farming or the number of crops that can be found in the Great Plains and Canadian prairies.  There has been a huge increase in the desire to farm open spaces over the past decade in Massachusetts.  According to studies done by UMass Amherst, there was a 26 percent increase in the number of farm operators in Massachusetts between 2002 and 2007.  More than 75 percent of these “farmers” did not consider their main occupation to be farming.  Therefore, these operators are more like the “suitcase farmers” described in the textbook. 
     In 2007 there were more than 3,000 farms in Massachusetts that produced hay, fruit and nut trees, and floriculture produce.  These farms don’t contribute to the economy in a huge way; however, they do indicate a desire to maintain open lands to help decrease urban sprawl and the density of population in the state.  This is another indication of the attempts that the people of Massachusetts are making to live “green”.