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Usually, when someone from the rest of the United States is asked to come up with an image of the Great Plains, one of the things he or she will mention is the Small Town. This image, often drenched in nostolgia, comes complete with mother's baking apple pies, hometown football games, religiously devoted families and the like. Oddly enough, judging from the lecture by Dr. Isern, this isn't entirely fall from the truth; or, at least, the truth of the way things once were.
One of the most interesting ideas brought up in lecture was the split between the town-community and the farm-community and the lack of interplay between the two of them. Growing up in the country myself (3 miles out from a town of 189 people, thank you very much!) it always seemed as if you still identified yourself with one of the small towns near by (Despite going to church in the nearby town of Bevent, my family considered itself Elderon people. Its where we went to elementary school, and the general store there was the first stop if you had to but anything. Even more so; there was just something weird about Bevent, and we couldn't fathem wanting to associate ourselves with that place!) I had just always assumed that this was a universal trait and, more over, was the way things had always been. Apparently, I was wrong.
I was actually pleasent to hear about the different community bonds which held people together at that time. I think one of the dominant views of the Plains in this nation is of a very lonesome place; but it would seem that the settlers of the time would not have agreed with that idea at all. It seemed like there was plenty of social activities to keep people busy year 'round, and to strengthen the feelings of community.