Remember this song? “Green acres is the place for me … land spreading out so far and wide, keep Manhattan just give me that countryside.”

I reckon most of us who live in rural parts of Pennsylvania feel this pretty deeply. Would you rather stand in the shadow of a skyscraper, or a maple tree? Hear traffic noises, or birds chirping?

You get the picture. That picture, though, is starting to look rough around the edges. City folks say we give up a lot to live in rural America — convenience being first in many respects. That’s understandable to a degree. We have folks who have to drive 20 minutes or more to get to a Dollar General.

Yet we’re taxpaying residents of the state and country. There are things we’ve come to expect, like access to things for the betterment of health, safety and quality of life.

Slowly, we’ve seen that access dwindle.

Remember years ago when the postal service slashed rural delivery? That’s on the table again. Can’t make it to your post office that’s open one or two days a week, for 2 or 3 hours? We don’t really have an answer for you, so maybe try harder (I say facetiously)?

Does your health insurance only cover mail delivery of medications? Maybe you should try to stay healthier (I say, angrily)?

Don’t have internet access to pay your bills? Don’t get your bills in time to pay them through the mail? That’s really not our problem (I recount, seething with rage).

That’s two strikes in the access column — internet and mail delivery.

Let’s go to healthcare. We’ve been lucky, I suppose, that we’ve had some pretty incredible providers for as long as we have. Healthcare on the national scale has become unaffordable. In rural areas, where providers aren’t exactly getting rich off the low population, it’s getting nearly impossible to attract providers.

Part of the answer has been for them to combine services. We watch, here in McKean County for example, as that access pulls away to the north, south, east and west. And we’re sitting in the middle, wondering what we did to deserve this. Strike three in the access column. Back in 2020, when COVID-19 shut down the world, us rural folks saw some things that made the future look a bit bleak. For one, where was the fresh food on the grocery shelves? That was a big enough kick in the ass that people started to look into gardening and farming for self-sustenance. Now we have some local growers and farmers markets that are unquestionably superior to big box stores. Schools are stressing agriculture again.

Maybe we get a few points back from that third strike.

The bigger picture here is one that should cause concern. Rural access is dwindling to the services the rest of the nation takes for granted. This, in turn, will continue to drive young folks out of the area when they graduate.

The state government is happy to give money to tourism, to encourage people to visit. Great, could they maybe bring our mail? Could they send some OB/GYNs on vacation here to deliver babies?

Of course I’m being sarcastic there, but the truth of the matter is, we need more people in prominent positions to remember Eddie Albert’s view on “Green Acres” instead of just looking at Eva Gabor’s.

Rural America is stunning. It’s a worthwhile place to live, to raise a family, to work and to recreate. We don’t all “just adore a penthouse view” like she did on that popular 1960s sitcom.

But we don’t all want to live like early settlers on Walton’s Mountain either.

(Marcie Schellhammer is an editor and reporter for The Era. She can be reached at marcie@bradfordera.com)

Marcie Schellhammer