When I was a toddler, I had asthma attacks fairly often. At least several times, I know my parents raced me over country roads to the doctor's office some 15 miles away for a shot of adrenalin. At that time, before the advent of the federal interstate highway system, living 30 miles from Philadelphia was considered the "exurbs" - beyond the suburbs, a catchy new name for rural communities outside large metropolitan areas.
When I-95 came plowing through, however, some small villages and the adjacent farmland became hubs of growing populations from housing developments, with widened roads and shopping strip sprawl. Others went by the wayside, becoming nothing more than crossroads with names only known by locals whose families had lived here for generations. Newcomers wondered why roads took 90 degree turns. (Originally, to respect each farms boundaries)
Even now though, living smack-dab in the middle of the northeast corridor, somewhere between Philadelphia, Allentown, and Princeton, I travel on and over some of the last dirt roads and stream fords left in this area of the country. When I need to go grocery shopping, or to the doctor or hospital, I still travel 1/2 an hour to get there. To me, this is a small price to pay for peace and tranquility, but it sure is inconvenient when you don't feel well and need to fill a prescription.
There certainly are far more remote areas in much less populated areas of this country where people travel much further than I to get medical attention. I've often wondered whether doctors that practice in these remote areas do so because it has always been their home, or if they have made a choice to do so because, for some reason, they were attracted to a lifestyle much different than their up-bringing.
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