I GREW UP on a farm believing I had a totally normal childhood. Later, in my teenage years, I thought that it was maybe abnormal (as in "Young Frankenstein," circa 1975). Now, as a young adult living in the city of Richmond, I've learned how to enjoy both worlds.

As a kid I loved going to town to visit friends and my grandparents. They had a dairy farm in Fredericksburg, known by some as Braehead Farm. My cousin and I would go swimming in my grandfather's "cow pond." Looking back on this now, I cringe at what we were most likely covered in from head to toe. I guess everyone else was in a community pool, swimming in chlorinated water.

When visiting my friend's house downtown, her parents wouldn't let us go out and walk around town. I was confused--what could go wrong? At our farm, my neighbor and I would go out into the woods for half a day at a time. We would always go home when we got hungry. My mom did not seem concerned or worried.

I was at a friend's house in town once taking a shower and she flushed the toilet. I was stunned when the water in the shower did not turn hot. Anyone who has lived in an older house on a well knows what I'm talking about.

I never understood the deathly fear of snakes that so many people possess. I would catch black snakes as they climbed up the purple martin birdhouse for a meal or tried to steal chicken eggs. I would show the snake to everyone then take it a few miles away and let it go.

When I was in kindergarten, my dad came home to see me playing with a tiny baby snake with a pretty shiny head. I was always told to "treat every snake as if it was poisonous." So, I held it by its head while playing with it. To his surprise it was a copperhead! Dad told me he was going to take it to the woods and let it go. To this day, I wonder what he really did with it.