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RE: why its good to live in your hometown - 8/4/2007 5:52:26 PM   
freex


Posts: 28
Joined: 1/20/2005
Status: offline 		Aye, for me; I never really lived in one place long. My father was in the navy so we moved quite a bit. Since I am older now I have gone back to several places i had fond memories of and somehow things are always different. That hill that was no huge, or the raging river of furry are now a small grade hill barley worth mentioning or a trickling creek. Always remember what it was that made you who you are today. Be proud of what your world was and what it still might become.

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Domina ad porta liberatae mae

(in reply to DiurnalVampire)
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RE: why its good to live in your hometown - 8/4/2007 5:53:48 PM   
SeeksOnlyOne


Posts: 2012
Joined: 5/14/2007
Status: offline 		well im from georgia, so youre gettin coke, not pepsi mister

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it aint no good til it hurts just a little bit....jimmy somerville

in those moments of solitude, does everyone sometimes think they are insane? or is it just me?

(in reply to Sinergy)
Profile   Post #: 22
RE: why its good to live in your hometown - 8/4/2007 6:12:29 PM   
slaveboyforyou


Posts: 3607
Joined: 1/6/2005
From: Arkansas, U.S.A.
Status: offline 		I have mixed feelings about my hometown.  I have lived here since I was 6.  I have left many times, but I always come back here.  I grew up in a nice, middle class neighborhood.  There weren't really any bad areas of town.  The town isn't big enough to have areas you stay out of.  The town has changed a lot since I was a child.  There are houses being built everywhere, and they all look the same.  In the last 15 years, there has been a huge surge in the Hispanic population.  When I was a kid, there was only one Mexican family that I went to school with.  They owned a successful restaurant here and were well off.  Now there are Mexican grocery stores, signs in Spanish, etc.  I don't blame them for moving here.  This is a nice place to raise a family.  It's not too small, but it's not a huge town either. 

Despite the changes, it's still familiar and it's home to me.  I understand now how my father felt when we used to take trips to West Virginia when I was a child to visit family.  He always seemed blue when we had to leave.  I didn't understand it at the time.  The town he grew up in was boarded up, the industry had long ago left.  The entire state is like that.  It's just a rusted out shell of it's former self.  But, it was still where he had come from.  Despite the familiarity, I still get the urge to leave now and then.  It's like that old cliche, "the grass is always greener on the otherside of the fence."  I think it is normal for people to want more than they have, even when what they have is pretty good.   

(in reply to SeeksOnlyOne)
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RE: why its good to live in your hometown - 8/4/2007 7:17:40 PM   
velvetears


Posts: 2933
Joined: 6/19/2006
Status: offline 		There must be a pattern here - i as well grew up in a poor downtown area of a city, i guess you could call it a slum.  i have fond memories though of playing ball in the vacant parking lot with all my friends.  Going down to the beach, going to the schools and playing basketball, sneaking off to take the subway into nyc.  i had relatives living there till my aunt died in 2003 - i don't go there much now, maybe sometimes to visit a few graves and go sit by the water and reminisce.  My old apartment building is still standing - although i hear Trump is trying to buy all the rent controlled tenants out so he can put up another one of his skyscrapers - that will be a sad day for me.

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RE: why its good to live in your hometown - 8/4/2007 7:23:29 PM   
cuddleheart50


Posts: 9718
Joined: 2/20/2006
From: Kentucky
Status: offline 		I live in the same town I grew up in....only a block from the house I was raised in.  It's a very nice neighborhood, everyone is friendly as they have always been.  And I still run into the people I graduated with many moons ago.  I like where I live, I feel comfortable here.  There's no place like home.

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Dance like no one is watching,
Sing like no one is listening.
Love like you've never been hurt
and live like it's heaven on Earth.


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Profile   Post #: 25
RE: why its good to live in your hometown - 8/4/2007 7:37:09 PM   
KMsAngel


Posts: 17415
Joined: 4/13/2007
Status: offline 		i wish i felt that way. i haven't been home for an significant amount of time since i left 24 years ago. and i've lived in australia for nearly 18 years now. i sometimes feel like a woman without a country. you can't ever go back home, really, when you've been gone for so long, but now that i'm divorced and so many of those ties are cut here as well - where is home really? so far, i've only been able to say - where my kids are.

(in reply to cuddleheart50)
Profile   Post #: 26
RE: why its good to live in your hometown - 8/4/2007 8:43:02 PM   
Termyn8or


Posts: 18681
Joined: 11/12/2005
Status: offline 		I refuse to move. I live in the city in which I was born and I wouldn't trade it for the world. I know where everything is at, I have business connections, I know which pizza places are good (I don't order pizza, but the other stuff).

Now we are talking the poorest city in the US, Cleveland, Ohio. We basically have the worst of everything, yet I stay. Why ?

Damifino,

T

(in reply to KMsAngel)
Profile   Post #: 27
RE: why its good to live in your hometown - 8/4/2007 9:29:11 PM   
littlesarbonn


Posts: 1710
Joined: 12/3/2005
From: Stockton, California
Status: offline 		The place I grew up is now a crack neighborhood where gangs have motorcycle races up and down the street. I don't visit the old neighborhood too often. Of course, it wasn't all that great when I was living there either.

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(in reply to SeeksOnlyOne)
Profile   Post #: 28
RE: why its good to live in your hometown - 8/4/2007 9:53:12 PM   
DomKen


Posts: 19457
Joined: 7/4/2004
From: Chicago, IL
Status: offline 		I grew up in a small town near Atlanta. We had a real Main St. with a drug store with a soda fountain. I would mow yards and the like for pocket change in the summer so I could go over there and get a sandwich and a real cherry coke, one made with the cherry syrup used for sundaes. If my parents had been worth a damn it would have been an idyllic way to grow up. Even with the neglect and abuse it wasn't so bad that I don't have some fond memories.

Unfortunately this little town was too close to Atlanta. About the time I got to middle school big subdivisions starting being built. Then came the strip malls and all the rest of what makes suburbs awful places to live. Now Main St. has become a half assed tourist attraction. Signs all over the place welcome you to Olde Towne _______. I've been back a couple of times in the last 20 odd years and it is almost enough to bring me to tears.

I can never go home again and that saddens me.

(in reply to Sinergy)
Profile   Post #: 29
RE: why its good to live in your hometown - 8/5/2007 4:05:45 AM   
SubinMaine


Posts: 1888
Joined: 1/7/2006
Status: offline 		Where i grew up WAS awsome. We could stay out until 10-11pm at 5/6 years old and play chase/tag, play basketball in the park.  Everyone watched out for everyone else, neighbors knew one another and weren't afraid to reprimand you if they saw you doing something "wrong"...and would tell your parents about it...it was almost idyllic.

Now, it's something different.  i hate going back to that town to visit my parents.  There's gangs walking the streets, shootings on a daily basis, arson, theft, trash everywhere.  i remember looking at my nephew and wondering what it was like growing up for him there, knowing what it was like when i was a kid.

It does make me very sad to see how the city has changed (not for the better), but i have my memories of what it was...and i LOVE the fact it was that way when i was a kid *smile*


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That which yields is not always weak...

(in reply to DomKen)
Profile   Post #: 30
RE: why its good to live in your hometown - 8/5/2007 4:09:19 AM   
SeeksOnlyOne


Posts: 2012
Joined: 5/14/2007
Status: offline 		Ken, it sounds like you grew up in my home town, or pretty close to it.......was the drug store dunaways at belmont hills shopping center by any chance?  that or the town where youre required by law to own a handgun?  it could be any one of the towns close to me here in metro atlanta.....

< Message edited by SeeksOnlyOne -- 8/5/2007 4:10:29 AM >

_____________________________

it aint no good til it hurts just a little bit....jimmy somerville

in those moments of solitude, does everyone sometimes think they are insane? or is it just me?

(in reply to DomKen)
Profile   Post #: 31
RE: why its good to live in your hometown - 8/5/2007 4:12:43 AM   
SeeksOnlyOne


Posts: 2012
Joined: 5/14/2007
Status: offline 		oh yeah B-all the moms in our neighborhood had their on way of whistling-no matter where we were, we heard that whistle, and knew who was being called to come home-lol......roamed the neighborhood with no fear, except getting caught by someone elses mom doing something wrong-cuz you knew she would call your mom and there would be hell to pay when ya got home........

_____________________________

it aint no good til it hurts just a little bit....jimmy somerville

in those moments of solitude, does everyone sometimes think they are insane? or is it just me?

(in reply to SubinMaine)
Profile   Post #: 32
RE: why its good to live in your hometown - 8/5/2007 4:25:04 AM   
sublimelysensual


Posts: 298
Joined: 7/25/2005
Status: offline 		I grew up in a very small town as well, and moved back with my um after I divorced. When I was a kid, we had literally two stoplights, and McDonald's left because they couldn't get enough business (yes, that kind of small). I couldn't wait to leave. After not living here for 6 years, I started to realize what I missed. Being able to walk outside any hour of the day or night without thoughts of being mugged -or worse-; literally running into someone you know every time you go to a store. Being able to leave car doors unlocked. Buying things on credit without a credit check at the local jewelry/furniture, etc store.
    The town has changed somewhat. More traffic lights, not only a McDonald's, but all it's competitors, even an Appleby's and Ruby Tuesdays. A super Wal-Mart. But all of those are on the outskirts. Going downtown is still the same as it always was. Like Seeks, I run into adults that I taught to swim when they were 5. It always makes me feel old, but it also brings a smile to my face. It also makes me smile when someone calls my by the nickname I was known by growing up, but haven't used for fifteen years. I revel in being able to raise my um here, knowing the experiences she'll have, the friends she'll make, with the major drug pressure being pot, and knowing I can take her to the library and leave her in the children's section while I go to the adult section, all with the knowledge she'll be in the same place when I get back. I wouldn't give up my small town for anything, even though twenty years ago I couldn't wait to leave....
 
-a

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(in reply to SeeksOnlyOne)
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RE: why its good to live in your hometown - 8/5/2007 4:32:18 AM   
spankmepink11


Posts: 1310
Joined: 9/28/2005
Status: offline 		I grew up in a cute little town, on a river that divided MI from  Canada.   ( so small...we had to travel  3 towns over to go to McDonalds until i was in HS)  When i was in HS we couldn't get our millage to pass, so we did without things like football season, and drama club, and dances.   
   There used to be lots of little factories that were subsidiaries of the "Big 3" auto makers.
That all dried up, and even though when i go back for visits...everyone still knows my name...even know my children when they see them as ..."hey aren't  you cynthia's kid!"  much to their amusement. 

Aside from a few life long friends that i miss, there is nothing there for me.....

(in reply to SeeksOnlyOne)
Profile   Post #: 34
RE: why its good to live in your hometown - 8/5/2007 4:52:09 AM   
StellaByStarlite


Posts: 790
Joined: 2/10/2007
Status: offline
quote:

ORIGINAL: Termyn8or

I refuse to move. I live in the city in which I was born and I wouldn't trade it for the world. I know where everything is at, I have business connections, I know which pizza places are good (I don't order pizza, but the other stuff).

Now we are talking the poorest city in the US, Cleveland, Ohio. We basically have the worst of everything, yet I stay. Why ?

Damifino,

T



Hey now, as another Rust Belt native ( I'm Trumbull County), I feel obliged to defend NE Ohio. ;)

It's a good question though... why DO we stay? The economy is terrible, the jobs are practically nonexistent. I usually get funny looks when I tell people that I don't plan on moving any time soon. Everyone down in this area is aching to move.

we don't have "the worst of everything", though. That really depends on what you feel is important to you. I absolutely love the lush green countryside, the flowers, and the rural life that's never too far from us. There are local farmer markets all over the place, tons of fleamarkets, little out of the way local parks.

New York City and Chicago are both within a day's drive. Allegheny National Forest is close. Put-In-Bay, Cedar Point, Columbus Science Institute, the Carnegie Musuems, zoos...

But mostly I stay because I have connections here. Not just the human variety.... the flora and fauna are as familiar to me as my own skin.

Plus, it's damn cheap. =)

(in reply to Termyn8or)
Profile   Post #: 35
RE: why its good to live in your hometown - 8/5/2007 5:24:00 AM   
mnottertail


Posts: 60698
Joined: 11/3/2004
Status: offline 		My Hometown (Bruce Springsteen}

I was eight years old and running with a dime in my hand
Into the bus stop to pick up a paper for my old man
I'd sit on his lap in that big old Buick and steer as we drove through town
He'd tousle my hair and say son take a good look around this is your hometown
This is your hometown
This is your hometown
This is your hometown

In '65 tension was running high at my high school
There was a lot of fights between the black and white
There was nothing you could do
Two cars at a light on a Saturday night in the back seat there was a gun
Words were passed in a shotgun blast
Troubled times had come to my hometown
My hometown
My hometown
My hometown

Now Main Street's whitewashed windows and vacant stores
Seems like there ain't nobody wants to come down here no more
They're closing down the textile mill across the railroad tracks
Foreman says these jobs are going boys and they ain't coming back to your hometown
Your hometown
Your hometown
Your hometown

Last night me and Kate we laid in bed
talking about getting out
Packing up our bags maybe heading south
I'm thirty-five we got a boy of our own now
Last night I sat him up behind the wheel and said son take a good look around
This is your hometown




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Have they not divided the prey; to every man a damsel or two? Judges 5:30


(in reply to StellaByStarlite)
Profile   Post #: 36
RE: why its good to live in your hometown - 8/5/2007 6:10:57 AM   
Termyn8or


Posts: 18681
Joined: 11/12/2005
Status: offline 		Stella, it is not the flora and fauna that makes me stay.

I practically stole a house. I got to know the neighbors and befriend them. Sometimes they bring me food, drugs, papers, guitar strings, a new mouse for my computer. And I do the same for them.

It would be very difficult to replace my job in another city. I know the industry here and where the work is. I know the good lawyers and pizza shops. I know which bars to stay out of, and where the speed traps are. A few friends and I have been rousted by narcs on a bad day - they didn't find anything.

I have a key to my nextdoor neighbor's house and can go play the drums or any of his guitars whenever I want, although I have my own. (not drums, errr, actually the drums are mine, but they are over there because he has a soundproof room)

If I don't play total garbage I can crank the tunes at three in the morning. There are three houses in the hood here that have been foreclosed upon, so we have spare driveways to use for like when it's street cleaning day, or for whatever reason.

I have a pool of local labor that works for me cheap, but I take care of them other ways. They also serve as a pretty effective army if needed. Let's just say if I need my car or roof fixed I do not go to the yellow pages.

I am about to turn 47 in two weeks, and it took about 30 of those years to develop these connections. I would not want to start over. Maybe twenty years ago it would be a viable option, but no more.

I don't think I could start over somewhere else. I would have to pay rent and obey the law, things like that. I don't think anyone out of town would give me the sweet deal that both of my employers give me. And I only have to work parttime because all the houses and cars are paid off. My biggest payment is on a credit card, for three vacations to FL. As much as I enjoyed myself, I wanted to come back for some reason.

I know the industry in which I work, and the history thereof, in this city. I haven't seen a job application in 15 years.

The city loses my traffic warrants, and did so for my Dad back when he was wild. Last time someone actually called the cops on my loud music, my house is so secure they literally gave up, I just let the song end and made like I was asleep. And that was a long time ago, nowadays if they get annoyed they come straight to me and bitch about it. Much preferable. But they know I am not the kind of nut that would shoot them or something.

We've only had two cars stolen from us ever, what irks me is when they stole mine, how the hell did they know it had a full tank of gas ? Fuckers.

The normal stats about the economy and quality of life here do not apply to me.

I'd be a fool to leave.

T

(in reply to StellaByStarlite)
Profile   Post #: 37
RE: why its good to live in your hometown - 8/5/2007 6:23:28 AM   
DomKen


Posts: 19457
Joined: 7/4/2004
From: Chicago, IL
Status: offline
quote:

ORIGINAL: SeeksOnlyOne

Ken, it sounds like you grew up in my home town, or pretty close to it.......was the drug store dunaways at belmont hills shopping center by any chance?  that or the town where youre required by law to own a handgun?  it could be any one of the towns close to me here in metro atlanta.....

No. I can't see any harm in just naming the place though. It is Conyers in Rockdale County.

(in reply to SeeksOnlyOne)
Profile   Post #: 38
RE: why its good to live in your hometown - 8/5/2007 6:24:58 AM   
StellaByStarlite


Posts: 790
Joined: 2/10/2007
Status: offline 		Yeah, I can totally dig that. My husband was born and raised in Niles, so he has a bit of clout  around here. And ain't it nice to know where to get good Italian food and not have to eat at the Olive Garden? Heh.

It's cool to have a solid base of informal economy... bartering, trading, little jobs on the side. Our family has a pretty decent standard of living considering my man's a social worker. The cost of living is so cheap here, though, that we can do a lot with what we have.


(in reply to Termyn8or)
Profile   Post #: 39
RE: why its good to live in your hometown - 8/5/2007 6:38:46 AM   
SeeksOnlyOne


Posts: 2012
Joined: 5/14/2007
Status: offline
quote:

ORIGINAL: DomKen

quote:

ORIGINAL: SeeksOnlyOne

Ken, it sounds like you grew up in my home town, or pretty close to it.......was the drug store dunaways at belmont hills shopping center by any chance?  that or the town where youre required by law to own a handgun?  it could be any one of the towns close to me here in metro atlanta.....

No. I can't see any harm in just naming the place though. It is Conyers in Rockdale County.


ahhhh out east.....i was raised in cobb county.....the east side of atlanta must have been the same as the west side back then......folks think im nuts because i saved a few bricks when they tore down my dads business......well they think im nuts for other reasons, but thats pertinent......

i remember riding to madison on a bike back in like 1981-and how pretty conyers and covington and madison were.....i bet i wouldnt recognize them now.....heck i barely recognize downtown smyrna.....

_____________________________

it aint no good til it hurts just a little bit....jimmy somerville

in those moments of solitude, does everyone sometimes think they are insane? or is it just me?

(in reply to DomKen)
Profile   Post #: 40
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