In My Home Town

Accountable · Post by **Accountable** » Fri Sep 23, 2005 5:05 am

I lived in four different towns before I graduated high school, but I call Many, Louisiana, my home town. I believe its heyday was in the 50s. It's kind of run down since then. But it still holds its small-town flavor and pride. I seldom go back there, but I visit some Looking at the weather-worn signs & grass in the cracks on main street make me feel down, but I forget all of that when I meet the people, with their ready smiles and hospitality.

What are the plusses and minuses of your home town?

lady cop · Post by **lady cop** » Fri Sep 23, 2005 5:11 am

i grew up in a small bedroom town to DC. government people and leave it to beaver life. i miss it and long for it. ah nostalgia. gets really bad in Fall and at Christmas. then i spent 20 years in Mass., and had 40 acres of woods and cranberry bogs. and apple orchards. i am soooooo homesick! :-1

Bez · Post by **Bez** » Fri Sep 23, 2005 12:30 pm

I live in a small seaside town that attracts 'retirees' because of the mild climate and the flattish nature of the landscape.

I have all lived here all my life and have never been further than France. There are some beautiful places in the UK that I have visited and thought "This would be a lovely place to live"...however as soon as I am about 6 miles from home I am so glad to be back in my home town...I have the beach 10 minutes to the south and the countryside 5 minutes to the north.....my kids all live within 20 minutes drive.....NO PLACE LIKE HOME EH ??

chonsigirl · Post by **chonsigirl** » Fri Sep 23, 2005 5:35 pm

My hometown is a suburb of L.A., no laughing now it is true-Hollywood. Pluses-in the 1950s it was great for a kid to live there, then we moved out into the valleys of L.A. Down side-now it is overcrowded and too expensive to live there. It is much better back here in the East. But you can't beat the weather in L.A.!

nvalleyvee · Post by **nvalleyvee** » Fri Sep 23, 2005 5:53 pm

I was in Roswell a couple of years ago for a funeral and drove by the house in which my grandparents raised me. It was soooo sad. There were junk cars in the front yard that we used to play baseball in with an empty milk carton and the butt end of a broomstick. The house was falling down and people were drinking beer at 11am. I was sad. The carriage house was a pile of rubble and my Grandmothers glorious garden was nothing but a weed patch. It was very sad.

Kathy · Post by **Kathy** » Fri Sep 23, 2005 7:29 pm

My home town has changed drastically in the past twenty years....It was a booming oil community when I was in high school, but when the bottom dropped out, the town went down hill too...someone made up bumper stickers that said, "Will the last person that leaves Enid please turn out the lights?" People were making money and spending it like it was free water....what a change! Banks closed as did many business and a good number of people lost everything. This used to be an extremely wealthy community, but not anymore.

The brand new mall that was built when I was in high school is a joke. Not many stores and it is basically a ghost town....a new company has recently purchased it, so there is hope.

We do have a charming downtown square: Courthouse and post office in the center with a small park and shops surrounding it. Many of the shops left when the mall opened and downtown was empty....now there is a movement to revitalize the downtown area.

One thing that has not changed in the beautiful churches...we have too many to count.

There is an Air Force Base on the south side of town and this community is GUNG HO to keep it here...we were lucky with this last round of BRAC and the base was not only kept open, but we are getting several missions and new jobs from some of the other bases that were closed.

The schools are good...lots of community pride and a strong emphasis on education...Two hospitals which is really something for a town of this size (about 55,000).

We are surrounded by wheat fields and cattle pastures...Harvest is a fun time of year except for the wheat in the air does a number on my allergies!

This is a good place to raise a family...A lot of us that left have come back and now we are working to make our town something to be proud of again. We are seeing new businesses come in...rumour has it we have Starbucks coming. (that may not seem like a big deal to some of you, but when I lived in Maryland, I became addicted and it's been like going through de-tox not being able to get it!) Now if only Krispy Kreme would move in...oh, and a Target...We have a Super Walmart..

Have I rambled on too much? I really do like it here...just wish we had better shopping and that I would not have to drive 2 hours for decent live entertainment.

Bridget · Post by **Bridget** » Tue Sep 27, 2005 4:01 pm

My home town is on the other side of the county. I never go there even tho it is 22 miles away. It is so run down even the mayor was raised on the wrong side of the tracks. When I was a kid there were three big factories there and even tho we lived on a factory workers wages we had a good life. That was pre unions. I loved my litttle town -then. The last time we drove by my old house the storm door was hanging by one hinge and a old sofa was on the front porch. The old maple tree we all played under had been cut down. My mothers flower gardens had been trampled into the dirt. I cried and my husband told me to never go by there again and I haven't.

chervil · Post by **chervil** » Wed Sep 28, 2005 5:54 am

I grew up in a small village, well not even in it we lived on the outskirts on a hill. I loved the peace and the space. We were surrounded by woods, fields and salisbury plain. Myself and my sisters had many a happy hour playing and annoying the local farmers. The downside is it was very insular and most of the people who lived there had been there for generations. My mum is a londoner born and bred and despite being there for 28years is still refered to as 'that towny'. It does also have a thriving gossip grape vine, you can sneeze one end of the village and in the time it takes you to walk to the other end rumour control has said you've died from pneumonia!

:yh_giggle

Accountable · Post by **Accountable** » Wed Sep 28, 2005 6:20 am

chervil wrote: I grew up in a small village, well not even in it we lived on the outskirts on a hill. I loved the peace and the space. We were surrounded by woods, fields and salisbury plain. Myself and my sisters had many a happy hour playing and annoying the local farmers. The downside is it was very insular and most of the people who lived there had been there for generations. My mum is a londoner born and bred and despite being there for 28years is still refered to as 'that towny'. It does also have a thriving gossip grape vine, you can sneeze one end of the village and in the time it takes you to walk to the other end rumour control has said you've died from pneumonia!

:yh_giggle
:wah: Great place to raise children, but it must be a horrid place to live as a young adult. I also lived out of town (4 miles) as a child. We could have been siblings, except I don't know what a salisbury plain is. :rolleyes:

chervil · Post by **chervil** » Wed Sep 28, 2005 6:53 am

Your right accountable teenage years were hard in such an out of it place.

Salisbury plain is a flat area about the size of the isle of white ( a small island off the coast of the uk ) None the wiser???## Its big!

Anyway its owned largely by the army and is therefore protected from development, they use part of it for training and firing ranges but it is a very unspoilt place that can be rambled around for many a happy hour. I live in a semi urban area now on the outskirts of a town, close enough to stuff if I want it but green enough to stop me going mad. Ahh all this talk of the village of the damned is sparking other childhood memories, all the clubs my well meaning mother signed us up for. My sisters and I appeared in many a village panto, my lantern fairy outfit springs to mind wearing that much acrylic and nylon is surely some kind of fire hazard! Oh and the country dancing, the maypole dance and the eight reel. Oh yes and my particular favourite the fancy dress float at the village fete, being towed behind a tractor on a cow c**p covered float through the glorious british summer weather............ that'll be wind and rain then!

:wah:

Accountable · Post by **Accountable** » Wed Sep 28, 2005 7:01 am

"Village of the damned" :wah:

I really like the way you write. Vivid.

Bridget · Post by **Bridget** » Wed Sep 28, 2005 7:20 am

Chervil and Bez you tell so many lovely stories of the countryside of England it makes me want to hop a plane. Bez I have read stories of the southern part of England being the best area. Sounds like it is true. You know the ten years of the fifties was the best time to have lived by everyones account in the USA. What time was the best in England according to you and your parents. I figure it most certainly would be after the war. Maybe before the war?

chervil · Post by **chervil** » Wed Sep 28, 2005 7:46 am

Bridget I have lived and worked all over the UK and it all has its gems north and south. The south probably has the edge with the weather as the further north you go the wetter it is. We do have some very old world chocolate box countryside and villages. I don't know that there was a golden age but i'd say that a lot of rural communities have been ruined and in some cases destroyed by outside people buying holiday homes and pricing the locals out of the housing market. That is part of the reason I now live where I do I couldn't afford a house in my area and so much of the land is protected that they don't build a lot of new homes.

So i'd say the age before second home ownership became trendy was a golden age.

:-6 :-6 :-6