I would lament the waste of city funds as I slept in my tent.
I am home again. After I left my home in 1964 (on the shores of Lake Michigan in Wisconsin), I lived 15 different places in 5 different states over 30 years before I returned to that same spot on the shore of Lake Michigan in 1995.
Same here! According to MapQuest, I’ve been no further than 8.6 miles from where I started out. I’ve lived in 5 houses since I was born 57 years ago.
I can’t because the place has deteriorated so badly it would be best to just bulldoze everything and start over. It’s sad how the new owners let it get so bad.
To me, “going home again” means back to the life you had. (Otherwise, it’s just moving to your old house.) But everything has changed. My folks are gone. My friends are gone. The world has changed. I’ve changed. So, even if I did move back, it is no longer “home” like it was. Just a dilapidated, drafty old house with a barn ready to fall down in the middle of the country.
I was raised in Sacramento and they don’t make guns scary enough to force me to move back there. I get hives just travelling south over the Oregon/California border.
I was raised in the San Gabriel Valley of southern California. I didn’t realize how much I disliked it until I moved away to the bay area in northern California. It was hot, smoggy, dry and horribly overcrowded. Not that the bay area isn’t crowded, but it’s not nearly as bad.
It feels more like home to me up here than it ever did down there.
I made the mistake earlier today of stating to co-workers that while I could envision the possibility of once again living in South Carolina (say, after retirement when I care more about the percentage of my money that goes to pay taxes), there was “not a chance in hell” I’d ever live in Columbia again.
Which, of course, means that I’m doomed to some day live in Columbia again. :rolleyes:
I was in my home town this weekend for my mother’s unveiling. Usually I went down to visit her, but now, there’s just my brother. I’ll probably come down occasionally, but once a year or less.
Ha ha. I went to high school in Folsom when it was a sleepy prison town, and now it’s part of that whole Sacto sprawl. Of course, I thought it was a shithole when I grew up there, and that was partly why I lived in mega cities in Asia for 20 years.
Good news: even more great restaurants. The Small Plates and Poké and Pho and Ramen and Farm-To-Table Trends have hit Madison full force. And if you miss Dotty’s or Smoky’s or Lazy Jane’s, they’re still here.
I always enjoy going back home and visiting my family.
But move back to my hometown? No, I don’t see myself ever living there.
I grew up in a rural farming community. When I visit, I can go around in a day or two and do everything in the community that I’m interested in doing. What would I do after that if I lived there?
I live in the city where I grew up. I like it here just fine. I don’t get people who insist that you’re “supposed” to move away and incessantly shit on where you grew up.
I’ve had a couple of younger relatives over the years make statements like “oh, I HAVE to leave Michigan!” like someone told them they were important or something. the arrogance is astounding.
Arrogance is a little harsh, don’t you think? Perhaps they just want to experience the world beyond their small city? No one should feel obliged to have wonder lust but I can’t see a reason to criticise someone who wants to see what the rest of the world has to offer.
I come from the UK’s second largest city, so I didn’t need to escape some no mark town. But I was interested in living in different places and finding what’s right for me - my home city is fine, but I’m happy I’ve found somewhere that suits me better. I wouldn’t have known if I’d stayed at home.
And for some of us, size has nothing to do with it. Madrid and Barcelona are a similar size, but I like Barcelona (except for some of the political stuff) and dislike Madrid (with the exception of some of the artsy stuff); I’ve got relatives who hate Barcelona (except for some of the artsy stuff) and love Madrid (except for being full of politicians).
This thread inspired me to ask my mom about my hometown.
She grew up there in the 1930’s and 40’s. Left to attend nursing school, and got married to a career military husband. They lived on bases in Pensacola Florida, Philadelphia, and eventually Cape Cod Massachusetts.
She always planned to return home after my dad retired and she did. 
I ended up going to junior high and high school in that town.
I figure it’s an advantage, of sorts, to have grown up there since when the world gets an enema we know where the hose goes and can plan on being elsewhere!
I recall on more than a few occasions walking across Folsom Dam and hearing the prison go into lockdown–that echoed right up the canyon, it did.
I left Madison about 20 years ago. My wife and I visit regularly, and so I’ve seen it change over the years. The downtown area got…taller and newer. A lot of old one- and two-floor buildings got replaced with shiny new towers that are 10+ floors, taking away some of the small-town feel. The suburban edges of town have sprawled miles further in all directions. Still plenty of good cultural features/events are still there, though. Wife and I would still consider retiring there someday.
We do go back to visit. I drove through the University area, the building are tall. We had renovated a 1863 buck house downtown. That neighborhood is now condos, house is still there though.
My biggest fear in my 20s and 30s was that I’d end up back there.
If I could afford to live in the California town I grew up in (Orinda), I’d stay here in Saint Paul and live like a freakin’ king. Besides, my family is current scattered–I have relatives in Montana, Hawaii, Washington, Mexico, Saint Paul and Los Angeles, but nobody in Orinda, or even in the Bay Area.