There’s been a lot of discussion here about people who grew up in one place, whose family is all in that place, and who never plan or would want to move from that place. That concept is foreign to me (and a lot of other people, I would imagine) but I’d like to hear what it’s like.
I’ve never had a real “home” city that I’m anchored to, although St. Louis comes close. I was born here, and my parents came home from the hospital to a condo just a block or so from where I’m sitting now. We only lived here until I was two, though; after that, we moved to Alexandria, VA, with a six-month stop in Minneapolis. Then in 1988, we moved to Cincinnati for nine years, and then to Sanibel, where my parents still live. (In case you’re wondering, my dad worked as a management consultant for one of the Big Six [or is it Four or Three now?] and was transferred a lot. I still don’t know what it is he actually did, besides travel, attend meetings, and listen to his voice mail.)
I consider St. Louis my hometown because it has always been very familiar to me. As a child, I came to visit my grandmother here a few times a year. (It probably helps that she hasn’t changed the carpet, painted the walls, or moved the furniture in the 21 years I’ve been alive.) Even so, my grandmother wants to move into assisted living in the next couple of years. Hers is probably the oldest house in my family, built in 1939, and she’s lived there since the early 1960s, but it will probably be bought by a developer and razed when she moves.
The closest family that has that “home” feeling is my father’s side of the family. They all live in Downriver Detroit. He and his five siblings grew up in River Rouge and my sisters and brother all live in that area. In fact, my brother bought my aunt’s old house last year and didn’t even know it until she came by to see it. My mother thinks his family is weird and should spread out a bit to be healthy. She was born in Tulsa and lived in Iowa before moving to St. Louis as a kid.
So are you nomadic like me, ready to settle into any city that fits, or do you want to stay in the one place that’s always been home to you?
Well, I grew up in Southern Ontario in a little town with one stoplight, and at the first opportunity I moved to the nearest city, Hamilton. Later, I moved to Toronto. I moved back and forth for twenty years. Now I live in Tallahassee, and it feels more like home than any of the other places I’ve been.
I’d like to stay here, not least because our careers are here. We don’t just have jobs, we’re in good positions in highly specialized fields. It may be near impossible to find the both of us similar gigs in any other city. And that’s all right, we like it here. Anyplace else we moved would have some drawback, related to employment or cost of living or nasty weather, or all three. We like Tallahassee. I haven’t met a lot of people who are from here, we all seem to come from elsewhere and stay. But I’m well into middle age, and I rather like being settled in a place. As for the other places I’ve lived, I don’t feel any ties to them anymore. I’m home now.
I’ve lived a number of places with my family, and have fond memories of the Boston area. But despite not having lived there yet, only nearby, I like to think of NYC as my home. Have to finish my degree before I can go home…
I always struggle with that question, because I never felt tied to any one place, and did a fair amount of moving around when I was a kid. Born in North Carolina, moved to Florida, then to Germany, back to Florida, then to CT, then back to NC, then back to CT, and then all around CT, and now in South Africa. Connecticut is where I spent the most time, and Danbury CT is where I spent most of my childhood, so now when people ask where I grew up, I say Connecticut. But it doesn’t have any real “home” significance to me.
Even now in a new country, I would never say “I want to go home” because, I really don’t know where that is. Maybe I should make that Metallica song (Anywhere I Roam, or something) my anthem.
I was born just inside L.A. County. (Than the gods I wasn’t born in Orange County! I may have been a Conservative! :eek: ) We moved to Japan when I was two, and to San Diego when I was four. San Diego was my ‘hometown’ until I was 15. I went to high school in Lancaster and lived there for 11 years in total. Then I moved to L.A. Of all of the places I’ve lived, L.A. is the place where I spent the most time.
So what’s my ‘hometown’? San Diego, since it’s where I spent my childhood? Lancaster, since that’s where I went to high school and became an adult? Or L.A. because it’s the place in which I lived the longest?
I was born and raised in Buffalo NY, as were my parents and three of my grandparents. I went to college in NYC, and have lived here ever since (about 15 years). I still consider Buffalo home, and it probably doesn’t help matters that most of the folks in my social circle here in NYC are also Buffalo natives. We tend to call both Buffalo and NYC “home” depending on what we’re talking about. (If we’re in NYC, we’ll say “When are you going to be home next?” meaning Buffalo, and if we’re in Buffalo, we’ll say “When were you planning to be home” meaning back in NYC.)
Two years ago, we bought a vacation house just outside of Buffalo (ha, yes, I know that’s funny – vactioning in Buffalo!), so that helps the whole notion of Buffalo being home, because we don’t own a home in NYC. We try to get up at least one weekend per month, and for longer periods of time in the summer.
The only thing keeping me in NYC is my job, which I love, so it’s fulfilling on that front, and I have tons of seniority, so that’s a disincentive for me to seek a similar job elsewhere. Mr. Del is not nearly as attached to his job, so we have talked about relocating back to Buffalo if things should ever change on my career front.
I know there have been several times when I’ve participated in threads on the SDMB, in the same day even, where I’ve responded to issues about New Yorkers, as well as things like “what’s it like to live in a small town.” I’ve been very vaguely worried that someone might think I’m delusional as a result.
Well, I grew up about 30 miles southwest of the Loop - in a small town. I lived there until 18, then started moving about the suburbs of Chicago. My parents lived in that same house until I was in my 20’s. For a short time (a couple three months or so) I lived in Cape Girardeau than back to Illinois and the Northwest suburbs. What do I consider “home”? Chicago is my home (even though I don’t live in the actual city).
I spent the first 18 years of my life in one town in West Virginia and the last 26 years in another. If my parents had stayed in my childhood house, I might still consider it home, but they moved out of state when I was still in college. Morgantown is home to me now.
The minute I finished my road trip from San Diego up north to begin my BA at U.C. Berkeley, I knew I was finally “home”. The SF Bay Area will always be Home to me, even if my wife and I choose to retire somewhere else in our final years.
I grew up in a small town in west GA. I consider that home and may retire there one day. However, I have made arrangements to be buried (well have my cremains buried) in the columbarium of the church I now attend because I love the place so much. I do like that crazy, strange town I was raised in though.
I say Boston to anyone that asks here. I felt more at home in Lowell, MA, where I went to college than I ever did in Waltham, MA, where I was born and raised. I don’t think Davis will ever be home. Just a stop on life’s journey. Hopefully a short one …
Home is wherever I happen to be living at the moment.
When people ask where I’m from, I usually just answer Korea. And for the record, “Where are you from?” is always the question I dread. People assume I’m Korean (Chinese, Japanese, whatever) at first glance, then they hear my accent, which is blatantly American, THEN they ask me where I’m from - and if I say Korea, then they look surprised and compliment me on my “really good” English. And then of course I am obliged to explain the particulars: that I was born in Korea, grew up in the States, and then moved to Korea when I was 13. Which usually starts another string of questions about the whole experience.
I was born in Tokyo, then lived in Boston, Maryland, Kuala Lumpur, Tokyo again, Canberra, Alexandria VA, Madison WI, Greeley, Ft. Collins, and now Boulder, CO. I have lived in Boulder for close to twenty years now, and both of my children were born in Boulder Community Hospital. Is this my hometown?
My “home” is Honolulu, HI. I was born and raised there, and I plan to move back someday. The main reason I’m not there now is because the job market isn’t the greatest and I wouldn’t have the career opportunities I do here in Los Angeles.
Peoria, IL. Born and raised there. Much of my family (of the generation before mine, at least) lives thereabouts. It had its issues, as do most towns, but I always think of it fondly, and I hope I always will.
I’d be happy to go back someday, given the opportunity. If not to Peoria, at least to Illinois. If that’s not where the fates bring me, that’s no skin off my back. It’ll always be my “hometown,” anyway.
Moved to Toronto when I was 8. Excluding a two-year travelling stint I’ve lived here ever since (including two university degrees) and I gotta tell you, I love it.
I don’t think it’s because it’s where I grew up, though. The part of the city I grew up in is one I go back to only when absolutely necessary, and deny my connection with whenever possible. And when growing up, I didn’t spend any time in the part of the city I now consider home.
I think it’s because, for me, it’s the greatest city in the world. Not too big or small, not too hot or cold, reasonaly bike-friendly, relatively multicultural, good tapwater, in a pretty great country, etc.
(How Canadian am I. I find it to be exceptional because it’s completey, perfectly unexceptional.)
Not enough good music, but hey, you can’t always get what you want. The restaurants more than make up for it.
I have a multi-acre parcel on a rather largish body of water that I call home. 3 x great-grandparents, along with my parents, are buried 2 miles away. I believe I was conceived on said parcel over 48 years ago, and live on it today. But only after years of rambling around the country.
Home is when you can go walking in your woods, and can say “oh, look! Here’s where I left those plastic army men back in 1963!”
