# Do you have a hometown? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 19, 2014, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-a-hometown/684111 "2014-03-19T20:25:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![kopek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kopek/32/337_2.png) [@kopek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kopek)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2014, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-a-hometown/684111/41 "2014-03-20T14:52:43Z")
I’m from Edwardsville, PA. Wasn’t born there but I basically grew up there and it shaped how I think and react sometimes even today. I still go back to visit often - 3-6 times a year. So yeah – I got a home town. ---
**Author:** ![Atomic\_Mama](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b5ac83/32.png) [@Atomic\_Mama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atomic_Mama)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2014, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-a-hometown/684111/42 "2014-03-20T15:50:45Z")
Born in Chicago. Childhood & grade school in Clarendon Hills; h.s. in Hinsdale; college @ Northwestern University in Evanston (where an aunt still lives). Young adulthood & career in ChiTown. Lost career after moving to Oxford, Miss. Went up to Memphis for work. A DISASTER! Relocated to Anchorage, AK; later the MatSu Valley there. Relocated to Belfast, ME in 2011. Still here but moving again … up the road to … the deal hasn’t happened YET. I consider Chicago my home town. I would NEVER move back to Hinsdale. ---
**Author:** ![Doctor\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctor_jackson/32/32_2.png) [@Doctor\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doctor_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2014, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-a-hometown/684111/43 "2014-03-20T17:11:39Z")
> [@ZipperJJ](#): > > Yep and I bought my house here. I’m a total homer. +1. I can go to a local cemetery and count back at least 8 generations. Very few in my family move away, and that’s OK by me. ---
**Author:** ![Lukeinva](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lukeinva/32/17872_2.png) [@Lukeinva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lukeinva)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2014, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-a-hometown/684111/44 "2014-03-20T17:21:10Z")
I’m an Army brat… we moved nine times by the time I was 19. Born in Germany, moved to Nebraska, then France, then Missouri, then Illinois, then Virginia, back to Germany, then Spain, and then back to Virginia. ---
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2014, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-a-hometown/684111/45 "2014-03-20T17:41:04Z")
I grew up in Portland, Oregon and lived there until I was 30 (except for 2 years in Chicago) but I have zero nostalgia for it. I haven’t been there in probably close to 20 years. ---
**Author:** ![janis\_and\_c0](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/janis_and_c0/32/21_2.png) [@janis\_and\_c0](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/janis_and_c0)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2014, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-a-hometown/684111/46 "2014-03-20T18:10:49Z")
I was born in Huntington Wv & lived there until I was almost 16. Went to college there too. I want part of my ashes scattered there off the river when I die. Haven’t lived there for 10+ years & may never again, but That’s my hometown without a doubt. ---
**Author:** ![Missy2U](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3bc359/32.png) [@Missy2U](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Missy2U)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2014, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-a-hometown/684111/47 "2014-03-20T18:44:12Z")
Yes. I have a hometown. It was really bizarre bringing my husband to it last year (the year of the funerals - three in the span of three months) - we’re from very different backgrounds. He wasn’t quite sure what to make of it. ---
**Author:** ![StusBlues](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dc4da7/32.png) [@StusBlues](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StusBlues)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2014, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-a-hometown/684111/48 "2014-03-20T20:17:33Z")
Good question. Often I’ll say I’m “from” a place as a rhetorical convenience. For example, when rural life comes up, I’ll say I’m from the little town (population ca. 600) where I went to school K-12. On the other hand, I left that town and never looked back, so when I travel now, I say I’m from Omaha. As to which of these is really my hometown, that’s a difficult question. FWIW, I haven’t been back to the aforementioned village for four years now, and that visit was after an even longer absence. In some contexts that’s my hometown; in others, my hometown is Omaha. ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2014, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-a-hometown/684111/49 "2014-03-20T20:33:40Z")
I was born in a town of two thousand, up in a mountain basin where the snow finally melts sometime after Mother’s day. When I was four the family moved 300 miles to the big city where I grew up. Now I live a couple hundred miles from that city, in the area my parents came from, where I feel more at home than anywhere. But if I could move back to the town in the mountains, I would in a heartbeat, even though I barely remember it from my childhood (been back up there several times, it is an awesomely beautiful place). ---
**Author:** ![congodwarf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e36b37/32.png) [@congodwarf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/congodwarf)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2014, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-a-hometown/684111/50 "2014-03-21T02:27:56Z")
If someone asks me where I’m from, I’ll say Worcester MA. But, it’s not home. It never felt like home. I moved there when I was 5 (don’t even know how many places I lived before that - more than 5 though) and left when I was 20. In those 15 years I lived in 2 homes with my family, 9 foster homes, and two apartments as an adult. I never stayed in one neighborhood or school long enough to make good friends or to build any kind of bonds. My mother still lives there and I go to school there. Other than going to the city for those two reasons, I avoid it at all costs. My current town has fewer than 20k people and I’d be happier if it had about 5k. I like it for the most part but I haven’t been here long enough for it to fill that home space. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2014, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-a-hometown/684111/51 "2014-03-21T02:30:50Z")
My hometown is in West Texas even though we didn’t move there until I was five. I was born in a different state, in the West, but I grew up in that one place in West Texas and indeed did not leave the town until I was 29. So it’s my hometown. ---
**Author:** ![Cunctator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/43a26b/32.png) [@Cunctator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cunctator)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2014, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-a-hometown/684111/52 "2014-03-21T03:51:53Z")
Certainly - it’s Sydney, where I currently live. I was born here and I’ve lived most of my life here. ---
**Author:** ![kambuckta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/53a042/32.png) [@kambuckta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kambuckta)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2014, 5:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-a-hometown/684111/53 "2014-03-21T05:53:16Z")
My definition of a ‘hometown’ is where, if your name is mentioned, locals know who you or your family are. No, no hometown for me. ---
**Author:** ![scootergirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e99b99/32.png) [@scootergirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scootergirl)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2014, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-a-hometown/684111/54 "2014-03-22T00:11:39Z")
I’m not sure. I’ve lived in so many places. Lima, Perú is where most of my family is, but I have family in other parts of the world too. I have lived in my current city since 1999 - the longest I’ve been anywhere. I just recently went back to Lima; had not been back in 40 years. It feels more like “home,” I suppose. I just don’t think I have that same sense of home for a particular place that many people do. Kind of a sad thing, I guess. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2014, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-a-hometown/684111/55 "2014-03-22T02:20:13Z")
> [@kambuckta](#): > > My definition of a ‘hometown’ is where, if your name is mentioned, locals know who you or your family are. > > No, no hometown for me. Eh? By that standard, nobody from London, Paris, Tokyo, Mumbai, Mexico City _et al_ has a hometown. Hell, by that standard nobody from Canberra has a hometown, to use an example closer to you. ---
**Author:** ![kambuckta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/53a042/32.png) [@kambuckta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kambuckta)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2014, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-a-hometown/684111/56 "2014-03-22T03:52:53Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > Eh? By that standard, nobody from London, Paris, Tokyo, Mumbai, Mexico City _et al_ has a hometown. Hell, by that standard nobody from Canberra has a hometown, to use an example closer to you. I guess I see a difference between '_what is your hometown’_ and _‘where are you from’_ or _‘where did you grow up?’__Hometown_ sounds to me more like a small or perhaps even rural community, one where ‘going home’ means that you’re returning to a locality that holds some familial historic significance for you. This is reflected in the title of the OP: \*\*“Do you have a hometown?” \*\*Going by _your_ standards, everybody \*of course \*has a hometown and the OP is redundant. And of course, those from London, Paris\* et al \*may have haled from a smaller community or suburb within those larger cities, in which case they might indeed have a hometown. This would be especially so if they (or their families) had been involved in the local schools, local government, sporting, artistic or even mercantile activities. But I would never say (for example) Melbourne is my hometown even though I have lived in this city (of 5 million people) for most of my life. Cities provide anonymity (for good or not so good) and I’ve left no personal footprint in its history. Does that explain my position? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2014, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-a-hometown/684111/57 "2014-03-22T23:43:46Z")
Oh yes, my hometown is where I live now. I live about 2k from the place I work and that workplace is directly across the street from the hospital where I was born. The church I attend is less than a mile away, and so is the grocery store where I do the majority of my shopping. ---
**Author:** ![installLSC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/54ee81/32.png) [@installLSC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/installLSC)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2014, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-a-hometown/684111/58 "2014-03-23T04:20:55Z")
Well I have two towns that could claim me: the small town in Eastern Washington I was born in (lived there until I was 26) and Tacoma, where I’ve lived ever since. I would say it took me nine years before I called Tacoma my home. That’s when I stopped trying to compare the weather or activities in Tacoma with my birth town, and just started accepting it as the default. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2014, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-a-hometown/684111/59 "2014-03-24T13:28:17Z")
> [@kambuckta](#): > > I guess I see a difference between '_what is your hometown’_ and _‘where are you from’_ or _‘where did you grow up?’__Hometown_ sounds to me more like a small or perhaps even rural community, one where ‘going home’ means that you’re returning to a locality that holds some familial historic significance for you. This is reflected in the title of the OP: \*\*“Do you have a hometown?” \*\*Going by _your_ standards, everybody \*of course \*has a hometown and the OP is redundant. > > \ > > Does that explain my position? I read the OP as saying she doesn’t have a hometown because she hasn’t put down roots anywhere, not because there’s nowhere that all the locals know her name. But yeah, I see your point. Weirdo. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2014, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-a-hometown/684111/60 "2014-03-24T15:08:48Z")
After all these decades, there might not be any locals left in my hometown who know my name, but it’s still my hometown, the place I grew up and spent my formative years in. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-a-hometown/684111.md?page=2)