Ditto this. My dad retired from the AF and he and mom left the area shortly thereafter, my brother and I stayed.
I’m always in awe of people who have those deep connections to place. I feel like I have a “home town” now, but only after 40 years there, and I’m still missing many of the connections the “townies” share.
I’d consider Dunkirk/Fredonia NY to be my hometown, since I lived there until I was 13 and it is tied with Orlando for the longest I’ve lived in a place. My mom and dad obviously lived there as well, but there are no longer relatives close by there unless you count distant relatives of my dad’s second wife.
I did not dislike it but how bad can a hometown be until you’re a teenager? I wouldn’t move back there now, though, because relative to other places in NYS, it is not cheap enough to move for the value, and not pretty enough to move for the scenery, and not close to jobs. Plus, all my favorite places to eat there are closed.
I grew up in the Baltimore suburbs, but I left home at 19. My folks sold that house and moved 6 years later - different county north of the city. I don’t consider Baltimore to be my hometown. I have no desire to live there again - interestingly, none of my 4 sibs have ever lived other than in the Baltimore metropolitan area.
I don’t consider where I live now to be my hometown either. In fact, I wouldn’t call any place I’ve lived my hometown. And as far as I’m concerned, so what? Home is where my husband and I live, no matter where that might be. I wonder what, if anything, our daughter considers to be home?
On what basis do you consider it your hometown (if you have one)?
I live in a exurb of Cleveland so I consider this town my hometown but I also consider myself a Clevelander.
**Do/did you have family there? Define family any way you like. **
My parents live here. Most of my extended family lives within 20 mins of me, in Cleveland and Akron.
When did you live there and for how long (assuming you did live there at some point)?
I’ve lived here my entire life (37 years). I purchased a house in the neighborhood I grew up in, in the same neighborhood where my parents still live.
Do/did you love it or hate it?
Love it. I love the area, love Cleveland (and Akron - I am equidistant from both) I love being a Clevelander. I love my little city and take part in local government and events.
** On what basis do you consider it your hometown (if you have one)? **
I really don’t have one, since we moved so much. But I hate being asked “Where are you from?” like I’m some kind of filthy furriner, so I tend to default to Warren, Michigan, which is where I spent the most time in my childhood (about seven years).
**Do/did you have family there? Define family any way you like. **
Nope.
**When did you live there and for how long (assuming you did live there at some point)?
**
From about 1982 to 1989.
Do/did you love it or hate it?
I liked it just fine.
If you don’t have one, are you glad or sad about that-- or something else?
It is weird to have moved around so much. Generally people - and I’d say something like 85% of people, in my experience - never move farther than 25 miles from wherever they are born. It’s fucking weird to me. You just…stayed? And they know everyone, and they’ve been in the area so long they know everything the same, and they know all the history.
Me, I’ve been an outsider everywhere I went all my life. I’m 40 now and I’m just starting to be comfortable in the area I am and I’ve been here about 20 years. I really don’t have any long term friends - how could I? And certainly no one I’ve known all my life.
On the other hand, the moving has made me really adaptable and I tend to take everything in stride. I am pretty good at making new friends, I have some great practice.
I think of the place I grew up in as my hometown.
On what basis do you consider it your hometown (if you have one)?
I grew up there–or, more precisely, I went to school there, and my family’s business (where I spent most of my non-school time) was there. I actually lived a fair distance outside of any town.
Do/did you have family there? Define family any way you like.
I did, but not really anymore. My immediate family that lived there have moved away. My father still lives there part of the time.
When did you live there and for how long (assuming you did live there at some point)?
I lived there until I left from college.
Do/did you love it or hate it?
It’s hard to say. There are things I miss about living there, but they’re not related to the town–they’re more about the rural nature of my home outside the town. I miss the green, and the stars, and the heavy scent of honeysuckle and wisteria on the evening breeze. I miss being able to walk out of my house into a forest and lose myself for as long as I want.
The town itself…I didn’t love or hate it then. I wasn’t generally unhappy. I think that with the perspective I have now, I would have hated it. It was confining, almost suffocating. A tiny, withering town that had forgotten how to dream, if it had ever known at all. I was a perpetual outsider, even though it was all I knew back then. It took me years to shake off all the fetters.
On what basis do you consider it your hometown (if you have one)?
I was born there, and lived there until, at age 15, I told my parents I’m leaving this shithole one way or another and gave them the chance to send me to boarding school before I took matters into my own hands and ran away (I was bluffing, and they probably knew it, but they got the message).
Do/did you have family there?
My parents have since moved to a retirement community in AZ, I still have cousins in the area.
When did you live there and for how long (assuming you did live there at some point)?
I lived there all the time through 9th grade, then every summer through the rest of high school and after my freshman year of college.
Do/did you love it or hate it?
I hated it. The town is a cultural, intellectual, and economic wasteland. Picture Springfield from The Simpsons minus the theatrical license.
Town: Rutland, VT
[quote=“ThelmaLou, post:1, topic:745089”]
**On what basis do you consider it your hometown (if you have one)?
**
I grew up here and currently live here.
**Do/did you have family there? Define family any way you like. **
I had a large extended family while growing up, including grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, second cousins – all of my father’s side of the family, and some of my mother’s either lived in town or nearby. Only a few cousins remain; the rest have either died or moved away.
**When did you live there and for how long (assuming you did live there at some point)?
**
I left in the mid-seventies to complete my education. After that, I moved around a bit until settling in a small college town for about twenty years; then moved back to my home town area to be closer to my elderly parents. I’ve been here now for about twelve years.
Do/did you love it or hate it?
Well, I don’t love it, but I don’t hate it ,either. There’s a great many good things about this area, but I do find it rather dull and uninspiring. I stick around because of the connections I have here, both personal and business-related. Plus, I am currently living in my childhood home to which I have a sentimental attachment. To be perfectly honest, my primary reason for staying here is pure laziness – it would take a lot of work to prepare this house for the market, find a new home, move, et cetera.
I get so annoyed when people ask me where I’m from. Best answer is: Womb.
I’m probably too literal about this, but if you know where your bed is, that’s your home. Where your home sits geographically is your hometown. Home is not where your heart is.
I was born in Illinois, grew up near Philadelphia, lived in Boston for 3 years, and I’ve lived in SoCal for 16+ years. My hometown is here in SoCal. If I end up in Boise, Idaho, that’s the next hometown.
Yes, Chicago.
On what basis do you consider it your hometown (if you have one)?
I was born here, and still live here (although I’ve moved away and come back several times). I’ve always wondered, if I was born in one place, but lived permanently in another, which would be my “home town”? But fortunately, I don’t have to decide as they are the same place.
Do/did you have family there? Define family any way you like.
All my family have moved to the suburbs, the wussies! But at least they are only a short drive away.
When did you live there and for how long (assuming you did live there at some point)?
Minus the occasional foray elsewhere, all of my 57 years.
Do/did you love it or hate it?
Love it. Wouldn’t live anywhere else. For all its foibles, Chicago cannot be beat.
On what basis do you consider it your hometown (if you have one)? I was born and raised there. I lived there most of my life. My parents and some extended family live there. My grandparents lived there. I still think of it as home and hope to live there again someday.
**Do/did you have family there? Define family any way you like. ** In addition to my parents, I have an aunt and uncle, and another uncle only recently moved away.
When did you live there and for how long (assuming you did live there at some point)? From birth until about six years ago, with only a period of a couple of months living in nearby towns in my teens. More than 30 years in total.
Do/did you love it or hate it? Didn’t like it when I was a kid and a teen, but I miss it now.
I’m not a big fan of it, either, but in my case, it usually means “You are definitely foreign, but I can’t tell from where, so I’ll just come out and ask. I mean well but all I’m doing is drawing attention to your different-ness, and reminding you that you are not a ‘real’ American.”
Yeah, it annoys me, though I smother it and smile and respond politely. But goddamnit, I’m as American as anyone.
Yes. I’ve lived there all my life except for the years when I was away at university (and even then, came back home every other weekend or so.) My brother and my mom live on the other side of town.
I do love it. It may not be objectively the best city I’ve ever been to, but it’s my town. And I’ve been feeling oddly frustrated that a musical play with the same name has been attracting so much attention on social media lately! 
Here in FL about one out of every 25 people you meet are actually from FL, so it’s a standard question.
I’ve lived in a dozen different cities spread across several countries, but I have two “hometowns.” One is Yeovil, where I was born and spent a substantial chunk of my youth. The other is Orlando and environs, where I’ve lived for basically the second half of my life and plan to live for the rest of it.
Do/did you have family there? Define family any way you like.
I no longer have any family in Yeovil. My mother and stepfather are fairly close to Orlando, and my wife’s family lives here.
Do/did you love it or hate it?
I love both Yeovil and Orlando, though I doubt I would want to live in the former now if I had the opportunity.
Do you have a “hometown”?
Yes. 
On what basis do you consider it your hometown (if you have one)?
I’m a Navy brat, but my parents were raised in the same town. Their parents lived there after my dad enlisted. When we went to visit the grandparents, we were “going home”. Even though I lived in that city for only two non-consecutive years of my childhood (my dad was deployed overseas), their hometown is my hometown.
*Do/did you have family there? Define family any way you like. *
Everyone on my side of the family and everyone on my husband’s side lives in or very near to my hometown. We have parents, siblings and siblings-in-law, nieces and nephews, aunts and uncles, and cousins of varying degrees living there. We are the only ones living more than an hour away, and we live about 12 hours away.
When did you live there and for how long (assuming you did live there at some point)?
Do/did you love it or hate it?
My father retired the year I graduated from high school. We returned to this city, and I attended college in the next town over. I met and married my husband and lived there until we moved out of state for his job. That spanned about eight years. We’ve been gone for over 20 years now. My husband grew up in this city and now wants to return. And…I really don’t. I love the area, and I loved living there when we did, but I have no desire to move back, even though I consider it my hometown.
I’m also an Air Force brat and lived in Texas, England, Italy, Japan, Texas again, California, Japan again and the Pacific Northwest all before graduating high school.
I count Sedro Woolley, Washington as my hometown. My paternal family is there, I went to high school there, and will be moving back in about two years or so. Although I’ve lived in Colorado now since 1998 or so. Longer than I’ve lived anywhere.