Non-urban dopers, defend yourselves!

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
21

Oh, I can definitely speak on this one. . .

Being raised a suburbanite from New Jersey, and sent out to Minot, North Dakota [sub]dontchaknow[/sub], there’s a plenty to do.

Where am I now? Great Falls, Montana. And you know what? I’m still around hayseeds. But being that I’ve learned their ways, I can blend in and make my own fun.
Unfortunately, for the unexperienced, all you can do in Minot and Great Falls is watch TV and drink on the weeknights. On the weeknights, you forgo the TV. But now, I see myself as relatively Canadian, partially North Dakotan, and partially Monanan, eh?

End result: you gotta find your own fun. Get out on the town. I was once familiar with standing on a subway whilst on the way to Saks 5th Ave. Now I’m more than happy to walk to the local laudromat/casino/gas station.

Tripler
Suck it up and find some fun! You will have some when you find your niche.

22

Even in Denver I have heard a lot of east-coast big city types bitch about how there is nothing to do here. It just strikes me as really pathetic. Denver may have the widest variety of things to do of any place I know(which is why I live here) Each one may not be on the scale of other places but it is here. We have movies, and bars, and plays, and museums, and art galleries,and nightclubs where chicks won’t talk to you, and drag queen bars, and mountains, and camping and fishing and rockclimbing, and sailing, and shopping and whatever else. Anybody who can’t find something to do in Denver,( and for that matter 95% of the U.S), is pretty much worthless in my opinion. Get you’re ass out of the palace and start experiencing life Sidartha, restricting yourself to being confortable will always make you miserable.

23

I live in a suburb, but a college town. There is a pretty happening night life here, with most coffee shops open 24 hours and several restaurants open even past last call (2 am).

If you’re really hurting for something and you’ve done all the museums in town (five) you can go to the big city just up the road (30-40 minutes) to the ‘hip’ spots.

Personally, I drive into the city for movies because the theater here in town (and the people who frequent it) are scummy and usually hover around the age of fourteen.

24

I just had this conversation the other day with a friend. He grew up on the east Coast and used to live in NYC. I’ve lived in Montana all my life.

I think a difference is that city people’s idea of fun is to go someplace and WATCH something (Opera, concerts, shows) or have something done for them (going out to eat).

Rural people’s idea of fun is to go someplace and DO something, usually outdoors. We go fishing, or hiking, or horseback riding, or kayaking or skiing. We might go the local cultural events, but most of our fun is DOING stuff, not WATCHING stuff.

And I’m not sure we’ll ever understand each other. I’d rather live in the smallest town in the Arctic than in a big city.

Whistlepig, who’s off to go do volleyball.

25

Hmmm… by your definition, I should be rural, as I truly love my outdoors activities.

But I think you’re right about what constitutes fun. For example, I don’t like to watch much TV, wednesday night Star Trek and Westwing is about it. In lieu of that I tend to read alot. My idea of a fun time is going to my non-chain bookstore and getting a book and heading out to either a coffee shop or a wine bar and reading it. Somehow I don’t think I’d be able to do that on a regular basis in a small town. Would I?

What about churchiness and nosiness? My impression is that small town people are both.

26

Had this argument recently with a city-dwelling pal of mine. She and her husband bought a house (and a fixer-upper, at that) half the size of mine for twice as much money - before that, they were raising their litte boy in an apartment on a busy street. Poor kid wasn’t even allowed to go outside without his Mommy in constant attendance, and they sent him to a private school because their neighborhood public school was downright dangerous. I kept asking. “Why stay in the city?” She said, “Oh, hubby works in the city.” Well, so does MY hubby, but he takes the train that’s 5 minutes from our front door. It takes the WryGuy 25 minutes longer to get to work from 45 miles away than it takes City Boy to get there from 8 miles away. “But we like being close to the museums, zoo, opera house, restaurants,” she said. OK, the zoo I’ll grant you - they live within walking distance and go there at least once a month. The museums? Her kid has been there on field trips for school. The opera house? They’ve NEVER been there. Restaurants? Well… it’s true we can’t get Vietnamese takeout one night and Italian the next night, but we have a car in the garage (we’re not at the mercy of the train and bus schedule) and there are plenty of nice restaurants within 15 minutes’ driving.

She’s a homebody and likes to do crafts, and he golfs - stuff you can do ANYWHERE, and besides there are more craft stores out here in the 'burbs anyway. She comes out here frequently to stock up on craft supplies. The WryGuy and I go to movies, shows (there’s a great auditorium close by), concerts, dinner theatre… we do a lot more “cultural stuff” out here in the suburbs!

I grew up in the city, and would only live there again if I were single (and a lot taller than I am - I’m small enough to get buried in a crowd.)

27

White Ink, while I’m not churchy, we’re certainly nosy in this small town! That’s one of our spectator sports, you know, gossiping.

I should point out that I know darn well I’ve made some sweeping generalizations here. I’ve only got my own point of view to look through.

whistlepig, you nailed part of my impression - we do DO a lot of things. I get really bored with just watching stuff, can hardly sit through a movie. Although I can read SDMB for hours, go figure! I think if I were dropped into a city situation, I’d probably not change much during the week, just do maintenance stuff like now, but I would hightail it out of town on the weekends. And I’m sure there’s lots of stuff to do in a city, but I don’t know where I would start.

If a very urban person were dropped in my neck of the woods, I have no doubt they’d be bored silly, but I would hope they wouldn’t be supercilious about it. That would be insufferable, but I’d have a great time showing around someone who really wanted to see things. I’ve actually done that with foreign relatives; it’s hoot, and they would do the same for me in their city (Buenos Aires).

I guess it all comes down to attitude - do you have an adaptable one or not?

28

Two used book stores in my neighborhood, as well as a Barnes & Noble and a Waldenbooks at the mall, PLUS a brand-new library with gorgeous private reading rooms. I routinely head out to the used book store and grab a pile o’ books, then wander my way to the bagel shop to have a cup of coffee and read.

To be fair, I’m in a larger Chicago suburb, not out in the sticks.

29

Ooo, LifeonWry, I am jealous of that. Sometimes it’s better for me just not to know about that sort of thing.

30

Ah, so it’s not so much a “defend non-urban life” thread as it is a “bash urban life” thread. I mean, those city-slickers, with their opera-watching and meal-serving-to! Why don’t they go kayaking or horseback riding??

I don’t think it has anything to do with “city people” vs. “country people” or whatever. It’s what people, individually, like to do, and where they like to (or can afford to) live. I grew up in a small PA town where there wasn’t much to do, especially for a HS-aged teenager. Sure, we had our culture, our museums, and plenty of outdoor activities. But I was always an indoor kid with no athletic ability so it didn’t really suit me.

I went to college in Pittsburgh and now live in Baltimore. To the small-town people, it’s “the big scary city,” and to people from larger cities it’s, “man, there’s nothing to do here.” So I regard it as a matter of degrees. Personally, I love living in the city now compared to the suburbs. I don’t get out much more often than I did before, but it’s much easier to get to those things in the city than before. Only problem is, all the airports are farther away now so it’s harder for me to accumulate any hours. It’s unfortunate, but it’s the way it is for the time being.

31

No, I wasn’t trying to bash urban life at all. My only way to perceive the “dropped in a different place and there’s nothing to do” issue comes from the other side of the fence. I would get just as much of the "what are you going to DO there? question going to a city as an urban person would get going to a small town.

My defense of the OP’s question would be just that we all do a lot of similar things, with some major differences thrown in for the larger events. I wouldn’t care to be around someone bitching about nothing to do in a city OR a small town, actually. There’s lots to do in both places, maybe it just takes a little digging to find it if it’s not what you’re used to.

32

If you want to come down here this weekend we could probably see clear to take you to a “petting zoo”* or some sort of similar activity. The weekend weather should be very nice, so if the antiquities didn’t include Waynesville yet that might be the time to do it.

And the glitz comment is just Rue riffing off a saying of mine: Dayton is like Cincinnati without all the glitz. It’s my way of taking a dig at both places with one swipe. But you’d have to know the two towns a bit for it to make sense.

*Is that what you kids are calling it these days?

33

Huh, when I read the thread title, I imagined nothing less than a mustached urbanite wearing a feathered cap drawing a rapier and charging aggressively into the countryside…

…yeah, I can see what you mean about us making our own fun…

34

I’m a city girl. Granted, I’ve never lived full time in a city, but trust me, I will. Right now I live in a rather cosmopolitan small town. I like it here but I can’t wait to get out.

What do I like about cities? Well, first off I like public transportation. I like busses, subways and streetcars. I don’t like private cars, they are expensive, dangerous, and generally a pain in the ass (YMMV). When I’m not on public transportation, I’m walking, and I like to be within walking distance of restraunts, markets, bookstores, theaters, and entertainment. I love the feeling of being able to get anywhere I need to be, at any time, without having to deal with a car.

I also like people. I love people watching. At night I fall asleep chuckling at the crazy drunks that walk down my street. I love being surrounded by interesting neighbors. I love that when I go downtown there are protesters, street musicians, intersting bums and other colorful characters. I love how cities can be nieghborhoody but also anonymous. When I’m in San Francisco, I know I can do whatever I want, dress however I like, and nobody is going to care much. If I stay out of my neighborhood, I’m unlikely to run into someone I wouldn’t want to see. I also love the diversity you find in cities.

I’m only moderatly into cultural events (I’m more likely to be seen at a punk rock show than the opera) but I love being in a place that values them. And I love that there are so many things to do, so many crazy things to see, on any given night that you have no excuse to be bored. Even if your broke, cities are full of free classes, parks to hang out in, bookstores to browse in, downtown avenues to stroll, bums to talk to, and other free and fun things to do. When I lived in the suburbs, I hemoraged money like mad because the only things to do were shop, watch movies, bowl, or go out to Denny’s. It was all lame and expensive. Now I spend almost nothing on entertainment and I go out three times as often. Nature is nice, but it doesn’t do it for me all the time- especially as a woman who doesn’t feel comfortable walking in empty forests alone.

And I love restraunts. My biggest complaint about where I live now is I’ve eaten at every restraunt. We only have one Indian restraunt! It’s horrible! Eating at chains makes me want to cry. I can’t imagine not having access to a wide range of intersting, cheap, exotic cusines with vegetarian options in abundance. Shopping at chains makes me want to cry to. I don’t shop much (outside of thrift stores), but I would much rather buy my books and art supplies from independent booksellers and art stores. I’d rather have the choice to rent videos at the shop that carries lots of foreign and art films. I just hate the idea that America is all going to look, smell, and taste exactly the same from coast to coast one day.

Finally, there is the night time. I like being out at night. The best thing about New York City, to me, is that you never have to worry about when the restraunts close, or how your going to get home after the time that night busses stop running everywhere else in the world. It’s not the night life that gets me exactly, but rather the ability to have a life at night.

It’s all good if you like living in the country. I just like cities. No need to fight or tell me I’m stupid for paying thousands a month to rent a tiny flat. To me, I’d rather live in a dump in what I consider to be a prime location. Others value things like space and privacy. It’s all good.

35

Now I want to go to Ohio :slight_smile: