Buxton, North Carolina
On the beautiful Hatteras Island, part of the Outer Banks
Home of the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse
Graveyard of the Atlantic
No stoplights
4 gas stations
2 churches
1 grocery store (Not a chain)
No fast food (closest is 70 miles away)
Miles of unblemished beaches
Excellent Fishing
Other places I’ve lived:
Kittery Point, ME
York Beach, ME
Groton, CT
Virginia Beach, VA
Charleston, SC
Orlando, FL
Lakeland, FL
Crystal River, FL
Lecanto, FL
Gautier, MS
[ul]
[li]population: 70,000 or so + ~20,000 college students[/li][li]home of the University of Missouri (source of most of the above-mentioned students); perhaps best known as the school Brad Pitt dropped out of, 1 class short of a journalism degree, in order to pursue his acting career[/li][li]consistently ranked as one of the most livable small cities in America, for some reason[/li][li]the gateway to scenic mid-Missouri!!! :rolleyes:[/li][li]food: surprsingly good restaurants for a town of its size, including competing Indian restaurants located next door to each other(!)[/li][li]speaking of competition, it’s the only place I know of that has two NPR stations duelling for listeners.[/li][li]local weirdness: a street downtown is boxed in at either end by sets of huge classical stone columns, remnants of when the university’s main building and the local courthouse burned down within a few years of each other in the 1800s and nobody could be bothered to tear them down.[/li][li]home to some of the coolest dopers around. ;)[/li][/ul]
The closest place anyone from outside MO might have heard of is Jefferson City (1/2 hour away), which has absolutely nothing else going for it besides being the state capital. It’s also about 2 hours to Kansas City and St. Louis, less if you go 85 on I-70 like I do.
I live in Baltimore, MD, known for Chesapeake Bay Crabs, National Bohemian beer, and Ft. McHenry, where Francis Scott Key wrote the “Star Spangled Banner.”
I grew up in Columbia, MD, birthplace of the actor Edward Norton and the home of the Merriweather Post Pavilion, where Jackson Browne recorded “Running on Empty,” (the title song, plus a few other songs on that album).
Current:
Arlington, Virginia
[ul]
[li]Smallest county in the U.S.[/li][li]Population density varies from almost rural in the north to urban most everyhere else[/li][li]Home of:[/li] The Pentagon
The Iwo Jima Memorial
The Netherlands Carillon (great place to watch fireworks on 4 July)
[/ul]
Original:
Bonfield, Illinois
[ul]
[li]Population approx. 200[/li][li]Five blocks long and three blocks wide[/li][li]Established 1884[/li][li]First schoolhouse built in 1920, rebuilt in '22 after fire[/li][li]One gas station[/li][li]Two payphones, which were used in The Hunter, Steve McQueen’s final movie[/li][li]First major business was a limestone quarry, which is now the town swimming hole[/li][/ul]
Have also lived in:
Brewster, New York
Kenner, Louisiana
Harahan, Louisiana
Alexandria, Virginia
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
~SUMMERFEST!!!
~The seasons change
~Lake Michigan
~Home to the Clown Hall of Fame
~The best Bus Transit System in the country
~We get all the big name performers, without the sell-out crowds
~It’s the big city with the small-city feel
~A 2 hour drive can put you in the middle of country-fied Wiscahnsin
~Near enough to Chicago to go play for a day or two, but not near enough to get the high crime, vagrants or pollution [sub]not to knock Chicago, although it did take me 5 visits before I finally saw the wonder in the city[/sub]
Drawbacks? The biggest one is that there are no mountains! I do miss being near the mountains…
The city I grew up in: Antioch, California
What was good about it? Nothing.
What was bad about it? Everything.
The only plus I could think of was that when my dad deserted us he moved to Marin County. So when he finally agreed (reluctantly) to have us come visit, we got to play right across the bay from San Fran, meander along the beaches of Sausalito and peruse the art galleries of Mill Valley.
(Hi Sis)
Lakeland, Florida checking in here
Population - Approximately 80,000
Within 1/2 hour’s drive from Tampa or Orlando
Home of:
Florida Southern College (largest collection of Frank
Lloyd Wright Architecture)
Detroit Tigers Spring Training
Publix Super Markets (for any dopers in SE United States)
Sun n’ Fun Fly-In (largest small plane fly-in nationwide)
Bernie Little’s “Miss Budweiser” racing boat
Celebrities:
Ray Lewis (football)
Forrest Sawyer (his brother was an attorney here in
town but he committed suicide last year)
Andy Bean (golf)
Lee Janzen (golf); now lives in Orlando
We are also known for our citrus and phosphate industries.
Anyone up on their current events will also be familiar with the fact that, at this very moment, we have lost over 11,000+ acres to a wildfire that is still going strong. Our interstate (I-4) has been closed since Saturday night, with no relief in sight. Aaaaahhh, the smell of burning swamps every morning when we get up.
Where I’ve lived, in order, and one unique thing about each:
Oh, do hold on dear sweat hermana de tentomushi. We have much, much more than that!
Why, in our lovely deed-restricted community, the cows come out to play! Yes, I remember that winter morning in ‘97, when those gentle, two-ton ummoving pre-cooked burgers took up the entire road when the fence was broken, and the big burly bull-like cow (whom had a strange resemblence to Jim “The Anvil” Neidhart) decided to charge our dear ol’ mini-van.
Oh, and surely you remember those bright vibrant colors waving back and forth in the wind! Yes, the brush fire from the gentlemen whom owns the field behind us. That’s right, the nice blankity-blank who set fire to the lot right behind us without telling anyone. Oh, and the hunting dogs he trains! It seems they’re screaming in pain at about ten-thirty every night! Simply lovely!
And we have such earth shattering announcements, such as a Super Walmart, or Applebees. Yes, you too can eat chicken fried chicken (if you want to wait an hour-and-a-half for a table) and then go right down the block to by yourself some cheap crap.
Not to mention the Irish-Spanish Chicken Boy magnet that seems to keep me grounded to this place…oy.