I’m watching King of the Hill and Hank is talking about how all the kids are leaving Arlen and that started me wondering. Doesn’t everyone leave the place where they grew up? My dad and his siblings are the only people that I know who haven’t. So…
Are you still in the same place?
If not you, do you know anyone who’s never left?
If you have left, why?
I can remember exactly one person woho did the classic (pre-WW II) thing:
grow up
go away to college
have your fun at college
move back home, marry, make babies
die
all the “normal” (boomers) I knew split.
Me.
Me, too.
I moved away when I got married, but after five years, we moved down to my hometown.
I live only about two miles (maybe less) from the house where I grew up, and where my parents still live.
I’ve lived in Vienna since I was five, in three different houses and one apartment. Before that I lived just up the road in McLean (1970-73) and just to the south in Fairfax (1968-70).
Except for 1 1/2 years in a suburb i’ve lived in the same neighborhood I was born in for 34 years.
Me. I still live in the same house I grew up in. Almost 24 years…
Planning on moving soon though - just as soon as I can afford it.
I currently live in the town in which I grew up, though I have not been here all along. The town my family lived in when I was born is about 20 miles away. When I was 4 we moved and my parents started a business (which they still run, though they’ll likely sell it and retire in a few years) in the town I grew up in and I lived here until I moved out on my own at age 24. I lived about 8 miles away and lived there in a trailer for 3 years. I moved back because there was a good price on a house here. After living in the same place for so long, I felt somewhat out of my element living in a different town, so I was happy to move back.
Yes, in the same general area, within 10 miles this way or that.
I’ve lived in the Shoals area of Alabama all my life except for several months when I lived in Arlington, VA. I then moved back here (a mistake), almost in direct line of sight with the hospital where I was born. So I’m almost literally back where I started from. I do plan to move away for good within the next year or two. Most of the young people are leaving or finding work in Huntsville and commuting everyday because of the lack of opportunity here (a longterm problem for the past 15 years). I don’t want to do that.
I have a cousin who went away to college, came back, married (to a girl who did the same thing), and settled down planning to spend the rest of his life here working in his family business.
His younger brother is doing his residency in Ohio and has lived in Kansas City, Mobile, Miami, and Detroit, among other places between college, med school, and rotations. Where does he want to set up his practice when he’s done? Right back here.
I worry about the guy.
Nope. I grew up in Bethesda and left because of school, then the Navy. Most of my family is still thereabouts, and now that I’ve been lucky enough to be stationed here in Norfolk, I can visit them easily.
I moved away when I went into the Navy, have not, and will not move back.
I’m still here, nearly 37 years later.
I was born here and I’ve lived here my whole life, I have no plans to move and very little desire to do so.
I lived in or near the town that I was born in for a little over 21 years, until my husband joined the Navy and we got sent to SC. Now we’re in NY and will be moving again early next year.
I moved back after 10 years of Big City Life. I hated the traffic in the city. Now I can go to the Post Office, hit the drive through at Popeye’s Chicken, stop by the Blockbuster and be back at work with 10 minutes to spare during lunch.
Grew up in it. Got out of high-school, got a better job than I had during high school. Got transferred 2-3 years later to Vancouver. Got transferred back to home town 5 years after that… back to square 1. 
I kind of like it, though.
I just moved back to my hometown after 11 years away. At this point in my life, there’s nowhere I’d rather be.
For what it’s worth, all my siblings live here as well. Ditto my parents, grandparents, and a fair number of aunts and uncles. Aside from one of my brothers who went to grad school for 2 years in Ohio, I’m the only one of my siblings to ever seriously live anywhere else.
Guess it’s just a nice place!
I don’t really even have a home town. Was it the place I was born? The place I lived from 3-8? From 8-13? From 13-18? I can’t imagine living in the same place all my life.
StG