Why do you live where you live?

[Claire]

I've lived everywhere from Europe to Hawaii and back again. My husband has lived from Southeast Asia to Korea, to the U.S. east coast. We have a lot of the globe covered. But we chose a small town in the U.S. Midwest. Why do you live where you live?

 

[babetoo]

i love the weather and my family is here

 

[jabbur]

My husband's job brought us to the area as newlyweds fresh from college. We hadn't planned to stay here 27 years but that's the way it's worked out. It's home now. Many good friends here and family is not far.

 

[Sir_Loin_of_Beef]

The weather is perfect, normally between 40F and 80F year around, it seldom rains, and it has the least expensive property prices for a California beach community.

 

[buckytom]

i was born in brooklyn, raised mostly in jersey, went to college in the bronx and have lived in the city and in jersey (and a short stint in madison wisconsin). the only 2 jobs that i've ever had were in nyc, and most of my family is here.

and this is where they send my mail.

vacations are great, but i know i'm home when i see the skyscrapers of the city as the airplane descends for a landing.

 

[TATTRAT]

I've lived everywhere from Europe to Hawaii and back again.

+1

The company I am currently with is the reason I am, where I am. Has been a much better quality of life compared to years prior, and though missing a beach like crazy, I like it here.

 

[Andy M.]

People from Massachusetts are notoriously a very parochial bunch of people. The story goes, If a nuclear bomb fell on NYC, the headlines in the Boston papers would read: "Boston Man Killed In Big Apple".

I was born and raised in Massachusetts. Where else would I live?

 

[PrincessFiona60]

Missoula, Montana...is that a good enough reason?

 

[Claire]

Of the many places I've been in the U.S., Missoula is up at the top. Seriously. Galena won, but Missoula and Dillon were up there.

We actually shopped for our new home town. We'd planned on retiring to our townhouse in Hawaii. But husband decided he didn't like it there and Florida would be just as good. Then the real estate market in Hawaii went over the top and we wound up doubling what we paid for the damned thing. I wanted to stay, he wanted to go. I couldn't argue with his logic of being near my family. So we lived there for 6 years. But Florida just wasn't "us". And, being an only child, with, by then, parents who'd passed away, he really didn't "get" what large, extended family means when you live near them.

So ... we went on the road. We narrowed it down to a few towns, then contacted real estate agents in our top 3. It was a decision I've never regretted. I never say never or always, but we've been here ten years and just love the place, our old historic home. Midwesterners are the friendliest people in the world.

 

[Aunt Bea]

I have lived all over the eastern part of the country. When I stopped working I decided to come back to where I started. Initially that was a good choice. Now my close friends and family members have died and I really don't have any reason to stay in this area other than the fact that it is familiar to me. Any ideas on where in the U.S.A. would be good for an old person without a beach body to live?

 

[Silversage]

Any ideas on where in the U.S.A. would be good for an old person without a beach body to live?

Southeast Florida. Anywhere on the Gulf Coast south of St. Pete, all the way to Naples.

Most of us are old and and at least somewhat overweight. There are lots of communities and activities geared for us. Many people here have no local families, and therefore form new circles of other friends to fill the gap. There are lots of reasons that the southern Gulf Coast attracts so many retirees.

We leave the beaches to the tourists!

 

[sparrowgrass]

I started out in Pittsburgh PA, moved to Chicago burbs as a small child, and left for college in Southern Illinois at 18.

I was married for 25 years to a US Forest Service employee. He was very ambitious, and told me over and over again that he had to move in order to get a promotion. So--my older son lived in 3 states before he was a year old--born in Washington State, 8 months in south Alabama, and celebrated his first birthday in Morehead, in Eastern Kentucky.

We also spent time in Louisa Virginia, London and Berea Kentucky, Manila Utah, Brownstown Indiana, and Ely Minnesota. (I always say I will never have to go to hell, because I spent my time in northern Minnesota freezing for 5 years.)

When we divorced, I decided to move closer to family, so I looked for work in Missouri, Illinois and Indiana. I am now in Ironton, MO, and I hope to heaven that I never have to move again. I am an hour from my mom, and two or three from my siblings, aunts and uncles and cousins.

I am a gardener, and MO has seasons and rain. I garden from March til October, and plan my next year's work the rest of the year. For the first time, I have planted fruit trees and seen them fruit, and have divided my perennials!

I plan on being buried up here on this hill--I ain't leaving!!

 

[4meandthem]

Because I don't do snow.

 

[jusnikki]

Where I live is a nice, small town where everybody knows everybody. Most of my family is here and it's a pleasant place to be.

 

[Kayelle]

I guess I'm a big believer in "bloom where you are planted". My parents planted me here in Ventura County, Ca. as a baby, and I have never had any good reason to leave. For me, this is the ideal place to live and although I've visited all over the world, I've never found anyplace more appealing to call home. This area is known for our Mediterranean climate, and our beaches are lovely and not crowded. The most important thing is everyone I love lives here, so this is my little piece of paradise.

 

[Claire]

Sparrow -- I was born in Wash, DC. Lived in NH and France before I started school in northern CA. part of 2nd, 3rd, 4th and part of 5th outside of Reno, NV. The rest of 5th in Clearwater FL. 6th in Ramstein W. Germany. 7th and part of 8th in Wiesbaden, W. Germany. Part of 8th in one school in Utah, 9th in another Utah school, 10th and part of 11th in another school in Utah, then the rest of my high school years in central CA.

Then, are you ready for this? I turned around and enlisted in the Air Force. It gets more and more. I married an Army officer.

I've lived here for ten years, but .... who knows what will be next?

 

[Alix]

I'm a bit like Kayelle, "bloom where you're planted" is a great way to put it. My basic philosophy of life is to leave things better than how I found them, be happy and bring happiness to others. For me to be happy, I need to be near those I love, and most of them are close by. I love to travel and visit all over the world, but I'm going to keep working on making my corner of the world a little better than when I got here.

I like the seasons. I can even find good things to say about the long winter. (usually in the summer though!)

 

[Timothy]

When the house I live in now was on the market, it was next door to my wife's best friend. It was also only 1.5 miles from my work place.

I live in this part of the country because of finding work here, but it's really the perfect place in the world for me. It has everything I love.

Great salt-water fishing, great fresh-water fishing, beautiful weather, very friendly people, a small-town feeling in a fairly large town, great hunting, good land and house prices, and the town has about a thousand restaurants in it.

 

[Kayelle]

Sparrow, I really had to laugh over this:

We also spent time in Louisa Virginia, London and Berea Kentucky, Manila Utah, Brownstown Indiana, and Ely Minnesota. (I always say I will never have to go to hell, because I spent my time in northern Minnesota freezing for 5 years.)

My Mom, always said the same thing! She was a native California girl, and when my dad moved her to his big family farm in Minnesota she was miserable for five long winters. The fifth winter, I was born and she had enough. She convinced Dad to return to California that spring and I thanked them the rest of their lives!!

 

[sparrowgrass]

Oh, Kayelle, I know that Hell is cold. Or at least my version of Hell is cold. I could happily bask next to the eternal fires, so that wouldn't be much punishment for my evil deeds.

Ely is a big tourist town, because of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area, and I don't know how many tourists claimed to be so envious of me. They were there in August, when temps were pleasant, and not in February or March or during the agony of April, when the hunger for green was so deep and the snow kept coming.

Even now, 10 years later, I still have bad dreams where I am somehow married to the Evil One again, and in the dream he is telling me that I have to leave my little paradise here on Sparrowgrass Hill and move back to Ely.

'Scuse me, I have to go think about something pleasant for a while, before I start sobbing.