I have gone every couple of years, usually for some family function or another. Really as much obligation as anything. Learned very early "you can't ever go home".
All the hills in the neighborhood seem smaller. Distances between buddies homes seem shorter. Many of the wood lots where we rode bikes, motorcycles, snuck cigs and beer, girls etc....have been developed.
My parents still live where I “grew up”. I hunt there each weekend but 4days is the Max I can deal with being there. Nice ADK town but nothing I miss or can deal with for an extended amount of time.
Left the Peoples Republic of Maryland in 1990. My father moved back there in ‘95 from Florida, so I had to visit the Eastern Shore occasionally over the years, then countless times last year as he declined and then died this Spring. Most of his business is over, so hopefully I can keep to my plan of never crossing the line into that Leftist Nirvana again.
Story of my life Well, high school seemed like such a blur I didn't have much interest in sports or school elections And in class I dreamed all day About a rock 'n' roll weekend And the girl in the front of the room So close yet so far, you know she never seemed to notice That this silly school-boy crush wasn't just pretend Life goes by so fast You only want to do what you think is right Close your eyes and then it's past Story of my life Story of my life Story of my life The story of my life And I went down to my old neighborhood The faces have all changed, there's no one there left to talk to And the pool hall I loved as a kid Is now a Seven Eleven And I went downtown to look for a job I had no training, no experience to speak of And I looked at the holes in my jeans And turned and headed back Life goes by so fast You only wanna do what you think is right Close your eyes and it's past Story of my life Story of my life Story of my life Story of my life And good times come and good times go I only wish the good times would last a little longer And I think about the good times we had And why they had to end So I sit at the edge of my bed I strum my guitar and I sing an outlaw love song Thinkin' 'bout what you're doin' now And when you're comin' back Life goes by so fast You only wanna do what you think is right Close your eyes and it's past Story of my life
Left MI in 91 when I went in the military. Wife wanted to move back in 2013 so our daughter can know our family, since my folks have had better days and it didn't look good at the time.
Been here 7 years, hated it and my parents are still alive. That's a good thing but bad for me. I could have spent more time in AK.
I go back - it’s only 100 miles. No family there anymore and I rarely see any faces I recognize these days. I left 35 years ago.
I was there last Saturday to pick up a gun I purchased online from a shop there. Had a beer at the bar & grill on Main St, went across the river to patronize the country store that re-opened this year with new owners after a devastating flood a few years ago and bought a sandwich from a bbq restaurant on my way out of town. Saw a lot of deer hunters in town on Saturday night, but did not recognize anyone.
A few days later I was speaking with a good friend on the phone. He lives about 4 hours away. He says “I was in town this weekend, I wish I would have known.” Well, crap. Me too.
The house I grew up in is the crazy cat lady’s house now. a classmate who on the ambulance crew told me they had a call there and the smell is unbearable. Driving by, it appears that the drapes that my mother put up on the living room window in the 70’s are still there - minus the bottom 10 inches or so that the cats have clawed away. It’s a damn shame, it is an extremely well built home.
Most of my small family have passed on , I have some cousins I'm not close to . Just my one year older brother Tim we're the last in line . Neither of us have children , we ponder who to give the old family pictures to . Yes you can go home - it's not exactly like it was when you were a kid - but fun to see anyway .
So true, sad but true. For me to go home would require mom multitasking while raising 5 children, my grandpa drinking warm beer from his toolbox in the garage that he hid from grandma and my younger brother asking me to help him sight in his pellet gun.
They’re all gone now so instead of crying over that which I can never get back my sweetheart and I are giving our children a home and childhood that they’ll remember fondly and that they too will miss someday.
I think about the good old days often but then I only need to look around me at the real blessings in my life. I never want to forget that I’m still a part of the good old days.
There was a spruce at the end of our street outside of Debbie’s 2nd floor bedroom window, just tall enough where a group of guys could climb it and look in. So when bored and drunk we would occasionally partake. We didn’t have the internet back then.
Debbie was hot and blonde and rode our same high school bus and never bothered to draw the curtains much. I think the most we ever saw was her in her bra, pretty sure she liked the attention.
I went back to the old neighborhood a few years back and that tree is friggin’ huge now. That’s how I know I’m old 🙂
Debbie? My cousin ran into her a couple of years back and she told him I could climb her tree anytime. I was surprised she even remembered my name. Ya never know the effect you had on people.
Born in CO in 63. Raised there. Left in the 80s to join the USN. Spent 25 years on active duty. Tried to return to CO and found the CO of my youth was extinct, replaced by a copy of CA. Refuse to live in CA or anyplace like it. Took Davy Crockett's advise and went to TX. Gonna stay right here!
I haven't been back in about 6 years. My people settled a big chunk of the county in western Kentucky where I grew up.
Then Alben Barkley was chosen to be Truman's Veep and had a big federal atomic energy plant built down there. After that, a bunch of peasants moved in to work at the place and fugged it all up.
By the time my generation came along there was all kinds of "outsiders" running around.
Still, I'm related in one way or another to a *lot* of people who live down there.
I'm going back one more time to roam the cemeteries and pay my respects to the old ones. There's not many of us left who understand their significance to the region.
I'm only about 30 miles away from the town where I spent the first 40 years of my life, but it has changed so drastically in the last 20 years that I avoid returning. The dairy farms are gone. The fields I used to till have since developed a bumper crop of McMansions. Many of the neighbors I cared so much about have passed, replaced with upscale city dwellers who neither embrace nor understand what small town living is supposed to be about. I cling to the memories of a wonderful place that no longer exists.
I am disappointed in myself that I didn't stop in and visit with many of the older people I knew as a lad - too busy having a good time partying . By the time I quit all that most of the older folks had passed away . Many treated me real well - I'd see them in their yard and drive right on by .
I haven't been back to central Texas since 2003 when I graduated high school. Buddies always come up here to Alaska to fish/hunt on visits.....say its the same brown dirt hole that it was when I left.
i still own my grandparents house in prescott, well over 100 years old. mostly used by my daughter now. prescott is still prescott but overrun by californicators. property increases have pushed me into the seven figures, but i would rather have the area prior to the invasion.
My sister and BIL still live there so I'm usually at their place during deer season. HS reunion every five years now that we are all in our sixties.
The house that I was raised in for most of my life was sold nine years ago. I don't go by there anymore.
My BIL used to ask me when I was moving back (thinking retirement) and I tell him never. He said something about my wife not wanting to live there but I told him it was mainly me. I don't want to live somewhere with a lot of people that know me and my family and people get in my business.
[quote=Region6]Each time I return, I remember why I left.
Bingo[/quote
This, I left Montana at 17 to join the Navy. Went home when I got out and two weeks later I moved to Washington state. Never wanted to move back to that dead end town. The west has been very good for me.
Got on a ship at age 5,...we been Americans ever since. I grew up in a house across the road from the cemetery where he's buried,.....walked by it thousands of times,...never really knew the significance of it until I was an old man.
Graduated high school from a west central Ks high school. Went to college, then left the state for the past 47 years. My career took wife and I to live in five different states. II make it back home several times per year, mostly to see family and hunt. IIt’s sad, when I was there numerous occupied farm houses were present within a five mile radius of our house. Today, almost all of those homes are gone or empty. II know hardly anyone that lives there except my mom, two brothers and their families. Time marches on.
Grew up in central WV. Started marching in the legions a few months out of HS. Eventually, they marched my ass to AK where I discovered that place down there isn't as free as everyone tries to pretend it is.
Home is now 70 miles S of Fairbanks.
Originally Posted by BtailHunter
Haven't been to where I was raised since the late 80's.
Same here. Passed through on my way to AK in 87. Haven't been back since.
Oh ...... Maine has good WTD hunting. If you know what the fugg you are doing and the terrian. In the next 2 or 3 years I will go up from late oct and leave the sunday after T day.
Fugging white welfare state......... They should change the state emblem to a trailer, bottle of coffee brandy/ liquid leg spreader, bag of dope, and a Birth certificate where the fathers name is "unknown" as the sheild in the background.
Seen enough of the planet and the nation doing unca suga,s grand tour. The wanderlust was gone long ago.
Oh boy honey... Look over their Big Ben and Parliament Ad nasuem in the traffic circle...
Tn is home..... And getting on a Jet is never gonna happen again.
Grew up in central WV. Started marching in the legions a few months out of HS. Eventually, they marched my ass to AK where I discovered that place down there isn't as free as everyone tries to pretend it is.
Home is now 70 miles S of Fairbanks.
It's not all that free down here,.....but you don't need a hammer and chisel to piss out the back door, either.
There probably aren't too many places that resemble 1966 like my hometown, though it's certainly not 100%. I like to swing through every couple years when I'm back East, but I can't take too big a dose of it. A little bit is nice though. My two best friends from school died young, and my sister and parents just moved to Florida so my most recent visit there last year might end up being truly the last.
I live fairly close to where I grew up. Still hunt the farm where I was raised. I left to go to college in 1978. Lived in Arizona and New Mexico for a dozen years. Moved back in 94 and have been content.
I left C AR in 1997 when I joined the AF. Wife and I are both from the same town, but only I have family still there. I was stationed at LRAFB as a fluke for 6 years. Wife couldn’t wait to leave, and now she wants to return. We are looking at some land to buy to hunt and build a house on in the future. My oldest says he’s staying in AK, but I think he’ll leave after his commitment in the Army Guard is up and he finishes college. The youngest wants to attend college at Coastal Carolina, so who knows where we will end up. The wife starts her doctorates degree this week, so once she finishes it, we’ll be leaving Alaska. She claims I can be done working at that point, but we have to leave AK to afford for me not to work anymore.
I still live where I was raised..... I didn't move away, but it did. Oh, the buildings and things look more or less the same, but the people.... I don't recognize them. Freaks, hipsters, whiggers, groids, White trash (FAR trashier than when I grew up), mudsharks, skinny-jeans-clad soyboys, mexicans... I am a stranger in the land I grew up in.
Yes and no. I live in the same neighborhood in which I grew up in. Not in the same conditions by any means. Many of the same great neighbors though, many new ones too. What I miss are the fishing holes and hunting grounds that were nearby.. All vast suburban homes and office parks now.
Grew up in central WV. Started marching in the legions a few months out of HS. Eventually, they marched my ass to AK where I discovered that place down there isn't as free as everyone tries to pretend it is.
Home is now 70 miles S of Fairbanks.
It's not all that free down here,.....but you don't need a hammer and chisel to piss out the back door, either.
,..so there's that.
Some things are worth the little aggravations. On the upside, I can piss a 5ft high yellow piss stalagmite by mid-March....... of course that's assuming colder temperatures start stabilizing below freezing by the end of October. Otherwise I just end up with a big yellow glacier. Folks that only have outhouses get to build pyramids.
I left NorCal in 1995 via job promotion. I visited my parents annually watching my Mother pass, the accelerated decay of the state until my Father died a few years ago.
Have been back to the State I was born in thrice since the early 60's. Doubt I'll make it back again.
Left the county I was raised in since the early 60's in the early 90's, only go back for visits with siblings now. Folks passed a few years ago and only one sibling still lives there, so not many reasons to go back to the zoo that SoCal has become over the years.
Work had me living all across the country, all of those places are better for me now than where I grew up and I'd prefer to visit one or two of them rather the SoCal.
Like renegade, I refuse to fly now and the only thing I can see dragging me into a plane again is the death of a brother too far away for me to drive to in a couple of days.
I never left my state. Moved back to where i was born to go to college and ended up w a job there. Got married and raised kids.....same place Ruined my life.
My girlfriend’s father lived on the same farm from about age 7 to 90. He was born in town - 2 miles away. His father worked for the railroad and bought the farm as a hobby, I guess.
In 1969 her dad sold the dairy herd and went to raising beef cattle. The family lived in the milk barn while the old house was torn down and a new house was built.
There is much written about the virtues of travel and exposing one’s self to other regions and cultures, but I admire a man who is content to be in one place.
We visit my wife's home town frequently. About once a year she puts flowers on her ancestors' graves. It's sad to see most of the gravestones totally neglected and never visited.
Town I'm from -not in town- Lebanon , Ohio never seen Christmas celebrated any better .
Lebanon , Ohio Old Time Christmas Parade ,, last time there 2005 , will go again soonish . Just pictures in the video - probably posted by a Kentucky Hillbilly who came to Ohio for a job . . Yes Ohio use to have jobs , Jimma Carta was President when I graduated -- yeah had to go find a job elsewhere .
When I was a kid we had a white Christmas every year until I was 12 - seemed weird without snow . White Christmas most of the time , heavy snowfall when I was there in 2005 . Like .
I go back maybe every couple years. When I do I keep it pretty short and quick. I don't specifically go by either of the houses I spent my youth in.
I have driven by the high school maybe 2 or 3 times watching the changes over the years. But it's all new now so I probably won't do that again.
When I am back, there are always people that recognize me or talk to me that I have no clue who they are. Difference is, I left over 30 years ago and moved on. A lot of those people that never leave their home town continue to live in the past. That interests me none.
Sharon’s father died this past spring and we have spent a lot of time in the Kansas Flint Hills this year; cleaning up the house, getting ready for and having an auction, going thru three generations of stuff in the attic (plus some bachelor neighbors stuff; when her dad bought their farm he got most of their personal property with it).
We have always “cruised main” and driven by both grandparents old houses before going on to the farm when we would go out to see her dad.
This fall while driving around and looking at different landmarks from her childhood, it really hit me - there was nothing for her there. The little town has dried up; the cafe has been closed for years, no grocery store, not even a gas station. It is 20 miles to the nearest town with a grocery store or 30 miles the other direction if you want a town big enough to support more than one grocery store and have some competition.
I think her family resented her moving away to the city, but the ones who stayed have witnessed a relentless decline.
There was a spruce at the end of our street outside of Debbie’s 2nd floor bedroom window, just tall enough where a group of guys could climb it and look in. So when bored and drunk we would occasionally partake. We didn’t have the internet back then.
Debbie was hot and blonde and rode our same high school bus and never bothered to draw the curtains much. I think the most we ever saw was her in her bra, pretty sure she liked the attention.
I went back to the old neighborhood a few years back and that tree is friggin’ huge now. That’s how I know I’m old 🙂
Debbie? My cousin ran into her a couple of years back and she told him I could climb her tree anytime. I was surprised she even remembered my name. Ya never know the effect you had on people.
I planted a white spruce seedling in my dads front lawn when I was about 10. It's 70' tall now. Things haven't changed all that much where I grew up. My best friend since high school lives 12 miles away. We're still best friends and hunt together every season. I live 2 miles from the house I grew up in. My dad still lives there and I visit frequently. My brothers all live within a 15 minute drive and I see them regularly too. My middle brother is now a teacher in the same high school we all graduated from. We all still get together at every holiday and to hunt and fish several times a year. I have one son an hour away but the rest of my kids are all within a half hours drive. Lots of the people I went to school with moved away but several are still here and I see them around town frquently. Since I didn't move away, I still know a lot of people around here. You don't have to "go home" if you never leave.
Just went back home a few days ago for a quick trip to pick up a snowmobile. I had my son and grandson with with me. I took them by the the old house I grew up in (moved away when I was 10), where the school was, the other family members houses etc. It was a small town of 300 so I showed them the sights to make sure more people than me remember them. We went to the cemetary to see those that have gone on.... It was a good time. We also went to my child hood best friends house for a fish fry and spent several hours with his family. I was able to visit my uncle and see some other folks I knew. I did not have a chance to see everyone due to the quick trip. It was a good time and I may go back in about 3 weeks for a late season pheasant hunt.
My mother was born in Bristol TN to a family that had two plow horses and no tractor, car, or electricity. My father was born in Burien WA to a family with a 1908 Olds truck and electric radios that my father converted from battery to AC.
So my mother moved to Burien, and both my parents died in Burien.
My wife was born in Scobey MT, but grew up in Tokyo Japan.
So my wife moved to Seattle to go to college.
I was born in Seattle WA.
The wife and I live 2 miles from Seattle.... and will probably die here.
I tried moving back to the small town where I was raised in Texas after living in a city for several years, and I just couldn't handle it. I enjoyed being near my family, but it seemed like all the busy bodies all up in everyone's business had gotten worse and their were way more of them than I remembered...Not to mention the town itself had gone from bad to worse due to the decline of the oilfield in the area. There was a significant increase in crime and a ton of meth and druggjes in general in the area.. It was definitely not the same place I grew up in where you could leave the doors of your house or vehicle unlocked without any concern...
On a hill due north of downtown Cincinnati, there is a transmitting tower for WSTR-TV channel 64. It is the tallest tower around. It dawned on me the other day that I have lived within 5 miles of that tower my entire life. A good part of it was spent within walking distance.
I took a World History class in college and one of the spare facts I remember from it is the average medieval person never ventured more than 5 miles from home. I guess I'm medieval.
I happen to be visiting where I was raised right now. My cousins stay right on their old home place thats been in their family for generations and I stay there. My other side of the family lived only a mile or so from where I am at now and I drive by it at least a few times while I am here. Not much left of it as over the decades many of the out buildings have been torn down. The house and the main wooden barn is still there but its not the grand old well kept place I remember.
Both families had pretty much self sustaining farms complete with shops , crops ,livestock , orchards and large gardens. Both still have large wood plots and hedgerows where small game could be hunted. Now we deer hunt there. There were no deer around when I was growing up and I never thought I would be back here 45 years later hunting.
It was a bustling prosperous small community back then. A great mix of local businesses of retail, banks, insurance and realestate , agriculture and factories. Now not so much. I think the last dry cleaners closed up about five years ago. They said once you leave you cant ever really go back home and in many respects that is true.
We were a military family and had new homes frequently. Two places from my youth have changed very little. One is Frostproof, FL and the other is Dover, TN. I have visited both in recent times and departed with a smile. The rest have evolved into train wrecks.
I grew up on the coast. When I was there, it was a very small town and I could walk for miles out of my back yard. There were lots of deer and other small game. Access to the harbor was great and it was an outstanding place to grow up. Great hunting and fishing as well as being able to play in the ocean. It has grown significantly and now mcmansions with little public access to the waterfront. Sad really.
Folks who moved away from where they were raised? Why yes, it is estimated that a third of California's population came from Mexico one way or another...55 electoral votes...gotta love those open borders.
When you go back do you visit the old home place ?
Talked to my older brother on Thanksgiving , he always mentions when you come visit we'll go see all the families old places . Trip down memory lane .
Did it for years - big fields we played ball in sure did shrink .
I was raised bouncing around all over the east and south. Couldn't get out of the east fast enough...left for Montana literally within an hour of finishing my last college exam.
I don't go back if I can help it...hated it all then and its gotten twice as crowded since I left.
I'm only 150 miles from 'home' (Boise). None of the family live there any more so I seldom go there. I can't get too far from home because there are state lines. Outside of those, I'd lose a solid red state, constitutional carry, great hunting, a state that's over 60% public land, low population, etc.
I reside on property my family has owned since 1830 and the only place I’m going is 6’ down when time comes! Got my own lake and 1000 yard shooting range! What more could a fellow want??
The small town I grew up just outside of was a dream area for the time period. Rivers and streams everywhere. We had unfettered access to all the bird hunting and deer hunting as well as fishing you could imagine on private property as they let us go everywhere. The lakes and ponds were close enough to ride your bikes to. Then the mass southern migration started and access started to dwindle and by the 90s it was no trespassing signs everywhere and locked gates to mountains we camped and fish from the late 60s on. Now some areas you can buy a yearly key to get in limited to you and your wife or children 17 and under. When I go to eastern Oregon I can take two routes the first goes through the area I grew up or the northern route. I take the northern route because it makes me sick seeing what has happened to the area I cherished so much while driving through.
Visiting now and always drive by the homes my wife and I grew up in and the homes we raised our kids in. It used to be farmland and lots of open spaces. When I was a kid the nearest neighbor was my grandparents a quarter mile away. Today it's mansions, businesses, traffic, and people everywhere (Northern Utah County, Utah).
If it weren't for seeing family, I'd never come back.
I was born in SoCal and lived there until age 11. My Dad was an oil/gas exec and we traveled to a different country every 2 years. I have lived in Las Vegas for 50 years now and worked on all 7 continents. I only travel in my 4 Runner now and will never return to So Cal. The entire world has changed since my youth and the only places that improved are the ones that got rid of communism. Ironic.
Left MI in 91 when I went in the military. Wife wanted to move back in 2013 so our daughter can know our family, since my folks have had better days and it didn't look good at the time.
Been here 7 years, hated it and my parents are still alive. That's a good thing but bad for me. I could have spent more time in AK.
Move back to AK, so your daughter can truly know the state and all of its' wonders before she gets married and has children, and needs to move somewhere to fulfill family obligations like you did.
My Grandmother taught me family obligation, but she also taught me to be where my heartfelt good and where I was content. She was a true believer in "get on with YOUR life". You are married to your partner, not your family, that is the way God wanted it to be. I never argued with Grandma, she just plain made sense all the time.
I reside on property my family has owned since 1830 and the only place I’m going is 6’ down when the time comes! Got my own lake and 1000 yard shooting range! What more could a fellow want??
I left SW PA in 64.I have been back maybe 6 times, three for family funerals. My son and daughter live there and my brother is in my folk's old home in hospice care. In the summer I can stand about 3 days of that heat and humidity before I have to leave.
I lived in 8 places before I graduated high school. 7 of them I have not been back since leaving. The 8th I lived in 2 times, once after high school and go visit every fall to hunt deer. It hasn't changed a ton. Gotten a little older and dumpier in spots, newer and shinier in other spots. I love the place.
Born where I live now. Parents got divorced when I was little, lived a couple yrs at grammys farm. Mom remarried so a few moves, all within 100 miles of birthplace.
Am a few hrs from Chicago, so is hassle to go and see concerts there.
Would like to live within 2 hrs of Chicago, but on a creek w woods. NW Indiana. Wimmins big in da region though.
I was born and raised in San Francisco. In late 1968 I left San Francisco and the not so great state of California never to return other than holidays with family or funerals. Now that they're all dead there is absolutely no reason why I would ever step foot across the border into the Socialist Republic of Kalifornia. Paul B.
I go back at least once a month, still have a place there and would've moved back by now if it wasn't for work, still love everything about the place other than the lack of jobs/economy and no interest into commuting into the surrounding bigger towns.
When I graduated from college in 84 I didn t even stick around for the cap & gown ceremony.SE S D had gotten to small me. I went west searching for rifle country. For the most part 36 years in the B H area of SD. MB
I was born and raised in New Orleans. When we had a child in 1992, there was no way we were going to raise him there during the middle of the crack wars. We hit a high of 424 homicides in 1994 with a population of approximately 484,000. Our son made his first homicide scene when he was 3 months old. We also had a couple of mortally wounded dope dealers dumped out of a car about two blocks from our house, which was in the safest neighborhood in town. It rained bullets every New Years’ Eve from celebratory gunfire. Life in that town generally revolved around food, beverage, music, Mardi Gras, festivals, and, at the time, a crappy pro football team.
New Orleans was, and remains, a very dysfunctional city in terms of governmental services and crime. It has become more gentrified since Hurricane Katrina, with McMansions replacing older hurricane-damaged houses in Lakeview (including the one we sold when we moved) and high-end renovations being undertaken in previously transitional or bad neighborhoods. Property values have greatly appreciated, resulting in higher taxes without any appreciable enhancement that I can see in terms of services. (Of course, the pandemic has killed tourism, so the future is bleak without “free” money from the feds.) The crime rate is lower than when we left, although crime generally has gone down nationwide.
My mom is still alive, and I get down there to see her and my sister, and to visit old friends and colleagues. I can sleep in my old bedroom if I want, and I left some stuff there so I can travel light. I made it to the Jazz Festival three years ago, and my wife and I enjoyed Mardi Gras this year. (We did get rear ended while driving a rental car, but that is another story.) Our son regularly visits his grandmother and aunt, but he thanks us for moving whenever he returns to Wyoming.
We could never live there again. We much prefer the wide open spaces, mountains and woods.
Born in Montana, Dad moved us to Wisconsin when I was 15 to help his Father on the century old dairy farm. Dad's brother got sick and he sent me to Montana to help him out when I was 18. Dad had a farm accident so I moved back to Wisconsin to help out. Older brother took over the farm and I went to college and after graduation took a job in Bakersfield CA and the company relocated me to Prescott AZ. Brother got in a fight with Dad and left the farm. Dad asked me to come home and farm with him. Been on the farm ever since.
I live 3 blocks from where I grew up. I moved away at 17 but a good job offer brought me back to my hometown 11 years later. Bought a home in the same neighborhood as my youth because it's still a nice area. So my kids all went to the same elementary school I did and now 4 grandkids go to that same school.
Lived in either New York City or Air Force bases until I was in high school in NW Montana. After college graduation, I banged around Colorado, the Bay Area, Pukeatopia, but always with an eye toward the Flathead. Finally made the homecoming stick well enough about 20 years ago, there have been lots of changes, but I can't imagine "home" being anywhere else on the planet.
Growing up 40 miles from the Meskin border made it easy to move away. If you aren't smuggling dope or aliens, there's not much to do there. We kept the ranch though because taxes are low and people pay stupid money to shoot deer in Dimmit County.
Growing up 40 miles from the Meskin border made it easy to move away. If you aren't smuggling dope or aliens, there's not much to do there. We kept the ranch though because taxes are low and people pay stupid money to shoot deer in Dimmit County.
One of my ancestors was the first sheriff of that county.
When you go back do you visit the old home place ?
Talked to my older brother on Thanksgiving , he always mentions when you come visit we'll go see all the families old places . Trip down memory lane .
Did it for years - big fields we played ball in sure did shrink .
I grew up in the Philly suburbs and now live at the foot of the Bighorn Mtns. in Wyoming. I felt out of place before I left and 15 yrs. later when I have passed through the area , it is completely foreign to me. The place and the people I grew up with are gone and it was replaced by a Hipster / liberal bastion I can not deal with the humidity and the allergies that I used to and in general feel like I am about to have a panic attack, no trips down memory lane , just a flight response , When I arrive back to my "new" home , it is just that home.
I grew up in Orange County, CA which at one time was the most conservative coastal county in California. 7 years ago I left to attend school at Auburn and never looked back.
44 years later. Well over 70 moves and 60 countries, I am moving back home to my home in Maine for good in 2 more years. A full cycle It has been a fantastic life and with a very understanding wife..
We were a military family and had new homes frequently. Two places from my youth have changed very little. One is Frostproof, FL and the other is Dover, TN. I have visited both in recent times and departed with a smile. The rest have evolved into train wrecks.
wasn't Frostproof where one truckload of poor whites shot and killed another truckload of poor whites recently?
Get a double Big Char w/cheese at The Dairy Dip in Dover
Chase it with a milkshake, go park at the Natl battlefield across the street and watch bald eagles light in a tree above the Columbiad
Fire up a joint on the way home through Carlisle and Bear Springs
Take the gravel roads through Cross Creeks National Refuge till your buzz come down enough to drive thru TVA security without gettin popped, if not side detour through Stewart St Forest till your eyes no longer need band aids with help of Visine
continue on
Stop at the Busy Bee, get $1.67 in gas and go home.
Grew up in Florida and couldn't stand the weather, the water, the urbanization, or the people. There's nothing for me there other than family members I see at family reunions anyways.
I left the small town I grew up in, in 1969, then moved back to the same state when I got out of the Marines and went to college. When I finished my masters I left the state for a short time then came back prior to going to Colorado and on to Alaska. Spent the biggest share of my adult life in Alaska but never had any desire to go back to NM. The little town my mom lived in never really grew up and there's still only one high school. I've got no use for the political corruption in New Mexico so when it was time to retire and move somewhere warmer and less expensive I knew I wasn't going there I've been embarrassed for years for no more times than I made it back to to visit my mother. She passed this year in Arizona in an assisted living home, so I still had to go back to NM to take care of her things and get her house sold. I suspect I'll die here in Idaho as i see no reason to live. I like the freedoms already mentioned above, and the conservatives. My son still lives in Alaska, and that is the hardest part of change and retirement.
My dad was a career naval officer (30 years) and I a career army officer (26) years. From birth until my retirement I never lived in one place longer than 3 years, I've had so many "homes" i wouldn't know which one to go home to. However, I can see how that might be a good problem to have.
Born and raised in Idaho, moved to Alaska in 71 when I was 14. Married an Alaska girl and will be buried with my parents and friends on Fort Rich. Can't stand the heat down south anymore only go see family in Idaho during the winter. Only been out of state once in 15 years.
I moved away for 30 yrs, but I bought my old home place and 2 years ago we moved back. Spent 1 1//2 yrs remodeling a house and unless something that I cant imagine happens, I'm here to stay.
Things have changed in some ways and not so much in others. I use to know just about everyone, not that way now. A whole generation of young people have grown up and I don't know them. Having said that, there are still a lot of good people in our area.
Born in Montana, Dad moved us to Wisconsin when I was 15 to help his Father on the century old dairy farm. Dad's brother got sick and he sent me to Montana to help him out when I was 18. Dad had a farm accident so I moved back to Wisconsin to help out. Older brother took over the farm and I went to college and after graduation took a job in Bakersfield CA and the company relocated me to Prescott AZ. Brother got in a fight with Dad and left the farm. Dad asked me to come home and farm with him. Been on the farm ever since.
I bet "Its a Wonderful Life" strikes a chord with you more than the average guy
Very interesting read.. My family lived on the same corner for over 200 years.. It was interesting to see the old graves dating back to the early 1700's... By the time I was 13 I told my grandmother I was moving to Wyoming when I grew up.. That was almost 50 years ago now.. Kind of thought I would live in the west for a time and then return like many of my older friends had done,, Never happened.. When I retired in 99, I did return each fall for up to a couple months.. Then the reasons I left became clear again. My father died in 17.. I haven;t been back since.. Our hunting camp sold in about 2015. Then my father passed. I sometimes think about it, but when I look at the craziness east of the Mississippi, not sure I could survive.. I have looked at other places to live, but with each passing year that becomes more doubtful.. I have often wondered if my grandfather would have lived, if I would have left.. Guess I will never know.. Like everyone, when I return I don't know folks, and when I left, I knew everyone for miles around.. Country is posted ,, New owners, dope heads, welfare trash worse than before.. Sad...
We were a military family and had new homes frequently. Two places from my youth have changed very little. One is Frostproof, FL and the other is Dover, TN. I have visited both in recent times and departed with a smile. The rest have evolved into train wrecks.
Funny, but the place from my childhood and youth that’s changed the least is where my grandmother lived, Adams County, PA. I go up every so often to visit the cemetery (where I’ll get dumped off someday) and usually ride around a bit. Very little has really changed from what I can tell, except there’s a shopping center or two near Gettysburg. I suspect most residents must work elsewhere, like a lot of them here do, and I did for twenty years. Many hate a long commute, but not having to pull up stakes and move to the country when you retire because you already live there is pretty good.
I moved away from where I grew up 35yrs ago. Most of my family has either passed or moved so I don't have a lot of folk to see there. My circle of people I want to see there seems to get smaller and smaller. I was back a couple yrs ago and only touched base with 2 old buddies. It was a small town way back, only 5k people so I knew everyone back in the day.
One thing for sure is that one you move away from where you grow up it could be easy to move again after that. I never did move again after the 1st move because we put down family roots here.
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