TOPIC FOR WEEK OF AUG 1ST (actually answered in the correct week):
“How far away do you live from where you grew up?”
If you stayed put, how do you feel about that? If you moved a long way away, what spurred your move and do you intend moving back?
I grew up in NYC, and I longed for the day I could leave the city. It was just too crowded, too dirty, too noisy for me. From age ten onward I told everyone I wanted to move to Australia because it was as far as you could get from New York and not have to float.
I went upstate for college and left for good when I got married. A year after marrying my Patient Husband, we moved to Angeltown and stayed there twelve years. Now we’re in Angelborough, close to his job.
What spurred me to move was the closeness of the city, only now I’m realizing how convenient it is to have everything close. You can’t walk anywhere in Angeltown or Angelborough. And the thing I miss most about NYC is the subway system.
Angelborough is not close to New York City. It’s about as different from Brooklyn as you can get and still be on the same planet: it’s wooded, it’s rural, and you have to drive ten miles to get anywhere. There isn’t public water, public sewer, or public trash pickup. We’re lucky there’s public electricity, I suspect.
I like it here. Don’t get me wrong. The house is wonderful and I’m sure we’ll get to know the area and really enjoy living here. People who live in Angelborough tend to love it (even though the most common comment we get on mentioning it is “Where?”). Our city is just a little secret nobody knows except the few thousand residents.
Will I ever move back to New York City? My Patient Husband says no. He despises the city, as best as I can tell, and would move anywhere else first. And to some extent, I agree with him. I’d love to retire to some sleepy Vermont village and live out my days chopping wood and driving to town once a month in a pickup truck to mail off a manuscript and pick up provisions.
However.
I also know from living in Angeltown (a smallish city, but not as small as this one) that a truly rural area is difficult for the elderly. In a city with no sidewalks, no small grocery stores, and terrible public transportation (or none) the elderly are at a loss. After you can’t drive any longer (and that day does come for us all) then how do you get food? How do you get to your doctor’s appointments? How do you shop when everything is in a big box store ten miles away, only you can’t drive and you can’t walk that well?
That’s when I realized how good my grandmother had it: in the heart of Brooklyn, she lived half a block from her church, one block from the grocery store, three blocks from a hospital, and two blocks from her bank. Right up until the end, she lived on her own. And that’s what I’ll probably end up doing as well, if push comes to shove. If at some point I do end up alone, I’ll probably move back to the city and find a place like my grandmother had.
Come back tomorrow to find out where I don’t live now.
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Other stops on the weblog tour are:
http://meganeileen2005.typepad.com/ twinkletoes
http://thatsloanegirl.blogspot.com/ CathyF
http://wryexchange.com/ Wry Exchange
http://www.absentmindedhousewife.com/ beckygoesape
http://verycontrary.wordpress.com/ Contrary
http://amandagorby.blogspot.com/ amanda_tg
http://whatsmylife.blogspot.com/ grinningcomb
http://nolechica.livejournal.com nolechica
http://addierambles.blogspot.com andra
http://la-eme.livejournal.com MsMoonbunny
http://philangelus.wordpress.com/ Tabris
http://mischief0617.wordpress.com/ CrowGirl
http://www.housewife2000.blogspot.com housewife2k
http://fatgirlartist.blogspot.com/ Amy Rose
http://lulupop.wordpress.com Lulupop
http://chrisnada.livejournal.com/ Cnada
http://robandkrista.blogspot.com/ CelticGemini
http://anime-coroner.livejournal.com/. AllyKat
http://www.drunkenhousewife.com/ The Drunken Housewife
http://ladyj3000.blogspot.com/ LadyJ3000
http://heartstart.livejournal.com Heartstar1
http://hijinksshenanigans.blogspot.com/ Hijinks’s Shenanigans
http://deltatangosgbs.blogspot.com/ afbluebelle
http://sarahesperanza.wordpress.com/ SquishyMooMoo
http://www.dutifuldanielle.blogspot.com/ dpbenson
http://sinkingtent.blogspot.com/ ladiedeathe
http://divine-misse.livejournal.com Shotochick (only readable by those that have a livejournal account)
http://mrsbart.blogspot.com/ MrsBart
http://rainhaville.blogspot.com RainhaDoTuxedo
http://kimberlysstories.wordpress.com Kherbert05
I still live near where I grew up and my last day job was right down the street from where all three of us kids were born (and went when we got the chicken pox).
We probably won’t be moving from this house. We’re close to everything we could possibly need and want – granted public transport is kind of a joke down here and we’re nowhere near walking distance, but they do have some pretty good senior transport companies.
I can’t really imagine living anywhere else – I know this place.
I live in Brooklyn and spend my days in Manhattan and I’ll leave this place when they take me out in a box.
I love the energy of this city. I love the life.
Some towns have Broadway tours. We have Broadway.
Some towns have a local museum or two. We have Museum mile.
Some towns pride themselves on a national landmark. I pass five of them on my way to work.
In a way, we are America. More films are shot here than in California. When a character in a movie or TV show comes to the US, they always fly past the Statue of Liberty. We always see that image.
When our grand parents and great grand parents came here, they came through New York. And that echoes in the faces you see on the subway. When I had diversity training I asked the instructor what she thought she could teach that a lifetime of living and working shoulder to shoulder with people from exactly EVERY walk of life hadn’t. She had no answer. Right now, within a ten block radius of where I sit, I have three Catholic churches, ten synagogues, two Protestant churches, one mosque, and a Wiccan worship circle. My neighbors come from Russia, Puerto Rico, China, India…more countries than I can name. You hear dozens of languages when walking down the streets.
We have street artists in Madison Square Park, Shakespeare performances in Central Park, concerts from bands just starting out, poetry slams, and street performers.
I’ve gone out of my city for short visits. Nothing is ever as good as coming home again.
To add to what Ivy said…there are more restaurants than ever. You can get a steak, diner food…and any ethnic food you can find. NYC is the best place in the world.
I live about 6 hours drive from where I grew up.
Growing up, I knew I would move away to school. That’s just what my family did, part of growing up. Many great stories about times in residence and such. I could have got to school where we lived then, but not moving out meant I wouldn’t grow up on schedule, at least the way I looked at it.
When it was time to buy a house, I didn’t have a job. We chose close to husband’s work, so at least one of us would have a short commute.
I like the our current small city, an hour from Toronto, although it’s becoming more a bedroom community for Toronto than the “big city” for the surrounding countryside. All the essentials close, and vacation events far enough to make them special. I spent my childhood in a village too small for a grocery store, and my teen years in Ottawa. Small city combines the features nicely.