Would You Rather Live in a Small Town

[Perseid]

than a city?

Possible answers:

Yabbadabba Do

No frickin' way in hell

[Inchworm]

1. yabba dabba do

I'll visit YOUR city just to loot and pilliage.

:hi:

[Perseid]

2. finally

someone who thinks like me!

[Perseid]

3. I am movin' on

sleep comes only to those who wait and wish....and get wasted....

sometimes

sometimes not

adios amigos and amigas

[Inchworm]

4. peace out yo :P

:)

[RushIsRot]

5. I live in the woods and LOVE it! I should've moved here years ago.

[Heidi]

6. I love living in a small town.

It's really a village. But the country's so small I can get to several big cities in less than three hours. :hi:

[Viva_La_Revolution]

7. Normally I avoid small towns like the plague

with all the shit hitting the fan though, I think I really need to get out of the city.

[Perseid]

8. I think you should seriously consider that

[TK421]

9. Having lived in a small town...I would have to say no

I got used to seeing the same people every day in the same places, and it's kind of creepy.....

I prefer the city, but I don't envy the city's lack of parking or their congestion..

[Perseid]

10. one could become a hermit

in a small town

[TK421]

11. You could...but you would still end up knowing about 90% of the town

and the town knowing about 100% of you and your personal business....that seems to be the way that small towns operate.

But having lived in the city, things are...well, different.

[Critters2]

21. I loved seeing the same people every day!

It's one of the things I miss most. It gave me a sense of community, and kept me in touch with people at a level I can't get in a bigger city. Reminded me of grad school...in fact, I used to refer to the diner in town as "the cafeteria".

I miss being in a small town.

[Oeditpus Rex]

12. A small town

...within reasonable distance of a city. ("Reasonable" is, of course, up to the individual.)

I've lived in a small (36,000) town that's miles from nowhere for almost 10 years. The advantages are few and don't come close to balancing the disadvantages.

I'm getting out pretty soon, though, to a town of about 9,500 that's just a couple of miles from a city of about 55,000 in one of the most liberal areas in the country. :bounce:

[Wcross]

13. I prefer neither. Give me a great rural area anytime!

At my current home I could go get the mail up at the road naked and have nothing to fear. I have NEVER had neighbor issues with noise or annoying activity (other the twice a year they cut the hay).
I can sleep with my windows open and not be disturbed. I have never heard one of those loud stereo cars on my road, never heard a police or fire siren.

I enjoy it.

[doc03]

14. I'm with you. I live in a rural area too. I lived

in the Washington DC area for about two years and hated it after a few days. I got drafted in 1968 and after getting out of the Army I returned to my home in rural Ohio and have never regretted it. I make a visit to Pittsburgh PA (60 Mile drive) maybe once a year and Columbus OH (130 mile drive) a couple times a year. It's nice to visit a day or two but there is no way I could possibly live there. The people are friendly and there are things to see and do we don't have but the driving in traffic and the congestion they can have.:toast:

[Wcross]

15. I lived in D.C. for a couple years too! Hated it.

I grew up in suburbia and I REALLY hated that. I prefer where I am at now.

[GenDem]

16. I live in a little rural hamlet

It sits between two small villages that are about three miles to the west and east. I would hate living in suburbia and am grateful that our area has no sprawl and no cul-de-sacs. We have plenty of room for a big garden and when we look out back there are no other houses -- just fields and woods.

I think if I had to live anywhere but out here in the sticks it would be in a city.

[GreenPartyVoter]

17. I live in the sticks too. The only downside is all the driving to get anywhere

[maveric]

18. I like the privacy in the city. If that makes any sense.

Living in a small town everyone knows who has a cold and who is sleeping with who else.
In the city nobody gives a shit.
City boy for life.

[femmocrat]

35. Not necessarily. We have lived out here for over 20 years and hardly know the neighbors.

The best thing is reading the police blotter to see who got arrested for DUI, though! :evilgrin:

[davsand]

19. Find boo-foo no-place, hang a left, go five more miles, and you are there.

I live out in rural no-place in a tiny little spot on the map (pop 200 if you include a couple of dogs.) I grew up on a farm a few miles from here and I knew full well what it was like before my husband and I moved back out here 9 years ago. We lived in a university town with a pop of about 100,000 when our daughter was born. That town is about 30 minutes from here, and we both still work there.

Our decision to move out here was based on a couple of factors.

Primarily, the school district here is highly regarded--so much so that they are pretty consistent in winning awards for academic achievement. When I looked at the schools "in town" I was seeing test scores well below what they manage in this tiny school district.

The other factor that is more difficult to explain, is that sense of community that life here brings. There is a "connection" here that absolutely eludes a lot of people. I joke about the fact that it IS like life ina goldfish bowl, but I also admit freely that at this stage of my life I really have no business that can't be discussed.

While I am aware that they all know an awful lot about me, I was supremely grateful for that community involvement when Kev had his heart attack 18 months ago. I never had to worry about where my kid was gonna be while I was at the hospital, because she was with a neighbor who has a kid the same age.

When he came home from the hospital, our neighbors were there to mow the yard and deal with all the other stuff that he couldn't do for a while. We had a constant stream of calls and people stopping by (when we were outside) wanting to know how he was doing and did we need anything.

You can never underestimate just how much that means until you need it.

Similarly, when my Dad had a heart attack one Sunday morning I went to the ER with him and my husband went to church with our daughter (it was the Bible School program that morning, and she was in that program.) Hubby had a stream of neighbors at church asking for updates on Dad because they already knew who Fire Rescue had gone out to help.

Those same neighbors were there a few years ago when Dad had open heart surgery with the crop still in the field. They harvested HIS crop before they took out their own...

It isn't a garden spot, and if you get pissed at someone there is not much ability to avoid contact with them. In that respect, it IS kind of like a big family, and it can be a real pain. Fortunately, those times are rare. Certainly, they are offset by the support we get here.


Laura

[Critters2]

22. I didn't know Kev had a heart attack!

:wow: I'm shocked, and sorry I wasn't aware and able to be of some support!! If the coolest, most laid back guy I know can have a heart attack, we're all screwed!!!!

But you're right about the sense of community in a small town--with all of its advantages and disadvantages. I know the area where you are, preached at Hope Church, in the country north of Ogden, a few times. They seem like good folks. I'm glad they've been there for you when you needed them.

How's Kev now?

[davsand]

27. May 30th 2006. The day after Material Girl's birthday.

We were in the dugout coaching the girls' softball game and he looked at me and said he needed to go the the ER. He refused to let me call for an ambulance saying he didn't want to freak out the kids. I drove him to the hospital while he was having a heart attack. (Never again will I do THAT, btw.)

They put in 4 stents and declared it a "wake-up call" as long as he changed his habits. Docs say he suffered no reduction in his heart function and Kev says he feels better now than he did prior to the heart attack. He will admit that he gets tired more easily, but that is about ALL he will admit to.

We both quit smoking, we eat a lot better, and we are at the gym doing full blown cardio workouts at least three days per week. Oddly enough, I had been on a cardio friendly diet for several months before his heart attack--I was on the South Beach Diet which was written by a cardio doc for his heart patients. Kev now follows a modified form of it.

I think what was especially awful was the fact that kev's heart attack came after we lost Bill and JohnLee (both in a very short time.) The folks at the Lincoln Building were as shell shocked as I was--maybe moreso because I was able to be with Kev in the hospital.

Mike was at the hospital to see Kev, and told him to just stand down for a while--that he and Jeff would keep the trains running. I will always love Mike for doing that for Kev. The first thing Kev did when he got out of the hospital was to go there and see the folks in the office so they knew he was gonna be ok. (I honestly think people outside the CCHCC family have NO idea how tight that bunch is...)

We are doing fine, and as you are well aware, Kev is in the thick of it all, still. Lest you doubt how well he's doing, this last Spring (just before the one year mark post heart attack) we were at a softball practice and I looked up to see my husband out there sprinting around the bases in hot pursuit of his screaming squealing softball team.

He's doing fine.

As for you feeling bad for not knowing--pish posh! We love you and we realize you are not exactly living in the neighborhood any more. He's still here and you have plenty of time left to devil him!



Laura

[yellowdogintexas]

20. grew up in a town of 200. Too.Damn.Small, had to drive 20 miles

to get anything besides your most basic groceries. No doctor, dentist, or vet. However, a town that small is a helluva fine place to be a kid. All the parents know all the kids, everybody kind of watches out, and you generally feel pretty safe ..although my sister tells me they would never let their kids "run loose in town" the way we did..and that is a loss.

I prefer the city and the older I get the better I like that, because of the nearness of medical care. And theater, movies, art, and other things.

I enjoy being in the country, I like vacationing in the country, I appreciate the rural life immensely and the quiet. I could deal with a rural home if it were really near a good hospital.

[treestar]

23. I would rather live in a small town or a big city

Rather than in the suburbs.

[Critters2]

25. I'd rather stick sharp things in my eye than live in the suburbs

The sooner this town feels suburban, the sooner I go back to Iowa.

[Ivan Sputnik]

24. Uh, no....

I grew up in a very small town, and the sense of isolation from the "real world" and the limited social circle were painful to me. Small towns are romanticized in pop culture, but they're really not like that, at least in my experience. I now live in a fairly large city that is close to a major city, and it suits me. That said, I would still rather live in a small town than in some anonymous suburb that requires driving everywhere.

[Critters2]

26. Small towns are the "real world".

Just as much as any city.

[catmandu57]

28. I've done both

City living was good when I was young, I'm glad I was in the school system i was, and I needed the night life that the city offered when i was young. These days we live in a small town and it suits me just fine. I could live in the middle of nowhere now and be perfectly happy.

[deadparrot]

29. I'm a city girl.

I've attended college in a small town smack dab in the middle of a rural area, and if my time here has taught me anything, it's that I'm a city dweller.

[huskerlaw]

30. City girl, definitely.

I grew up in a town of about 500 people in Nebraska. Thankfully, an hour from 2 major cities. But I hated it, couldn't wait to get out.

I lived in Lincoln, Nebraska for 7 years while going to college. It's a city of about 300,000 and it was acceptable, but still not quite my thing.

I now live in Los Angeles.

I won't be moving back to Nebraska anytime soon...if EVER.

[Skittles]

31. I've lived in both

I'll take city living ANY DAY over rural. ABSOLUTELY.

[Bluzmann57]

32. Yes

Hell, I grew up in a town that was similar to Mayberry on the Mississippi. So I'm used to it. And the quiet is great.

[femmocrat]

33. I've lived in both and everything in-between and I prefer a small town.

We are actually in the country, and the nearest town only has a post office, a church and a biker bar. It did have an elementary school until this year, but alas, it has been closed.

[hyphenate]

34. I've lived rurally on my grandfather's farm

for months at a time, and always lived the rest of the time in the city (Boston, Brookline) and I can honestly say I will be a city dweller predominantly, with some time away when the opportunity presents itself. I don't care for suburbia, though--it's like the worst of both the city and rural life. Blech.

[bicentennial_baby]

36. Fine either way...

I've lived in everything from less than 1000 person towns to large cities, and I'm cool either way. I like the quiet, I like the chaos. I'm adaptable. :)

[tjwmason]

37. I live in a village

With central London about an hour away taking in journey to the station and train into town - strikes me as ideal.

[Roon]

38. If I had a grocery and an HIV doctor close by..

I would live in a small town. Oh yeah, gotta have broadband too!