Where are you from? Does it still feel like home?
 

I was thinking about this today... I grew up in south Florida in a pretty simple neighborhood -- tons of kids in that area but I didn't stay in touch with any of them. My best friend back then for 10 years is some kind of Baptist priest now... Another guy ended up in a gang and then became a karate teacher... anyway none of those people I care to know... and my family wasn't from that area anyway -- so I don't really have any ties to south Florida other than a couple of aunts...

Lately I've been thinking about the whole idea of home and country... my family doesn't even live in Florida anymore... even my grandparents have moved on... I don't even relate to most Floridians... How important is your home/hometown/country/etc. to you? Does your family have a house that hasn't changed much since you were a kid? I'd like to hear some good stories :)

The time is near.

You are now soon to become an Oregonian as I have prophesized .

I grew up on long island, but since I hated it the entire time due to the weather, It never felt like "Home"-now I would NEVER go back-for any reason

I grew up in a mobile home, in Bakersfield, CA. Our hometown has wannabe gang bangers and neo nazi skinheads. They are all fools. I went to a highschool that didn't think I should graduate and so they kicked me out.

I visit once a month (or so) because my entire family still lives there. Mom, Dad, sister, aunts uncles, grandparents, cousins... But other than that, I really don't like it there. It gets hot enough to melt cars there in the summer, and the air is the worst in all of California.

I am from Bakersfield, and no I wish that wasn't my hometown.

i'm from toronto and it feals like home. something about half the people in a city not being able to speak english that just feals like home.

can't wait till i move back in june :glugglug

I have grown up in the same town all my life, small town, about two miles long. I love it and hate ie at the same time. I went to school with the same kids forever, and graduated with them also.
Everywhere you go you see at least 2 or 3 people you go, you know someone working in every store, you know small town stuff.

Its kind of cool seeing as it is a small biker town, most everyone has been ther forever, all generations.
Kind a like you can leave but you always come back.

But on the other hand it sucks, cause you cant do anything without the entire town knowing within the next 24 hours.

Small town syndrome.

my family still lives in the town I grew up in.

all my old friends are either taking drugs or dealing with them. last february when visiting some of them I was beat up with an axe and robbed, that was lots of fun.

that's life on the wrong side of a small town ... I love it ;)

I grew up in TN. I hate Tn.

Home for me is Oak Harbor, WA.

I am a 3rd generation Montrealer. I left home at 18 to go away to university. My dad died when I was 8 and my mom never re-married. I never went back to Montreal to live since I left. I would visit my mom a couple of times per year (we would talk on the phone all the time though). So its been 20 years since I left Montreal and being close to my mom. Well 3 years ago my mom retired and asked if I minded if she came to Vancouver to live. She doesn't know a person here besides me. At first it was a wierd feeling having my mom down the street from me but its been a great experience to re-connect with her more. She never lived anywhere else other then Montreal. I have moved a lot - Hamilton, Toronto San Francisco, Syracuse, NY...but I love and want to plant my flag here in Vancouver.

I'm seriously thinking about it...

My best friend here is leaving for San Francisco by the end of summer... It's just too bad we can't move Oregon to a tropical beach paradise with sultry hot bikini babes...

All my family, all my friends are in New Orleans. My family has lived there for generations, dating back pre1700's. I am one of the very few to have moves away so far, if not one of the ONLY ones to have done so. Just around 2200 miles away.

Aside from the few friends I have made since moving here in 98, nothing can replace the ties I have with some of my old friends and of course my entire family. Very big family.

Im visitng New Orleans in about 3 weeks, cant wait.

No matter what, I always miss my hometown and friends and family.

;)

<img src="http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/tt/2001/jun06/nasascott.jpg">

There is nothing like going back to the old neighborhood. Its remembering where you came from and why you became who you are.

Most of the people I knew never left the neighborhood. Probably never will. There is a whole lot of world out there to see and try on.

As they totally opposite points of few, combined they make the whole picture as to who I am today.

I live just accross the lake from where I grew up. Just two miles. Northwest Lower Michigan. It feels like home becuase it is I guess. We plan on heading for warmer weather as soon as our youngest is out of school.

I grew up around the Los Angeles area and in the last ten years it seems like some of the cities where I have lived have fucking doubled the amount of people, mostly non-english speaking immigrants, and it really sucks. Just too many changes.

Too crowded and just not the same. Traffic and parking nearly unbearable. Probably going to gradually move up towards Northern Cal.

At the age of 18 I left Michigan and for so many years it was always home. I guess about three years ago I returned for the annual visit and that is when I realized I had changed. I have been in California for so long that I identify with the culture out here more than I do back in the old hometown. It is kind of sad because I really enjoy the simplicity of a small town but I have grown so accustomed to the pace of life and the depth of activity that I do not think I can ever go back without felling a large void.

I love going back. I do think the people tend to look at me as more of an outsider or feel betrayed on some level. I kept close contact with many people the first eight or nine years. Now I feel intrusive calling or trying to visit when I go back. I always get this comment "I would never move there I think it sucks"

I guess some people adapt to moving on and others feel safe in a place that will forever be familiar to them

Yeah I don't really have that... even though I few up in a family oriented neighborhood... We used to play games out in the streets... there were always a dozen kids running around for kickball or pickle or whatever... but it was still a transient area... People moved away... My family moved when I was finishing middle-school... I think they started building cheap apartments on the outskirts... later there was crime... my family got out early before the first gangs started to crop up... later on I heard the area went downhill... I'm sure all the same trees we climbed are still there and the canals we used to fish in -- and the hide-outs... but nobody I would remember... Kindof sad really...

They did a great job in that studio!

both my mom and my dads family, are all from this place,

im living in the home my great grandfather build,

after my grandfather dyed my mom inherited it, and gave it to me,

It had been rented out for about 5 years before I took it over,

and I toor it half down and build it all u padn fixed it all up new and now I live in it, and with any amount of money I would not want to leave, I like it here, its my home,

its nice when you walk out side and your neighboors are 75

and the nice lady tells you, good morning Jason, I love your flowers this year, I remembers when you great grandmother planted them, she really loved her flowers you know,

and when I come back from the store I help the greek lady and with her crazy dog,

that dog has been barking at me since I was a child and I played with that womans grand kids while her and my grandmother had coffee,

my high school is up the block and my elementary school 5 blocks over,

history is good to have, but ultimatly home is were you make it,

but I like making my home, where my family has made theres with people I respect and neighboors I respect, and can live with,

now all we nead is asuna to come in and tell me verdun is verdump and I live in the ghetto

lol

Born in London, lived in Miami (Dade County, very latino) for 10 years, two places in Kansas for 5 years, Philadelphia for 4 and went to Penn State University for 5. Moving down to Maryland (near the Chesapeake) in September.

Home? Where I lay my head at night.

Lived in the same town in England until I was 23, then went on Euro Adventure, been living between Holland and Spain for the last 8 years.

Do I miss anything from my old town, nope.

Pete.. I ask again.
When are you moving here?

I live in germany. near baden-baden.

someone know "baden-baden"?

is popular city in the south of germany.

:D

its all a dre@m!!!

boston is definitely not home. i'm still trying to graft it into one, but...