What would you like folks to know about your neighborhood..

[hammer & tongs]

Since we have TD enthusiasts from all 50 states, Canada & around the world...I would like to open a string to help folks clarify some misunderstandings about their home area..

To clarify what I mean, I'll start out:

I live in New York State. Many folks, when they hear that, picture "big city", since there is one very large city of the same name..
Clarification: the population of NY is centered around NY City, ..(along the waterways)up the Hudson river and across by way of the Erie canal/Mohawk river, ending with Buffalo/Niagara falls on the western end.

There is truly much rural area in NY State. I live in basically what is the southwest corner of the state...

I actually live about as far from NY City as is Morgantown, West Virginia..

Outside the "population band" that I outlined there is much "country"..

In the Adirondack mts there are places where a person can travel many miles without sighting another person or habitation..

C'mon folks, what might we not understand about your home area.

[oklahomajewel]

Good idea....


I like in Midwest City, a suburb of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. OKC is in the center of the state, Tulsa in the NE and Lawton to the SW. Dallas is about 4 hr drive south, Kansas City is about 5-6 hours to the N, NE.

Yes, I have some Cherokee Indian in my ancestry and my grandmother was born in a sod house but we're not all hicks and country folk and farmers and ranchers out here.

There are signs along the highways in some rural areas that say something like "Now entering Sac & Fox Nation Indian Reservation" and I wonder if people really expect to see tepees and Indians in headdress come riding over the hill on a painted horse. No.

You'll come thru OKC and see exits for the Stockyards and Cowtown but you won't see someone crossing the street with a herd of cattle

Yes, we have a lot of guys *and girls* driving pickup trucks and wearing cowboy hats, but we have cities, cable and DSL , shopping malls, Starbucks, crime , kidnappings, corruption ....and even though we just got the lottery this century , we're not THAT behind the times! haha

In my suburb and about like the 'burbs around Tulsa or Lawton, you can get a 3 bedroom, 2 car garage, about 1800 s/f house for under $100K . If the house is a bit older, maybe $80K .

You've heard the term "going postal" ? That originated here, about 20 years ago a disgruntled post office employee in Edmond (north of here) went in and shot some people. That's where the term started.

Don't know what else to tell you right now, except that Oklahoma is a friendly state! Oh--- and great camping.. lots of beautiful lakes and great fishing and hunting.

Julie
(ps... lived here all my life)

[Chip]

Okie I'll play,,,,

South Carolina, A beautiful state that was part of the original 13,,, We have had a long role in the history of our country, Mountains on the west side, Atlantic ocean on the east,,, so we have the best of both worlds, there is a song that goes,"Nothing could be finer than to be in Carolina in the morning" that pretty much sums it up,,

Now let me clear up some misconceptions: Yes we have indoor plumbing and electricity,,, Some folks have their own teeth, not store bought,,, dogs do still sleep on the front pourch but now prefer to be inside,,, Most pickups here do NOT have a gun rack in the back window,, We dont have an accent when we talk,, YOU DO! ,,,, Dale Earnhart does not walk on water,,,, lawn art does not generally include a car or truck on concrete blocks,,, most folks actually prefer their refridgerators in the kitchen,, not on the front pourch,, there are three meals a day,, breakfast, dinner and supper,, in that order,, We dont care how you did it back home, If you are here do as we do,,

and one other thing ya might not know,, everybody here does not drink pickle juice,,, but I am working on them,

chipper,, Ya'll come see us now ya hear!!

[Ira]

I'll play too:

South Florida…Ft. Lauderdale on up to Boca.

Ft. Lauderdale is where the boys AREN'T these days, because in the early 90s, the city did everything it could to get rid of the spring breakers--and they succeeded.

It is now a boring cesspool of overpriced condos, overpriced restaurants, and if they spot a square-inch of unused land somewhere, they put an overpriced restaurant or condo on it. The college kids were a lot more fun, and they supported reasonably priced local businesses.

Now to my home of Coral Springs:

White bread, sanitary, and run by Nazis. That's all I have to say about Coral Springs.

Let's go up to Boca Raton, including adjoining Delray Beach:

Yes, Virginia--there IS a retired Jew that isn't eating dinner at 3PM because of an early-bird special. But there's just one.

Here, like elsewhere in South Florida, every piece of prisitine land is replaced with a pristine strip mall.

The middle-aged women wear too much makeup, have had too much plastic surgery, and drive way too expensive cars. They have "annoying" names like "Esther" and "Agnes," and if they're not wearing 20 pounds of jewelry, they feel naked.

The men are ALL incredibly successful--and can you believe it? Not ONE has a problem paying his mortgage, paying for the kid's college tuition, or taking that trip to the Bahamas. Of course, this is not the case at all. They're ALMOST human like the rest of us, but they just won't admit it.

To admit human problems is to admit failure.

Aside from the weather and the Keys, why the hell did I ever move to this place?

[Joseph]

Front Royal, VA. "Gateway to the Skyline Drive" and self-appointed "Canoe Capitol of Virginia." The latter are our two biggest draws - Shenandoah National Park and the Shenandoah River offer some of the best outdoor recreation in the world.
Front Royal itself is a great little town with reasonably priced homes (though like everywhere else, they're going up) and fairly low taxes. The utilities (water, sewer, garbage & electric) are all run by the town. They buy electricity from whoever is selling it the cheapest, though that's going to go up soon - they're working on a way to limit the impact on the citizens, though the only way they can do that is subsidize it with tax money, so pay 'em now or pay 'em later.
Front Royal is the only real town in Warren County and approximately a third of the county commutes into the DC area (70 miles one-way for me) and there are serious concerns about the kind of over-development like they have in Loudon & Prince William Counties. So far it's been held off. Gas prices may be holding people closer to the city - I can only hope.
Several good little "mom & pop" restaurants, two well-stocked grocery stores and a downtown that, like many downtowns these days, has lots of antique shops. The Royal Cinema (three screens) shows the latest movies, though the owners are particular about what they show. Not that they won't show an R-rated movie, but they're selective about which ones.
The public schools, like so many these days, leave a lot to be desired, but we have an excellent military acadamy - Randolph Macon Acadamy - that is affiliated with the Air Force JROTC and of which my daughter is a graduate.

Joseph

[Chris C]

I live close enough to Julie that she's pretty much covered it all.............except I live in the country and wear bib overalls and live in a teepee.......(no not really).......oh yeah, I've some Choctaw Indian blood in me. And where I live, we ocassionally have some cattle running down the road or through the fences. But I raise llamas and they don't run around. See, Julie and I are pretty much the same.

[SmokeyBob]

Texas
Always bragging about how big things are here.

If their big on anything it's HOT AIR and BS.

I'll drink to that.

[Dean in Eureka, CA]

Folks that are coming to the IRG are gonna get to see for themselves what things are like where I live in about two weeks.

[Rob]

Woodland, CA:
It started as a farming community. My niece was married to a guy whose family moved here in 1850. Population is just a bit over 50,000, but there are quite a few living outside the city limits. We are about 20 miles north of Sacramento, 400 miles north of Los Angeles, a couple hundred miles south of Oregon, 75 miles north-east of San Francisco, 120 miles south-west of Lake Tahoe. A three-bedroom, two-bathroom house with a two-care garage on a 6,000 square-foot lot is about $350,000, (Julie, can I move to OK?) The farming is mostly tomatoes, corn, sunflowers, safflower, alfalfa, beans, rice, some winter wheat. Since Woodland is mostly a farming community there is a relativley high population of hispanics. Us Gringos don't want to do that hard work in the hot sun. Woodland is becoming more of a bedroom community supporting Sacramento. We are also developing more and more warehousing space. We are right on Interstate 5 that runs from Mexico to Canada. Interstate 80 (from San Francisco to New York) is just south in Sacramento. Basically, we are in the middle of no where, but centrally located to everything.

[GregB]

Okay, I'll bite.

Lehi, Utah which is in Utah county about 20 minutes from BYU. Our county here is sometimes referred to as "Happy Valley", sometimes derisively, sometimes seriously. My wife and I are California natives (from the Sacramento area) and have lived here about 6 years, total, so, I'm still learning about it. Yes, I am Mormon which, aournd here, puts me in the majority for the first time in my life. I still enjoy watching outsiders show up, wide-eyed, looking for stepford-type wives along with the inevitable comments on plural marriage. You get used to the misconceptions, but most of us have seen the some of these families when they come out of the back country. Still, having lived in many other places, it is idyllic in many respects. Friendliness is rampant, people even smile when they cut you off in traffic. We all go to church together so I know everybody in a 3 block area. Kids play safely all over (lots of kids!), and the scenery is breathtaking.

I live right at the foot of the Wasatch range and in less than 10 minutes from my doorstep can be up another 2000 feet in a spectacular mountain valley with peaks all around. Mt. Timpanogos is right next door and towers 7000 feet over our valley floor. This is a great place to be outdoors with wide open western beauty on every front and not too many people around.

We have an eclectic mix of population, lots of old-time farmers whose pioneer ancestors came out with Brigham Young and lots of young, high-tech, highly educated kids with new ideas. We all seem to have the outdoors in common. Utah is arguably the dutch oven cooking mecca in the nation; everybody does it here. Our biggest problem might be those darn Californians who move in and drive home prices up!

Greg

[madjack]

Louisiana...everything you ever heard is true!!! I grew up inna stilt house, inna swamp and you think you had it hard walking to school, uphill, in the snow, both ways...try swimming 2 miles to the the boat landing where the bus picked us up...all the while, trying to keep your book dry and the alligators from eating your homework..we'll not even discuss the rattleback cotton moccasins and the hurricanados ...now that was a tough life...
madjack

[emiller]

Phoenix hot and dusty, but to the north and northeast lots of trees.

[thobbs]

I live about 7 miles east of Greg in Pleasant Grove, UT. I'll be in Lehi in a few months. I agree wiht all his comments and wanted to add one more.
NO, WE DON'T HAVE HORNS AND TAILS!

[bsandey]

I live about 50 miles SE of the Twin Cities (Minneapolis/St. Paul) in Red Wing, home of Red Wing Shoes. I use to live in a suburb of the Twin Cities, but am very glad to get out of there. Rush hour for me now is 6 other cars on the highway when I'm going to work!

Basically, it is close enough to the cities so we can enjoy some aspects of the cities and visit family and friends there, but far enough away that we don't have the "hustle and bustle" of city life.

[sunny16]

I guess another Utahn will add his 2 cents. I, too, agree with GregB and thobbs. I live about 20 miles to the north in the Salt Lake Valley in the subberbs of Salt Lake City. I have lived here all my life. One of the best things about Utah and living close to the SL Valley is you can drive 1 hour in any direction and can be in a diverse part of the state such as high mountains, lakes, deserts, and engage in any type of activity such as golfing, skiing, biking, hiking, fishing, camping, whatever your pleasure. Like one of our license plates used to say, "Utah, a pretty great state!"