Where am I?

[PX4sc40sw]

In my retiree mind, I am in a 3rd-4th floor apartment or condo on the Main street of a city looking out my window. Down below on the street is a steady stream of shoppers, people going to work, cars slowly looking for a spot, coppers slapping their night sticks on the streetlamp posts as they wander along. Shop keepers have just gone back inside after putting their awnings up or some goods out on the sidewalk. Older ladies walk along with their shopping cart or bags, with old fart in tow, and the smell of eggs/bacon is in the air, later to give way to burger and fries smell. I see a used book store on the corner, a Five and Dime up the street, a McCrory's, Woolworth's or Kress's along the way. A news shop on the corner.

The library 2 blocks over has huge wooden tables and large oak chairs weighing too much to lift, almost. The paper isn't here yet but will be as soon as the paper boy brings it. The little park in the town center has 4 benches and some geese and ducks in the 4 quart pond and a cast iron water fountain that worked up until 10 years ago.

I may wander way over onto the edge of town about 3 blocks, each way, to get a pint of Brandy for later, and stop by the Sinclair station to get a bottle of pop for a chaser. Hope I don't run into Reverend Smith, lest he recognize me and punch me in the nose.

Where am I? I musta got lost, somewhere down the line.

Does this still exit or is this only in the mind of the imaginer?

 

[REWahoo]

Where am I?

Lost in the 50's?

 

[W2R]

I don't know if Woolworths or Kress still exist, but if the store name doesn't matter, then you could be in any one of a horde of out-of-the-way, half forgotten towns in middle America, IMO. Personally I think you could have fun rambling about several states all summer looking at places that are at least partly like that. We got gas at a Sinclair station in Springfield last February so Sinclair still exists.

 

[PX4sc40sw]

I do feel a bit lost in the 50's but I grew up in Los Angeles and maybe those images exist from movies, bit I cannot imagine a life living here. But I have a friend who also retired from Catech and his wife chose to live in that type burb.

Yet, all my searching so far has not turned up a place where I can walk out my front door each morning and be within a block or two of some enjoyable experience.

I suspect it is going be be difficult to find. Just wondering if anyone is there yet.

I don't know if Woolworths or Kress still exist, but if the store name doesn't matter, then you could be in any one of a horde of out-of-the-way, half forgotten towns in middle America, IMO. Personally I think you could have fun rambling about several states all summer looking at places that are more or less like that. We got gas at a Sinclair station in Springfield last February so Sinclair still exists.

 

[ziggy29]

You are in a maze of twisty passages, all alike.

 

[freebird5825]

Change the store names, subtract the beat cop, and you could be in any number of small towns close to me. Every once in a while, my best guy friend and I take a spin and visit one of these little towns and wander around. It is an experience.

Don't forget the town diner with the blue plate special!

 

[ProspectiveBum]

I do feel a bit lost in the 50's but I grew up in Los Angeles and maybe those images exist from movies, bit I cannot imagine a life living here.

Hey, I think I can see my house!

 

[CuppaJoe]

My dear, you have entered "The Twilight Zone."

Night sticks indicate a place like England but the store names are U.S. In your first line you indicate city but it sounds like a small town. Go with it, it may mean something like you want to slow down. When I first moved to the city, I often spoke of feeling over-stimulated; now that I've been there 35 years and retired 9 months, it's a struggle to allow myself a slower pace.

 

[yakers]

I do feel a bit lost in the 50's but I grew up in Los Angeles and maybe those images exist from movies, bit I cannot imagine a life living But I have a friend who also retired from Catech and his wife chose to live in that type burb.

Yet, all my searching so far has not turned up a place where I can walk out my front door each morning and be within a block or two of some enjoyable experience.

I suspect it is going be be difficult to find. Just wondering if anyone is there yet.

If that was was CALTECH then your answers are right next door: Sierra Madre, Montrose South Pasadena if you want to walk to everything add La Canada if driving is OK.

My favorites: My older son lives in Placerville. Great small town, Nevada City too.

 

[ziggy29]

My favorites: My older son lives in Placerville. Great small town, Nevada City too.

I love the Mother Lode area. Great scenery and history, glorious weather. I'd love to retire there, except that it's just way too expensive and CA taxes are brutal.

 

[PX4sc40sw]

CuppaJoe, in England we had our coppers use a little whistle that sounded like a tweeter. I lived in NYC and the coppers would beat their sticks on the sidewalk to alert other coppers.

In Los Angeles, if I want to go somewhere more than a mile, I have to plan the trip. What time, which alternate route, La Cienega or La Tierra, what is best leaving and returning time. OK, home honey, got the loaf of bread, sorry it's midnight but the freeway was closed at MLK Blvd.

I'm thinking more of a small enclave within a big tropolis, like Queens, or Brooklyn. Maybe upper Polk in SF. But really was hoping to hear someone say.

"Ah, your talking about Willoughby".

Any pocketville like that someone knows of I would be glad to go look.

My dear, you have entered "The Twilight Zone."

Night sticks indicate a place like England but the store names are U.S. In your first line you indicate city but it sounds like a small town. Go with it, it may mean something like you want to slow down. When I first moved to the city, I often spoke of feeling over-stimulated; now that I've been there 35 years and retired 9 months, it's a struggle to allow myself a slower pace.

 

[Alan]

Good post. My home town and where my Dad, 2 sisters and many friends and relatives still live has resisted the ravages of time very well and is still a place that I would move back to in an instant in anything ever happened to DW and I found myself alone.

I have been back a LOT this last few years by myself on business. I stay with my Dad and drive the 25 miles each way to work. Because of jet lag and the sun being out at 4am in June I often find myself up and walking before 7am.

The newspaper shop and the little grocer's and the baker's are still only a couple of blocks away. The town center is a 10 minute walk away but I usually take a long walk up to my old grammar school and down through the woods to the cliffs and walk along the promenade so that by the time I am walking up the high street people are stirring and you can smell the fresh baking bread. I often meet the milkman whose family own one of the local farms and who we have known all our lives.

 

[PX4sc40sw]

Alan, darn, now you've done it mate. Gone and thrown heaven out there as a possibility. I used to go to Whitby and Scarborough at the weekend, stop in Thirsk for a Fish and Chips on Kirkgate just off the Market Square. I'm gonna have to settle for something a lot less. But if you are in the US, it must seem like heaven to get back home.


and.
Ooops, spelin was a real bummer for me. Oh, yeah, La Canada was my entry way to heaven. I've walked every square inch of Angeles Crest.

But I have tired of Cali. Something has changed and it's fine for newcomers but if you were born here, ahhh, nevermind the rant is not worth it.

Thanks, I will re-acquaint. Have not been back there in a while.

I'll try to find a picture that will describe my feelings a bit better.

If that was was CALTECH then your answers are right next door: Sierra Madre, Montrose South Pasadena if you want to walk to everything add La Canada if driving is OK.

My favorites: My older son lives in Placerville. Great small town, Nevada City too.

 

[bbbamI]

Does this still exit or is this only in the mind of the imaginer?

If it does exist, I sure would like to find it.

 

[yakers]

If you live in LA then you know it has many neighborhoods and interesting enclaves. My favorite is Larchmont Village, part of Hancock Park but I kind of expect someone to tether a mule in the street. Nothing like being in a village in the city.
I am a city boy, grew up in Chicago, lived in London and now LA/Pasadena for 30 years. I think a good small town, especially if it has a college, can be a great place to live; like Claremont or Davis. It does take a lot of research to find a compatible spot.

 

[freebird5825]

...Any pocketville like that someone knows of I would be glad to go look.

New England is full of Pocketvilles, but the snow and cold is not for the fainthearted. The cultural void has to be considered too, unless you grab yourself a place in a college town.
On that note, may I recommend Ithaca NY, home of Cornell University, in the Finger Lakes region for a nice easy vacation in the summertime.

 

[Bestwifeever]

Penny Lane.

One thing for sure, you're not anywhere with a Walmart within a few miles.

 

[PX4sc40sw]

Small world. big city kid also, born LA, lived in Chi, NYC, Hong Kong, and London/England many years. W2 4AD, Queensway. Just back of Whiteley's.

But, I am yearning for something I cannot seem to find. I want a market square from Skipton, N. Yorks, and Rue Cler and maybe three blocks of Nathan Rd., Kowloon, transported to the US and put into the area just South of Market.

Anyone seen that place yet?

If you live in LA then you know it has many neighborhoods and interesting enclaves. My favorite is Larchmont Village, part of Hancock Park but I kind of expect someone to tether a mule in the street. Nothing like being in a village in the city.
I am a city boy, grew up in Chicago, lived in London and now LA/Pasadena for 30 years. I think a good small town, especially if it has a college, can be a great place to live; like Claremont or Davis. It does take a lot of research to find a compatible spot.

 

[CuppaJoe]

....
"Ah, your talking about Willoughby".

Any pocketville like that someone knows of I would be glad to go look.

Don't mean to rain on your parade but IIRC, I interpreted "Willoughby" to be the stop that no longer exists; the guy who got off there was dead.

Check your "thank you" section. The place you are looking for really does exist but you have to decide where to find it; it might be just a state of mind.

 

[Alan]

Alan, darn, now you've done it mate. Gone and thrown heaven out there as a possibility. I used to go to Whitby and Scarborough at the weekend, stop in Thirsk for a Fish and Chips on Kirkgate just off the Market Square. I'm gonna have to settle for something a lot less. But if you are in the US, it must seem like heaven to get back home.

Really pleased to see that you know the area I am talking about

I aim to RE in January then DW & I plan to start living in places like this for weeks or months at a time. Next year will be 6 weeks in England, 2 of which will be in the center of York staying at the university during the Yorksgen biannual conference. DW has done it before 4 years ago and loved it.

In 2011 we plan to live in Guisborough for 6 months, which is somewhere you may know - a market town on the road to Whitby (A171). We lived there between '79 and '85, both our children were born and baptized in the same church my ancestors were baptized in 300 years earler. Again it has hardly changed at all. (Bounded by National Trust - North Yorkshire Moors, nowhere it can expand to).

Guisborough is a very important market town dating back many centuries. Nobody quite knows just how old the town is, as it was considered an old town even at the time of the Doomsday Survey in 1086

 

[Moemg]

You are looking for Venice Florida . Up until a few years ago it had a rexall drug store with a luncheonette complete with huge counter were the locals would go for lunch and gossip . The main street is little shops and outdoor restaurants . The have town parades for everything . The library is two blocks from downtown and most people bike there . The beach is just blocks away from main street and as for police they do not really have much to do .


Home

 

[PX4sc40sw]

Alan, never got of A171 at Guisborough but I remember the signs, and I've bought many a nice cheese, and many a nice boar sausage at the Saturday market in York from the French farm crowd that drives over at the weekend. If you want a nice fun Saturday morning, hit the boot sale out at the race track. Oh, snag a bacon butty from one of the carts, should get you back to old times.

Sounds like you have a great retirement plan, it sounds like a wonderful plan really. You can hit Catterick market on Sunday, over to Stokesley for Sunday roast, and a nice drive thru the Moors.

Loved that area, I consider if maybe one of the best coastlines in the world, just awesome small sea towns. I loved Scarborough and imagining what it was like in it's heyday. Those huge hotels up on the cliffs. Neat area.

Really pleased to see that you know the area I am talking about

I aim to RE in January then DW & I plan to start living in places like this for weeks or months at a time. Next year will be 6 weeks in England, 2 of which will be in the center of York staying at the university during the Yorksgen biannual conference. DW has done it before 4 years ago and loved it.

In 2011 we plan to live in Guisborough for 6 months, which is somewhere you may know - a market town on the road to Whitby (A171). We lived there between '79 and '85, both our children were born and baptized in the same church my ancestors were baptized in 300 years earler. Again it has hardly changed at all. (Bounded by National Trust - North Yorkshire Moors, nowhere it can expand to).

 

[jambo101]

Where am I?
Sounds like Manhattan

 

[PX4sc40sw]

CuppaJoe, Exactly, I'm convinced that I'm dreaming. That the place that my spirit exists in is no longer there.

Jambo101, I'll take Manhattan. That is darn near paradise. Not the one I am describing here but I love Manhattan as a different kind of paradise and if I could afford it, I would.

Don't mean to rain on your parade but IIRC, I interpreted "Willoughby" to be the stop that no longer exists; the guy who got off there was dead.

Check your "thank you" section. The place you are looking for really does exist but you have to decide where to find it; it might be just a state of mind.

 

[Alan]

Alan, never got of A171 at Guisborough but I remember the signs, and I've bought many a nice cheese, and many a nice boar sausage at the Saturday market in York from the French farm crowd that drives over at the weekend. If you want a nice fun Saturday morning, hit the boot sale out at the race track. Oh, snag a bacon butty from one of the carts, should get you back to old times.

Sounds like you have a great retirement plan, it sounds like a wonderful plan really. You can hit Catterick market on Sunday, over to Stokesley for Sunday roast, and a nice drive thru the Moors.

Loved that area, I consider if maybe one of the best coastlines in the world, just awesome small sea towns. I loved Scarborough and imagining what it was like in it's heyday. Those huge hotels up on the cliffs. Neat area.

You are spot on about the coastline and it gets even better the further North you go up into Northumberland. Oh man, you've got me drooling again .....

Scarborough is now set up like a number of historic towns in England to better protect the centers from traffic and it works great. They have free Park'n'Ride areas on the outskirts of the city with a bus service running every 10 minutes into the town. Scarborough's was completely free when we were there 2 years ago - really hard to turn down and soooo much easier than trying to find a car park with spaces in the town and at great expense.