Where did you grow up?

[Purron]

I chose suburban. My family moved every 2-3 years due to Dad's career but most of my formative years were in suburban areas. I also spent a significant amount of time in rural and urban areas while growing up. My main influence, however, was the constant moves. I never had a chance to put down roots or develop an attachment to any particular place or country.

 

[Khan]

Rural.
Birth to 6: small farm on dirt road not too far from small town (~3000)
6 to 12: small rental house on dirt road on other side of town (walking distance of the Hudson River)
12 to 18: parents built modern house on same road a mile closer to town (where road was paved)

We got mail delivery to the house when I was 16.

occasionally took bus trips to NY City for shows, museums, world's fair...

5 to 12: spent summers on grandparents' farm adjacent to small town in Maine

Frugality? I learned early that money was something we didn't have a lot of, so I never got into the habit of asking for stuff.

 

[kumquat]

Small town (pop. 700) in Montana. There aren't that many towns in Montana with > 25,000 people.

I grew up on a grain farm somewhere north of Montana:

Nearest town (population 200), 5 miles.
Nearest neighbour, 2 miles.
Nearest big city (population > 50K) 80 miles.
Nearest really big city (population > 500K) >>1,000 miles.

And I stayed there until I was well into my 20's. Took over the farm at 17 when DF became to sick to run it. Stayed until YB (young brother) was old enough and I had managed to get a degree in the winter months.

Today, YB is still there:

Nearest town (population 36), 5 miles.
Nearest neighbour, 3 miles.
Nearest big city (population > 200K) 80 miles.
Nearest really big city (population > 1,000K) ~=350 miles.

 

[REWahoo]

Grew up in a small town, population under 3,000, 110 miles from Dallas. Two very well known musical stars were born there - but didn't stick around. Maybe that's why neither are LBYM/ER types...

 

[samclem]

Suburban--kinda. I grew up in one of the first "master planned communities", a town of about 20K located 35 miles east of Los Angeles. There were malls in nearby towns, but none in ours. We had to drive to the other towns for McDonalds when I was little, but we had our own by the time I was 12.

Mom was a social worker, dad was an engineer. We were smack-dab in the middle class.

I had a great childhood. Our town was surrounded by empty brush-covered hills, and we'd go hiking all day, or riding our bikes. Parents didn't much worry about their kids roaming around in packs all day, visiting one house or another to raid the fridge. Evenings we played kick-the-can, Frisbee tag (on our bikes), took the BB guns out into the hills, etc.

Now the hills are covered with houses and the character of the place has changed drastically.

 

[Martha]

Small town in the country in Australia. Have to laugh at a small town being categorized as having up to 20,000 people. For us, 20,000 was the big smoke.

Yeah, hard to draw lines, but I decided not to try to get too accurate here and have rural, really small, small, medium towns, cities, megalopolis, etc.

 

[Free To Canoe]

Urban.
I think Martha's theory is correct. Even way back then, most of the population was urban /suburban. Poll seems to be 50/50.

Free to canoe

 

[SarahW]

I grew up on a farm in south GA. Nearest town (pop. 4,000) about 4 miles away. (On a dirt road like Khan.)

 

[BlondieMM]

Hey Gindie

I was born and raised in South Bend itself -- hi, neighbor!!

 

[haha]

I grew up in a city. Until I was about 8 an electric streetcar ran by my house. However my grandparents had a farm, and I spent many summers there. When I was quite young I got used to going anywhere I wanted by myself on public trans. In many ways I have reverted to a similar way of living.

Ha

 

[Sarah in SC]

Very small island town. Close to the city of Charleston but very much our own identity and governance.

 

[Ronstar]

small town of 3,000 about 60 miles from Chicago

 

[F4mandolin]

Unclemick, you are from my neck of the woods....Castle Rock for me until leaving in my early 20's for life out of the country. Longview was where we went to get to the "big" town. I don't know about anybody else, but I don't consider 20,000 to be a small town, I would probably cut it off at 5,000....but then you could get into too many choices I guess. Guess if you grew up in a bigger place then that might seem pretty small. About 1800 people when I was young...Castle Rock is up over 2,100 now!! Good place to grow up, but I sure won't be going back to retire....likely Spokane or even possibly here in the UK. Still leaving that one up to my wife (Brit), I can live just about anywhere as long as the area/town isn't too big.

 

[CuppaJoe]

... I don't know about anybody else, but I don't consider 20,000 to be a small town, I would probably cut it off at 5,000....

Nor do I consider 10,000-20,000 a small town. The town we could walk into kept the population number just under 5,000 for many years; we thought the number was made up for some political reason. I went to a consolidated H.S. that drew from two small towns and a vast rural area which included several smaller towns, so my class graduated 147 (although many dropped out). It never really felt "rural" to me as we could walk to everything, stores, all-day movies, school although they ran buses, swimming beach, back roads, train and bus stations, farms, woods, parks, tourist sites, etc.

Free to Canoe suggests you can split the poll in two, that would put rural/small town in one lump, makes sense to me.

 

[youbet]

Strictly urban Chicago. School for both DW and myself consisted of K -12 in the Chicago Public Schools. My dad, his brother and his sister's husband all worked for the city. Our alderman was the most important adult in our lives outside of immediate family. When a tradesman came to our home to make a repair, he was generally a city employee, on the city payroll clock, stocked with city provided materials. Our neighbors were predominantly city employee families. It was total immersion in the politics and economy of Chicago.

Today, my arm just won't pull the "straight Dem" lever on the voting maching anymore. Revolt from too much of a good thing I guess.

 

[Cruisinthru]

Small town Texas, population 400 or so. Think "Last Picture Show".

 

[REWahoo]

Small town Texas, population 400 or so. Think "Last Picture Show".

Archer City? Larry, is that you? Man I sure like your books!

 

[Walt34]

Suburbs of Washington, DC. At the time it had a "small town" feel to it as we walked or bicycled everywhere, but we could also go to the National Zoo occasionally. When I was fifteen a group of us rode our bicycles to the Washington Monument, walked up and down the stairs (elevators are for wimps!) and rode our bikes the hour and a half or so back home. The possibility of being robbed never crossed our minds.

And it didn't take 2 hours to drive 7 miles on Friday afternoon either.

Damn politicians ruined the place.

Edit: Dad was an electrician from rural PA, worked for the power company as a lineman and later in the meter lab. He said if he was off by one-hundredth of one per cent he was being sloppy. When he died the company had to hire three people to replace him. Mom was a SAHM until we were in our early teens then worked as a secretary at NIH. (National Institutes of Health)

Both grew up in the '30's depression and we heard "We can't afford that" frequently.

 

[Cruisinthru]

No, not Archer City and don't call me Larry.... I do love his books also! I grew up just west of where the west begins.

 

[noworkethic]

I didn't vote because from ages 1 to 18 we lived in places fitting all of the categories. Like most of you, I roamed far and wide by bicycle, foot and public transit, alone or with friends. To me it's sad that this is no longer possible. There are things about childhood today which are better than then and vice versa. This is one thing which was better then. Several of you mentioning this has made me nostalgic for those long, lazy summers.

 

[Westernskies]

I chose suburban. My family moved every 2-3 years due to Dad's career but most of my formative years were in suburban areas. I also spent a significant amount of time in rural and urban areas while growing up. My main influence, however, was the constant moves. I never had a chance to put down roots or develop an attachment to any particular place or country.

We also moved quite a bit when I was growing up, but always lived on the fringes of the 'burbs- KS, MO, IN, OH, IL, OH, MO- all before I finished sixth grade (of course, I was 21 by then... graduated highest in my class- 6'-2" )

DW was a military brat, she also moved around quite a bit when she was growing up. Neither of us have lifelong friends; it was hard to form close friendships during the formative years when you knew you would be moving soon.

 

[KennyM]

On the outskirts of LA, the San Fernando Valley! Used to be orange groves, corn fields, etc. As kid's you could play ball on the empty lots. Now, it's an asphalt jungle. The beachs were hot spots during summer, now, oh well! Looking back though, I had a ball!
The "American Graffiti" summers, Van Nuys Blvd in my 65 El Camino, the drive-ins, girls,girls,girls!
I think I'd better quit before I say something to get me in trouble!

 

[golfnut]

Grew up on the southside of Chicago in the late 50s to early 70s. Parents (both from Eire) were blue collar. Father worked for the city and then Cook County as a stationary engineer. Mother worked as a crossing guard for the Chgo. Police Dept.

Had some great experinces as a child and later as a teenager/early adult working as a cab driver and a CTA bus driver. Those 2 jobs alone were quite an awakening.

 

[Purron]

Is anyone else begining to suspect it not so much where you grow up, but how you grow up? What I'm getting at is it's not so much rural vs. urban but your family, friends, and those that had influence in your life that are the important factors.

 

[WhoDaresWins]

Is anyone else begining to suspect it not so much where you grow up, but how you grow up? What I'm getting at is it's not so much rural vs. urban but your family, friends, and those that had influence in your life that are the important factors.

Truer words were never spoken. Worthy role models and people who care about you should be every child's birthright.