Where did you grow up?

[Martha]

Where did you grow up? Or at least spend a significant portion of your formative years? I know the poll is not precise, but fit in where you can. I am interested on how many around here did not come from "the city."

 

[ERD50]

I voted "small town" but "all of the above" might be more accurate.

Small family farm just outside a small/medium town, had some friends from other farms but mostly what I'd call "suburban" or "town" friends. And it was less than an hour to visit family in "the city" (Chicago) which we did regularly, so that was an influence too. Now that I think of it, it was kind of nice to be exposed to all these different sides of life. I know people who grew up in small towns and either just can't stand or understand city life, or have an unrealistic fascination with it (and vice versa).

Are you just curious, are are you thinking there might be some connection between FIRE desires and where we were raised?

-ERD50

 

[deserat]

I'd like to answer, but I've grew up in a lot of places (moved a lot). Sometime we lived in suburbia, sometimes on base -the towns/cities were different sizes....I'll pick suburbia as that's about the average of the town-city sizes.

 

[Martha]

I hypothesize that rural people tend to be frugal, but it might be like the rural area I came from which was so poor that there was no choice to be frugal. I also hypothesize that coming from such a frugal background might lead to a frugality habit so if you end up making big bucks you might be a saver and then an ER. Of course, too many steps to go through to call my poll any support for my guesses. But I am still curious.

 

[crazy connie]

Rural small farm community in Michigan. Graduating class of a whopping 47 kids. Frugal by necessity.

 

[bbbamI]

Grew up in a very rural, poor area. We were frugal when frugal wasn't cool.

 

[Nords]

Small town, but raised by a farm boy and a mother who grew up poor. I think it's part of my DNA.

 

[CuppaJoe]

Small town goes up to 20,000, therefore I was in a rural area; in fact the address was Route #_, Box xxx; there was a street address (with no number until the ‘80s) but the post office didn’t recognize it. Our voting place & technical town was truly rural, in the sticks. The immediate neighborhood was adjacent to a farm (now a WalMart complex with supermarket and fast food joints) on one side, an idyllic woods on another and a vacant lot across the street. We played in the street and yelled, “here comes a car” as needed. We could walk into a town of approximately 7,000 population. Really the place is a resort paradise with a beautiful lake within a 26 minute walk, swimming beach, state park, etc.

Since my parents were from the city I always felt like a city person. A great place to be from, as they say.

Martha, you idea about frugality is valid. Well into my 20s, I had no idea how to go about shopping. Somewhere along the line I learned and now, retired, I’m appalled at all the stuff I’ve accumulated. Now, I just want to spend on experiences like plays, operas, my idea of a cruise is a day pass on the ferry boats, movies, dinner out with friends, but those things aren’t busting my budget, still frugal.

 

[HFWR]

Rural Indiana, three miles from each of two small towns of about 4000 and 5000. Nearest metro area about 40 miles. Lots of agriculture, and rustbelt industries like American Can, Cummins, Arvins, Int'l. Harvestor, GE, and Ford, now mostly gone...

Parents were blue-collar workers (production mechanic and clerk). We were middle-class on a good day, which was upper-middle class for the area.

 

[Meadbh]

I grew up in a city of 125,000 people.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cork_(city)

My parents grew up in a rural area

West Cork Tourism - West Cork Ireland

and went through the Depression (and several decades of frugality) in their youth. My mother had an inheritance in her 40s. They were risk averse financial planners and were FI by the time they were in their 50s and my father ER'ed at 62 with two good DB pensions.

 

[gindie]

Osceola, IN. About 10 miles from South Bend, so I've been reading with great interest Nords' stories about his daughter's college visits.

 

[Moemg]

I grew up in a town of 1,800 people . Think mayberry in eastern ,Pa.. A great place to grow up . We rode our bikes everywhere . I think that is why I still like small towns but larger than 1,800. We were middle class . My Dad was a state policeman and my Mom was a nurse but she was a stay at home Mom once we came along .

 

[Martha]

I grew up in a town of 1,800 people . Think mayberry in eastern ,Pa.. A great place to grow up . We rode our bikes everywhere . I think that is why I still like small towns but larger than 1,800. We were middle class . My Dad was a state policeman and my Mom was a nurse but she was a stay at home Mom once we came along .

My mom was a nurse too, met my father at the TB sanitarium where he was a patient. Probably would be unethical today for them to get attached. She also quit working when the kids came along. But she was still the informal medical person of our rural area. She stitched people up and pulled out fishhooks. I remember watching with fascination.

 

[WhoDaresWins]

I grew up in a small former steel town(now a wasteland) about 65 miles away from where I currently live. It was a nice place when I lived there. A lot of hardworking families with immigrant roots. My Mom was an elementary school teacher, and Dad owned a one man tax preparation business. We were middle class I guess in that my parents each had a car and we always took a summer vacation out of state. Very careful people. Didn't believe in credit or owing anyone anything. In fact we never even had a mortgage on the house(which Dad built piecemeal after he got out of the Army Air Corps having served 4 years during WW II). Mom went back to teaching when my sister and I began kindergarten.

 

[unclemick]

The burbs, the burbs, the burbs - think Happy Days the movie. 50 miles out of Portland Oregon on the Washington side of the Columbia River - greater Kelso/Longview. Maybe 40k plus pop. in those days - four drive -ins and one Soda Shop come to mind right off hand.

heh heh heh - Late fifties rock and roll is still my favorite kind of music.

 

[Amethyst]

NJ town of about 800, not counting the cows; 50 miles from New York City, which dominated our psyches because our TV, radio, and reading matter were all either from NYC, or focused on it. We are all practical, and careful with money, but we love stuff too.

 

[DangerMouse]

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.

 

[Bestwifeever]

The burbs of DC--pretty diverse--and outside the US for a few years sprinkled in there. I don't think the geography has driven any later consumption decisions, however.

 

[FinallyRetired]

None of the above. Grew up in military bases all over the world. Scenery consisted of guns, planes, tanks, jeeps, camouflage, quanset huts, you know, the usual kind of kid stuff.

Still remember going out on the empty training range with kids, taking the powder out of left over blanks, filling a coke can with it, and shooting it off. Great fun

 

[freebird5825]

35 miles north of Noo Yawk City. I could walk to the Hudson River in under 5 minutes. Parents were from Pelham and Tuckahoe.
Home town was actually pretty slow compared to towns closer to the Big Apple. I was living right on the geographical edge of open wilderness and metropolitan sprawl. Sub-suburban.
A 30 minute bus ride brought me and my 2 older sisters to the magic of NYC when it was actually still pretty safe to walk around. I remember the old Horn & Hardart in downtown Manhattan very well.

 

[Rich_by_the_Bay]

Watched my small home town grow from 20k to 40k to 60K. Everything around it did the same thing so what was once a duck and potato farming area become just another suburb by the time I left for college.

 

[Nords]

... my Mom was a nurse but she was a stay at home Mom once we came along .

My mom was a nurse too... She also quit working when the kids came along. She stitched people up and pulled out fishhooks.

I was raised by an RN too-- I wonder how many Boomers grew up with a parent of that occupation.

Absolutely no sympathy under our roof for anything short of convulsions or arterial spurting, and threats that we'd have to stitch up our own wounds if we weren't more careful... great parenting training.

 

[hankster]

Small town (pop. 700) in Montana. There aren't that many towns in Montana with > 25,000 people. We got a lot of our food hunting, fishing and gardening. We butchered a lot of our own meat. I would say that my "close to the land" upbringing played a large part in my frugal nature and tendency to LBYM.

 

[Moemg]

My mom was a nurse too, met my father at the TB sanitarium where he was a patient. Probably would be unethical today for them to get attached. She also quit working when the kids came along. But she was still the informal medical person of our rural area. She stitched people up and pulled out fishhooks. I remember watching with fascination.

This is uncanny . My Mom was working at a TB sanitarium and my Dad was stationed next door and that is how they met . Small World !

 

[HFWR]

Osceola, IN. About 10 miles from South Bend, so I've been reading with great interest Nords' stories about his daughter's college visits.

I worked in Elkhart, making, guess what, modular [-]homes[/-] offices, for a few months after college, circa 1983.