Has anyone considered retiring to the town you grew up in?

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When I moved away, mumblety-seven years ago, I was so glad to be out of there I never wanted to see it again.

However, my parents refused to move, and so did some of my friends from back then. As a result, I've continued to pay visits, about every 4-5 years. I still can't stand it beyond a 2-3 day visit.

Now, I couldn't even afford to live there so that's another factor.
 
Hmmm - grew up 30 miles as the Crow flies from Mt St. Helen's. Went back for my 50th High School Reunion in 2011. My Buds from school were scattered across the country.

We have a reunion for the Wife's relatives in St Joe, MO every year. However my side can be from Maine to California - Olympic Peninsula this year. Maybe Tennessee next year.

heh heh heh - ?The world is my oyster? Home is where I'm at. After Katrina I have a subconscious preference for high ground. Even here'above the wide Missouri' - ;)
 
I have been looking at moving back to my home town in Kansas. Parents, siblings and other family are still there. I even looked at houses when I was there earlier this summer. The cost of living is low. Also, it would give me more time with my folks as they are getting up there. There is high probability that this is where I will move to when I retire.

Unclemick -I have also thought about KC as I lived there for 11 years after collage. Still have friends and .family there


Still doing OMM for now though.
 
The town I grew up in does not exist anymore, only some aspects live on in my memories, and distorted too. I've been gone too long.

There is of course a place that geographically matches the place I was some 20 years ago, and some people I knew back then still live there I think, but it's not the town now that it was then, and certainly doesn't match my distorted current memory of it. I'm also very different.

So why would I go live in a place that looks similar to a place a previous version of myself once resided in, but is in the end very different? Sounds like a twilight-zone type of nightmare to me, and/or a recipe for depression.

It's nice enough to pass through, like visiting a museum and showing it to loved ones maybe. Just long enough to keep the illusion intact.
 
I think it depends on what you are looking for. From what you have said it sounds like a good fit.

A good friend of mine moved back to the small town she grew up in to take care of her aging mother who needed help. She is fitting in just fine and reconnecting with folks she knew long ago.
 
No way in hell.

I grew up in a neighborhood with a name which roughly translates to English as: dead man's hill. For good reason. In older times at the top of hill were gallows, to hang miscreants or ones with unacceptable politics. Many of the city's houses still have bullet holes from the 1956 Russian invasion.

It was a dirt poor neighborhood. I do remember that. Recently I looked at street views of the area, definitely qualifies as a ghetto or whatever ranks below that. The house I was born in (on the couch in kitchen of a three room house with a midwife assisting and my my father supposedly chain smoking outside at 2 AM) looks to be in worse shape. Although the wooden outhouse has been torn down and rebuilt in brick. Can't decide if my memory of it is worse than the current reality.

Amazing, the resolution of street view videos.
 
Yep, but I was born and raised in NYC which I happen to think is pretty much the center of the Universe.

will I retire there, no, the cost of living is too high so I'm in Philly which is a very nice city and it's only a hop skip and a jump from the center of the Universe.
 
Sarah in SC said:
I guess you probably can't remember your childhood home phone number!
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Of course I can, since we purchased our house from my mother (she lived with us until she passed away), my childhood home phone is our current phone number. It's been at this address since 1963 (but it is no longer a party line)
 
Is99 I'd love to know what city you grew up in. Czechoslovakia I assume? That's quite a memory.

St. Paul MN is my adopted hometown. I have no desire to move to my childhood city. I left at 17 for college and never looked back.
In St. Paul at least there seems to be a huge recovery population. Lots of sober houses and groups, ala William Moyers and others. I'm sure there's a drinking culture too but I've not seen it or sought to see it in my 28 years here. We do have lots of colleges and universities with college age stupid drinking.
I don't believe you can go home again. Or at least you shouldn't unless you really love the place. To get out of the rat race of DC seems like a great idea but there are lots of lovely peaceful places to live in this big country. You need to decide what it is you really want.
 
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Like many small towns, my hometown has deteriorated to high unemployment, with no grocery store, few other businesses, lots of rundown shacks, meth/opiate epidemic, etc., not that it was all that grand in the goodle days...

I still have friends and extended family in the area, but the attitudes are very "provincial", and I'd have a hard time fitting in...
 
Was born, raised, went to school and worked the first 55 years of my life in a big city. I got out as soon as I was FI. I still go back to visit a few times a year but can't imagine ever moving back to live there. :nonono:
 
I sometimes think I would enjoy moving back to rural PA but after a week or so of visiting family there a few times each year, I can't wait to get back to Colorado which is where I have lived for 15 years.
 
In that case you need to convince your family to move out to Colorado near you.

Within a short time, you'll probably be very ready to move back to Pennsylvania.

:D:LOL:
 
Another thought.

I moved "almost home" 16 years ago. I grew up near Toledo, but when I returned to Ohio after 15 years in California it was to Columbus. Columbus was the nicest city near where I grew up (IMHO of course). A few of my siblings live here as well. I wanted my son to grow up here rather in California.

So if you are thinking of moving "home" you might consider moving near to home, but not exactly...
 
Gumby said:
My guess is Hungary.
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Ten points! Good memory. A long while ago I named the country.

Marita40: The city is called Miskolc.
 
.

My parents moved to Dallas when I was 9.

I have lived here most of my life and retired here.

It's hardly perfect... but there is no other place I'd rather be.

.
 
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I have lived in a small town just outside of St. Cloud my whole life. I would suggest you do some serious research on St. Cloud before you consider moving back. It used to be a Mayberry type town that was a great place to live, work and raise a family. That all changed a number of years back when the mayor at the time was really pushing growth of the community. People started to show up, businesses opened and people got jobs, life was good. The problem was that the word got out on how nice of an area this was and how down to earth all of the people were and that it was truly a "Minnesota nice" place to live and the people still kept coming and coming. Now what we have is an area that has to much crime, gang activity, horrible traffic conditions and everywhere you go there are to many people.

Not that many years ago a person could feel safe any where at any time in this town, not any more. Earlier this summer my wife and I went to a popular park by the Mississippi river just to see what it looked like since we haven't been there since we were kids. As I was driving down the long driveway into the park I noticed a cop following uncomfortably close to me. As soon as I parked he pulled up closely behind me immediately called us back to his car and told us that it wasn't safe for us to be down there at that time. It was 7:30 PM in the middle of summer! He didn't have to tell me twice we left rather disgusted. What good did all of the growth do for any of us?

I mentioned the traffic issue earlier but to further clarify it is nearly impossible to get any where at any time of day. There are so many people and to many traffic lights it can be border line gridlock all day long. We used to be able get by without the use of roundabouts but now there seems to one of those about every few hundred feet. It is not any easy relaxing place to drive.

In the current and recent past there has been an influx of new Americans that have badly burdened the schools and especially the medical system. I have heard that there are armed guards in the high schools. This was unheard of not that long ago. It is nearly impossible to get a doctor appointment unless you are bleeding at that very moment.

Please do your research this is not at all the same town that you left in 1979. I personally want to leave the area but I feel like I will be part of the problem if I move somewhere else and add to the growth that created all of our problems.
 
deadshort52 said:
I have lived in a small town just outside of St. Cloud my whole life. I would suggest you do some serious research on St. Cloud before you consider moving back. It used to be a Mayberry type town that was a great place to live, work and raise a family. That all changed a number of years back when the mayor at the time was really pushing growth of the community. People started to show up, businesses opened and people got jobs, life was good. The problem was that the word got out on how nice of an area this was and how down to earth all of the people were and that it was truly a "Minnesota nice" place to live and the people still kept coming and coming. Now what we have is an area that has to much crime, gang activity, horrible traffic conditions and everywhere you go there are to many people.

Not that many years ago a person could feel safe any where at any time in this town, not any more. Earlier this summer my wife and I went to a popular park by the Mississippi river just to see what it looked like since we haven't been there since we were kids. As I was driving down the long driveway into the park I noticed a cop following uncomfortably close to me. As soon as I parked he pulled up closely behind me immediately called us back to his car and told us that it wasn't safe for us to be down there at that time. It was 7:30 PM in the middle of summer! He didn't have to tell me twice we left rather disgusted. What good did all of the growth do for any of us?

I mentioned the traffic issue earlier but to further clarify it is nearly impossible to get any where at any time of day. There are so many people and to many traffic lights it can be border line gridlock all day long. We used to be able get by without the use of roundabouts but now there seems to one of those about every few hundred feet. It is not any easy relaxing place to drive.

In the current and recent past there has been an influx of new Americans that have badly burdened the schools and especially the medical system. I have heard that there are armed guards in the high schools. This was unheard of not that long ago. It is nearly impossible to get a doctor appointment unless you are bleeding at that very moment.

Please do your research this is not at all the same town that you left in 1979. I personally want to leave the area but I feel like I will be part of the problem if I move somewhere else and add to the growth that created all of our problems.
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Something similar has happened in every corner of the US.

Decades ago, my Dallas County hometown overturned an old no-alcohol-sales law because it would make the city more money.

I told my city representative back then... please don't change "Bedford Falls" to "Pottersville"... but my warning fell on deaf ears.

Whatever extra money was reaped from alcohol sales has been spent on the fallout.

Now the bigger problem is illegal drugs pouring in from south of the open border.

.
 
MRG said:
Don't know where you are from in PA but there ain't no way this guy's going back(especially from CO).:)
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My MIL lived in Pittsburgh, and we went back every year to visit her. When she passed away, I was very sad, but OTOH, I never have to go back there again:)
 
Souschef said:
My MIL lived in Pittsburgh, and we went back every year to visit her. When she passed away, I was very sad, but OTOH, I never have to go back there again:)
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We left Williamsport, nice place to be From!
 
I also grew up in small-town MN and have lived in the DC Metro area the past 20 years. I too considered moving back to my hometown, where my parents still live and where I visit a couple times every year, but I've never been able to see a good reason. I don't care to socialize with my parents and their friends; it's far away from the airport and I like to travel; there are few city activities (concerts, shows, movies, exhibitions etc); and why live snow-bound 9 months a year when there are places that it's summertime year-round? I just don't see it.
 
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