Boast about your hometown

Looks like only one other New Yawker has responded to the OP. I'm from the Bronx, home of the Yankees, one of the 5 boroughs of New York City. As kids, we played sewer stickball and football. Went to public schools, to include the City College of NY. Left when I graduated to go into the Army and never moved back. Didn't know how to drive, or even what was under the hood of a car, so the Army placed me in the Transportation Corps. My old street, which was rows of apartment buildings, was torn down in the '80s and is now a long row of townhouses with garages. I'll always be a New Yawker no matter where I live - I drive my wife crazy with comments like "Why are we waiting for a green light to cross the street? New Yawkers look both ways and just go." Or as she says, "You can take the boy out of the Bronx, but you can't take the Bronx out of the boy."
 
My family moved around when I was a child so I consider the small southwestern mining town where I attended high school to be my hometown. It has a great climate and is surrounded by mountains and a national forest. The town is rather isolated - 3 hours from a large city and airport. But it was a nice place to grow up - we attended the high school and the small local college sporting events, went to country western dances, dragged Main Street, and the national forest was our playground. Geronimo was born nearby, Billy the Kid lived there during his teen years and was first arrested there for stealing food, and in the last 50 years the town produced two Senators and an astronaut who walked on the moon.

As mining has declined, the town population has become stagnant at 10K (and is the largest town in that region of the state) and there are fewer good jobs or medical facilities. But it has become sort of a retirement community and the historic downtown attracts artists and now has several galleries and is described as a "quirky cultural town." I've thought about retiring there but it is too small and isolated for me after living in a much larger city for so many years.
 
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Have to claim Phoenix AZ as my hometown. Went by my birth hospital on my last trip. Current home of the Beautiful Princess, my fiancé.

Left in 1997 after 30 non-consecutive years. Still a very strong emotional pull, but would only go back after the youngest leaves home.

It now seems like a good place for working parents to raise kids, but with working behind me, I can’t see living in compartmentalized suburbs miles from beaches or mountains. Plus, the state is not as well-run as it once was.

Still has much to offer, just not for me any more
 
Hmmm... Pine Hill AL, humidity and dew so heavy you could hydroplane on the road at dawn. Beverly MA with its tiny beach covered with "beach whistles" and italian bomb sandwiches. Birmingham AL with the red bud trees and perfect spring bike rides... and the legacy of Bull Connor. Atlanta GA with what used to be an automotive paradise. Houston and its cockroaches, snakes, and bayous. Raleigh, Durham, Winston-Salem NC... if you can smoke it they can grow it and sell it to you. Of course marijuana NC is unincorporated. Barre VT, it's not often you get to sit in on a heroin distribution pitch meeting with local dealers and Thai growers. Claremont NH, a pleasantly failed community with a race track you can hear all over town and 90 years of quiet stagnation.

Something to love everywhere you go. There you are.
 
Our hometown is Camas, WA which is on the Columbia River across the river from Portland. At one time Camas was a separate small mill town but as the Portland area has grown it has eventually become a Portland suburb and home to a lot of traveling business types because we are very close to the Portland airport. Nice thing about Camas is that it has retained its own historic downtown with lots of walkable shops and restaurants and no reason to go into Portland unless you want to. Although central Portland is only 20 min away during off peak traffic times. It has a nice mix of retirees and younger families with kids. The town is very hilly so lots of views of the mountains and city and the Columbia River. Here’s a little chamber of commerce promo video

https://vimeo.com/152084435
 
Childhood hometown is Selinsgrove Pennsylvania. Place of the worlds longest banana split. At least until Innisfail Australia grabbed the glory. Phhttttt.

Current hometown is Vero Beach, FL. Known as the Treasure Coast because salvage divers are still pulling up treasure from the Spanish Plate fleet that grounded offshore during a hurricane three centuries ago. We can see rocket launches from the back yard - and drive an hour north to get closer once in awhile. (Falcon booster landings are amazing even from a distance). Mickey Mouse is 90 minutes away. Uncrowned beach is a short walk. Tourists and snowbirds forgo the need for state income tax.
 
atmsmshr said:
Childhood hometown is Selinsgrove Pennsylvania. Place of the worlds longest banana split. At least until Innisfail Australia grabbed the glory. Phhttttt.

Current hometown is Vero Beach, FL. Known as the Treasure Coast because salvage divers are still pulling up treasure from the Spanish Plate fleet that grounded offshore during a hurricane three centuries ago. We can see rocket launches from the back yard - and drive an hour north to get closer once in awhile. (Falcon booster landings are amazing even from a distance). Mickey Mouse is 90 minutes away. Uncrowned beach is a short walk. Tourists and snowbirds forgo the need for state income tax.
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I grew up in Williamsport. It's a great place to be from.
 
ABQ2015 said:
As mining has declined, the town population has become stagnant at 10K (and is the largest town in that region of the state) and there are fewer good jobs or medical facilities. But it has become sort of a retirement community and the historic downtown attracts artists and now has several galleries and is described as a "quirky cultural town." I've thought about retiring there but it is too small and isolated for me after living in a much larger city for so many years.
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Silver City?
 
I will let others speak about my hometown, paradise comes up a lot.

"Not even a town; it’s technically an “unincorporated community” with about 300 registered voters, for population context – tucked in the mouth of Cave Creek Canyon, on the eastern side of the Chiricahua Mountains in Southern Arizona. “It has such stunning biodiversity as you go up the mountains – one minute you’re looking at cacti, the next you’re looking at pines, the next you see lush greenery and tropical birds. It’s a little paradise.”

"For five months out of the year, Cave Creek Canyon is a birder’s paradise'
The rest of the time, it’s just paradise."

" I gaze into Cave Creek Canyon as a portal into another world, another dimension,” she says. “It’s not just the landscape, but also the feel of the place. Sometimes, when I hike alone on the South Fork trail, I feel spirits emanating from the cliff walls and whispering in the running water.”

"See the “Yosemite of Arizona.” Portal, which fittingly means “doorway” in Spanish, offers passage to beautiful cave creek canyon, a crowd-free naturalists’ paradise."

The Chiricahua Mountains are a bio-diverse area which is composed of numerous sky islands. Five of the 9 life zones[ are found in the Chiricahua Mountains. Three hundred and seventy-five avian species have been recorded from the Chiricahua Mountains; some are largely Mexican species for which southern Arizona is the northern limits of their ranges. Other animals of note include ocelots, jaguars, mountain lions, nine-banded armadillo, black bears, and white-tailed deer.

With the base of the Chiricahuas at about 3,600 feet (1,100 m), the range covers about 6,000 feet (1,800 m) in elevation. Grasslands and desert cover the base of the range, with ponderosa pine and Douglas fir at the highest elevations. Cave Creek Canyon on the east side is home to the American Museum of Natural History Southwest Research Station and the small towns of Portal and Paradise.
 
beowulf said:
Looks like only one other New Yawker has responded to the OP. I'm from the Bronx, home of the Yankees, one of the 5 boroughs of New York City.
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Oh, there are several of us here.

Born and raised in Brooklyn, which is famous (infamous?) enough that I don't have to describe it.
 
grasshopper said:
I will let others speak about my hometown, paradise comes up a lot.

"For five months out of the year, Cave Creek Canyon is a birder’s paradise'
The rest of the time, it’s just paradise."
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Yeah, but without Binkley’s nearby, it’s just another small town 😁. And you forgot about rattlesnakes, coyotes, javalinas and roof rats 😎.
 
MRG said:
I grew up in Williamsport. It's a great place to be from.
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Williamsport - home of Little League World Series! :dance:

I used to think central PA was the last place of innocence to grow up.

DW and I both graduated from PSU. I moved to FL after graduation but could not shake her off the trail. We became Floridians when 2/3's of the residents were not born in the state. Married 31 years. Can't believe she put up with me this long.
 
We left Boston to retire in a small town (12000 people) in southern MO. Surrounded by the Mark Twain forest, it's truly a lovely place. We enjoy mild winters, glorious springs, hot summers and colorful falls. But it was also a practical choice. Our town has a big regional hospital & plenty of doctors. Missouri State has a campus here, so we have the advantages of being a "college town" with plenty of athletic and cultural events. The economy is pretty diverse, several manufacturing operations and plenty of places for our tenants to work. Taxes are low. The cost of living is well below the national average. In fact, I often say it's like retiring to a 3rd world country except everyone still speaks English. We love it!
 
Currently in Santa Cruz, California! Pros: Great surfing, mountain biking and beautiful shorelines! Cons: Too liberal, too close to San Francisco, many homeless people with drug problems and overcrowded. On our way to Jasper, TN in a couple of years.
 
Grew up in Newport Beach, California when it was a sleepy beach town and people who lived on the strand or boardwalk were considered "fringy". We took surfing for PE in high school, and I never really realized how blessed I was to grow up in such a fun and healthy place.
We stayed there for a long long time, parents finally moved a bit inland in the 1980's and now Newport is a lot of McMansions and foreign money.
We like to say "we grew up in Newport Beach before it was the OC".
 
WestUniversity said:
Houston, home of the Astrodome, the first indoor domed stadium, which was also responsible for the development of AstroTurf and Astrolite, the first animated scoreboard. Also the Texas Medical Center, the largest medical complex in the world. Also the Johnson Space Center and it’s mission control center, one of NASAs largest research and development facilities. Houston is the most ethnically diverse metropolitan area in the U.S. There are over 145 languages spoken by the residents of Houston. The city itself is about 669 square miles but the greater Houston-Woodlands-Sugar Land MSA covers about 10,000 square miles and is slightly smaller than the state of Massachusetts but larger than the state of New Jersey...
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IIRC, the street signs in one neighborhood are in English and Vietnamese. I think there is a Hindi radio station, too. Diverse is the word! Our kids were born there.
 
beowulf said:
Yeah, but without Binkley’s nearby, it’s just another small town 😁. And you forgot about rattlesnakes, coyotes, javalinas and roof rats 😎.
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Wrong Cave Creek 300 miles apart and Pack rats, no roof rats.:)

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I grew up in Portland, OR. It was a very stimulating place then and we could live there today.

Currently living in a little college town on the water, under Mt Baker, near the Canadian border in NW Washington State. Often featured in articles about Best Places to Retire in the US, real estate is driven by retiree immigration. Like Seattle, local politics is a little too hippie for me, but like Ha says, that is something I can do nothing about so I just enjoy myself and watch the show.
 
Ed_The_Gypsy said:
I grew up in Portland, OR. It was a very stimulating place then and we could live there today.

Currently living in a little college town on the water, under Mt Baker, near the Canadian border in NW Washington State. Often featured in articles about Best Places to Retire in the US, real estate is driven by retiree immigration. Like Seattle, local politics is a little too hippie for me, but like Ha says, that is something I can do nothing about so I just enjoy myself and watch the show.
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If it's Bellingham my Sis went to college there.

heh heh heh - Portland was where we went to chase girls in the early sixties. ;)

Family reunions in Callam Bay on the Peninsula. :flowers:
 
I'm from Memphis. NOTHING to boast about, except to boast that I escaped!
 
Reading, Vermont. Pop. 666 in the 2010 census. A beautiful town, in the foothills of the Green Mountains. We have a general store, town hall/post office/community meeting room, Reading Greenhouse, several villages within Reading, and a beautiful library, open a few half-days/week. Hiking trails, lakes, 25 minutes to skiing at Okemo, 40 minutes to Killington. 25 minutes to beautiful Woodstock. A lovely little restaurant in town named Keepers, with outstanding food.



@indiajust - we do our shopping in Claremont! (NH, for those who don't know.)
 
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