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.