Millionaire In The Making??

[Moemg]

I grew up in Frackville ,Pa.. What's it near ? Nothing ! A great place to grow up look how happy Opie was .Would I want to live there now even if it meant living really cheaply ? No ,No,No . I would miss the variety of restaurants ,and the art festivals and the shopping and the artsy movies and especially the ability to be at a major airport in less than an hour .

 

[Cattusbabe]

Mostly we wonder what the folks in the big city see in all the arts and culture scene, plus all those museums, ethnic restaurants, lectures and shopping. Oh yeah, and then there's the bugs and critters we battle...mostly for entertainment.

Speaking of critters. I was on the phone today with my sister, a Pa. native transplanted to Tx. Had a good conversation about fire ants and crickets. ( A slow day today.)
I told her she could have all of that. Them things grow to big out there for me to deal with. I stick to fighting these street wise cockroaches in the city.

 

[brewer12345]

Hmmm, I grew up in NYC, but also lived in flyover country for a while. I think that I would have a really hard time living in a very small town or rural area, especially if I couldn't afford to travel much. But there are lots of less expensive places that I could easily see myself living at some point in time. Plenty of flyover cities are inexpensive and offer a lot of culture and interesting things to do. Much maligned Cleveland, for example, has very good museums, world class healthcare, an orchestra, relatively easy access to Canada, waterfront areas, and interesting historical stuff like the West Side Market. Quite inexpensive place to live, relative to coastal cities, and there are plenty of places like it in the interior of the country.

Realistically, though, I am stuck where I am like it or not because family, friends, and opportunitiesfor the kids are here, not to mention the world's largest labor market for what I do.

 

[Khan]

Now that the conversation has turned to moving to "Middle America" I have to ask this question. DON'T HIT ME PLEASE. I am not trying to be a smarta$$ for asking this but what do folks do for fun in small town middle America. I always hear that the cost of living is lower once you get off the coasts and that your retirement income goes farther but I am a big city girl and live on the East coast. Always have. Love the arts and culture scene. Love museums, ethnic restaurants, lectures and shopping, love not needing a car to get around. Not the outdoorsy type at all. Going to the park suits me fine. When DH and I were considering a move away from the "Big City" we started looking at collage towns to at least have to opportunity to do the things we like to do. In the end we opted to stayed put but I have always wondered what people do the fill up their days in the heartland.

It's a false dichotomy.

Between NYC/Chicago/Boston or Enon Ohio, there are various small cities.

I live near Dayton Ohio, which has a ballet, opera, symphony, museums, various levels of theater (and a stop for Broadway tours) several colleges of various sizes and an international airport.

It's also not terribly far (hour or two) to Cincinnati, Columbus, Indianapolis; and not unreasonably far to Chicago.

That said, I am personally content to not do much. I have cable and broadband and access to the library system; I like gardening and watching the birds and squirrels.