Is there a "better" place to grow up--city vs country--urban vs rural? I was born in the city--Washington, D of C. There was always someplace to go, someone to see, something to do.
I visited the country often. I spent entire summers in the country. But the whole time that I was there, I longed for the city. Not only was I bored, but I am/was scared of "critters." Not that the country didn't have it's good points. I liked the fresh air, the sound of roosters crowing in the morning, the slower pace. I had never seen cornfields in the city. I would have never seen water pumped from a well in the city. I never tasted North Carolina BBQ until i visited the country.
Instead, I was able to be one of the first riders on DC's subway system. I braved the brutal cold to see Jimmy Carter's inauguration parade. I saw Moses Malone play Urban League basketball the summer before he entered the NBA, straight from high school. I experienced my first musical, Purlie, with Robert Guillaume at the National Theatre.
I'm sure that I missed something by being reared in the big city, but I'm happy with the person that I have become. What about you? Where did you grow up? What are your fondest memories? Did you miss the "other" life?
Your comments--priceless!!
I think there are pos/neg about both. I grew up in the city and there was always something to do. We had a back yard and I could ride my bike as a kid. When I had to go to the country I would be so bored but now that I'm older I see the pluses.
As a kid we moved a lot, from Chicago to the Bay Area in Cali, to the redwood coast to los angeles and i have now retired in a small town in Georgia nearSavannah. As a kid i have to say living in the resort area of the Russian River was probably the best place in the world to be a kid. All that freedom of a small town (750 residents) 4 kids in my 7th grade class and a horse, it just doesnt get much better. But i too love the city for all the things it offers. When i lived in sacramento 2 friends and i would go once a month to san francisco and do the de young museum and other wonderful things.
Georgia has really been a change of pace. Things are slower, but the people are just so kind and caring here and savannah isnt far nor is atlanta so i can find culture when i am craving it. The closest thing to culture we have here is ummmmmmmmm, uhhhhhhhhh, hmmmmm, well we only have 3 stoplights!
I'm a CITY DIVA and always will be.
When you live in a place like NY its hard to acclimate in a slow country enviornment.
When I was about 4 my mother moved to the smallest state in the union, RI. Til this day I still have no idea why she did this.
Living in RI developed my personality in so many ways, but I still have my city style and attitude because I visited my dad in NY more then 5 times each year and I moved back as soon as I can.
What I love about the city is how much there is to do. Something is always going on, everything opens late and theres people everywhere! I'm always on the go and Im always moving.
When I go back to RI to visit my mom it feels like I'm going backwards. I get so fatigued and I'm hungry all the time.
I am a military officer's brat - As a child we lived everywhere, mostly overseas, and not staying in most places over a three year period. However, no matter where my father was stationed we came to the states for the summer months. We would start in Michigan and then drive to Alabama (Grandparents)and then Mississippi (Greatgrandparents).
I have "great" memories from all the locations I have lived and visited - I can remember going summers to Alabama and my parents enriched us with all the history of their days growing up in Birmingham. They told us, and showed us what happened during the "White Only"/"Black Only" days of the south and how they protested. We were able to see first hand how sitting at a lunch counter in Kress's/Woolworth's up north was a privilege that we couldn't enjoy back in the south in those days.
And then on to Mississipi where we would engage in a family reunion ritual for 4 weeks as (17)cousins and I learned to live the life of farmers, we were given chores and expected to come in and learn cooking, piano lessons,manners, and sewing (male or female) didn't matter my greatgrandmother/grandmother was going to train you to cook, play the piano,manners and sew. Living in the country was a simple life.... and it seems there was something to do always.... ride horses, milk cows, chase the goats, slaughter pigs, etc. I loved those 4 weeks in the summer. It is something that we can always talk about and find the "love of summer" among the cousins.
I think the only thing that I may have missed by being reared "all over" is unless your friends were willing to write (pen pal) you lost contact with lots of people. However, although I graduated from Frankfurt American School in Germany, I have joined my classmates for my 10th-?(I won't tell) class reunions. I married a man that I met one of those summers in the "South" visiting his grandparents and our children were born in Germany and spent their first ten years there.
I guess I can say, I'm a lil bit "city", lil bit "kuntry" and a lil bit "european", and well rounded.