I live in a town (25 square miles) that used to be all farming now it is all houses and there is basically a main street with 10 pizza shops one grocery store and lately five car repair shops have moved in. There are also a wide variety of empty stores. There is no local recreation for teens nothing but a park with a fish pond. Our biggest building besides the schools is the library. We have only one claim to fame we host a dinky corn festival every year. I have been wanting to start a quilt group but can't seem to drum up much interest. I have been here my entire life my husband was born in a house a couple miles from where we live. I just wish there was something here to draw people out of their houses and into a community spirit. Everything that has been tried has died out after a couple years.

I'm just 20 minutes from Westcliffe Colorado.The town it's self has about 1400.We have surrounding areas but they all come into town for shopping.1 quilt store,1 super market,2 gas stations,1 bar,1 Pizza,bowling alley,1 stop sign.Alot of churches,1 ace hardware and more.I use to belong to a quilt group but had to give that up. Connie in CO

Our town is similar, getting a little run down and lots of empty stores. A hundred years ago this was a big railroad town and everybody either passed through on the railroad or worked for the railroad. We still have lots of trains that pass through but our big station is closed and most of the money has gone out of the city. It's kind of sad. :( Lots of low income families now, mostly people stay because their families are here or because they just can't figure out how to get out. :( They are really trying to improve the area but without any real industry here it's going to be a tough challenge.

I don't even know what I would call my area. I do know it has grown ALOT since I was a kid! Many moons ago. I grew up in a neighborhood close by that has also grown alot. I have always loved the idea of living in a small town where everyone knows everyone as soon as they see them on the street!

We have 2 gas stations, a pizza-sub place, chinese restaurant and a family type restaurant. We have a section that is industrial, but besides that we're pretty rural.

we were once called the shopping mecca of the monadnock region of NH. That was because we had a walmart. Now all the cities have every thing possible, however our town is small and cozy, We have 2 supemarkets, 2 pizza places, Walmart, 2 dunkins, a large university,2 restaurants but houses mostly have space between. there are farms for cows, horses, lamas,apples and more apples. Our private lane has 18 houses, 12 are year round so that makes us very friendly and family- like.

I live in quite the opposite of all of you--I am in the center of "the big Apple," just south of Central Park. I've been in my apt. for 30 years and my neighborhood has seen some huge changes. We went from an area that used to be known as "hell's kitchen" that was essentially deserted after 6 p.m. to one that now, if I'm out on the street at 3 a.m. (dogs need emergency walk) the streets are still hopping! We also have a second home about 2 hours northwest and that town has 482 residents. It's a lovely town and I wish I could be there more often...

I think BG is around 70,000 and is home to Western Kentucky University and the GM Corvette plant. We have most of the major chain restaurants but not many really good independents. Most of our really good places are Bosnian owned and feature Mediterranean cuisine.

We are not big enough to have all the shopping choices I'm used to from SoCal but it's less than an hour down to Nashville. There I can get my fix for Trader Joe's, Costco, Coldwater Creek, and most anything you could want. Also lots of country music to enjoy.

I live in a small town of 1500 or so, a couple of general stores. Some dairy farms, lots of nice people. I love it. been here 20 years, grew up near Boston in the suburbs, couldn't ever go back to that.

Jonesborough, TN -
The oldest town in Tennessee - 1779
Home of National Storytelling Festival!
Check out the rich history of our town.
http://www.historicjonesborough.com/...borough-tn.php

Our town was one of the stops along the route of the Food Truck Show last year. (Think that was the name of the show)

The town closes down before 8:30 each night.

Like most places the area around down town is growing, but down down although it changes some, still has it's wonderful history.

Great mountains surround us!

Phyllis - it is so pretty over your way too!

I live in a rural suburb of Chicago. Everyone on this Board probably knows exactly what my town looks like because we were the site for the filming of the movie Ground Hog Day.

Population 25K in a county of 300K. We used to be farming economy, then manufacturing, then construction based and now we are unemployment based economy with a good chunk of the employed people commuting over an hour to work like my hubby. It is like a diamond ring that the setting is cracked and tarnished.

No real anything here but within a 45 minute drive I have everything there is.

I live in the Village of the Town. We are mostly a rural farming area. One funny thing about our Village is that nearly all the Bars are on Church Street and all the Churches on Main Street. We have a few Mills in the Village but we are hurting for jobs and industry. Everyone seems to be either a beautician or a realtor. We have a central school in the Town, kindergarten - 12th. Mostly everyone grew up here. I am an outsider, only been here about 25 years. Everyone knows or is related to everyone else so you have to be careful what you say. I do not know all the connections. It is a quiet place but we have had our share of suicides and murders. Doors are still kept for the most part unlocked. It is a pleasant place to live. We are best known for being the home of Grandma Moses. Her grandson continues her tradition of folk painting.

I live two and a half miles out of town. Nearest neighbor is a cousin a mile away. Town consists of a grange hall, fire hall and a general store that serves limited lunch and monday night potluch and about 10 houses. The orginal store burned when I was a kid. We used to have a post office but lost that so now have to go to Igo for the post office that is 12 miles north. Alot of people have moved here from when I was a kid and most work in redding which is about thirty miles or so depending on where you live out here, east. The power ends here. The houses on up the road have phone but no power except by generator. Orginally a ranching community and pretty much still is. My family, one of the first to settle here has been ranching five generations. People who move here do so because of the rural lifestyle.

Mine is too big and we lost anything ressembling country and community spirit. We are in agriculture but most of the farms have moved north.

I live in a really small town. We have a tiny grocery store, a gas station, two churches, and about 6 or 7 bars. There isn't much here, and everyone knows where your going before you even decide....lol. I like it here though. There are lots of places to fish and pick berries. Lots of wildlife and scenic areas. There are no gangs and very little violence(not like the city I grew up in).

I live in a very rural area of PA. We moved her 15 years ago because we wanted to raise our kids in the country. We have 3 acres of land, lots of gorgeous wild life, very quiet and beautiful.

The only draw back with living here is that if you were not born and raised here, have family roots you can trace back to the 1700's, you will never be accepted. Everyone is related to each other out here. Nothing changes. Nepotism runs rampant. Gossip is even faster spreading than the manure spreaders in Spring! LOL

There are 2 grocery stores here. We have 2 traffic lights. You have to drive 45 minutes if you want to go to Wal-Mart, which is in the next county over. Everything closes up by 8:00 at night.

There is a local quilt club but no guildes here. The quilt club is so unorganized it drove me nuts! I went to a few meetings but got very frustrated when I tried to make suggestions and was told, "this is the way we have always done it, so we won't change". Ok, I went back home and kept teaching myself by using the internet! LOL

There is nothing here for the kids to do. That is why we have such a high pregnancy rate and our young people have many car accidents and usually alcohol is a factor.

But, the biggest crime is usually a mailbox getting smashed or someone breaking and entering a business, or under age drinking.

There is no ethic diversity either. There are no African Americans in our school. It is very red neck and hunting is not a season but a way of life. That is kind of sad because there is not a lot of emphasis on education. Many kids graduate,graduating classes are like 64 kids, and many can not read or do basic algebra.

Dh and I are waiting for youngest son to graduate in June then we are moving. It has been a good place to raise the kids as far as crime goes, but, it has also been a bad place because of the attitude of the people here.

Jonesboro.
And the home to one of the best quilting shops IMHO. Tennessee Quilts. I dont get there often enough!

Cindy

My town of approximately 8000 poppulation is the county seat and has a beautifully restored 1890s courthouse. At one time we were an antique shoppers mecca, but now there are only a couple of antique stores left. We've had several attempts at revitalizing the downtown, but as others have mentioned, there are still lots of vacant stores. Although several have been converted into offices of one kind or another. And the upstairs of several of the pre 1900s buildings have been converted into living areas.

There is a real emphasis on athletics for the kids, but if your youngster is not athletically inclined, they're out of luck.

We have a community college and it offers dual credit classes for HS juniors and seniors that allows them to pretty much do their freshman year of college while still in HS.

We are basically a rural community, with a bit of industry. Several of our plants relocated to Mexico, partly because at least one of them kept getting in trouble for having too many illegals.

The face of our community has changed in the last few years with much more ethnic diversity than when I was growing up.

Jobs are scarce unless you are wanting to do fast food or work at one of the nursing homes.

We are in an excellent location, about an hour from the DFW metroplex, less than that to a large lake for fishing or boating.

Wish I could describe my town of Bedford to you.....other than active, charming, comfortably busy, beautiful old homes and downtown buildings, many nice restaurants,strong town government, friendly people, beautiful natural surroundings, largely Christian, decent shopping, small town feel in the city proper (our county is quite large), many rural farms, lovely seasons.....but I'd have to keep you from moving here and filling the place up! LOL!

Jan in VA

Honolulu is a bustling metropolis like many big cities. On an island, traffic is one of the most major issues. I live very close to Waikiki on Diamond Head where many postcards depict Hawaii. Come and visit sometime!!!

Don't blink or you will miss it!

We live in a community about 20 miles East of Pittsburgh, PA. It is semi rural in nature. There are areas with housing developments and there are still some farms. In Many of the housing developments the lots are at least one acre or more. Beautiful area, very small local shopping area, lots of churches, wonderful high rated school district. We can be in downtown Pittsburgh in 30 minutes, depending on traffic for cultural events. Lots of shopping areas within 15 to 20 minutes. I love it here EXCEPT IN THE WINTER...brr I dont like winter.

We live in a little city, about 5,000 people in 2.5 square miles. Mostly residential, but we do have fast food, some offices, a Dollar General and some small manufacturing. We share a border with several larger cities, and share a school district with one. Because we are a suburb of Akron, and only an hour from Cleveland, we have lots of shopping nearby but don't have the traffic that goes with it. Two state universities, Akron and Kent, within a 15 minute drive. And Amish country is less than an hour south. More fabric stores than I can count, all within an hour's drive.

It is interesting to read about other's hometowns....I live in a rural area, a few miles from the 10,000 person town where our mail comes out of. We enjoy watching the cows and goats belonging to our neighbors, and the Canadian honker geese that stop here at the ponds. Our newest venture is the "fruit cocktail" orchard we planted last winter. Looking forward to having fruit to dry and sell one of these years.

I live in a village, consisting of a church with cemetary, a deli, a village park where they host a girls softball league every spring thru fall, have a community festival every June, and Santa at Christmas, a large Halloween party. There are 8 houses on my private lane, 2 unoccupied at the moment. I am 15 minutes from anywhere, WalMart, grocery store, gas station, and the next town is about 20 minutes. After living in a Phila. suburb, this is heaven.

Melrose Ny 12121,
Our town, its rural , I know of 2 churches, one post office
another business i have no idea what they do, an auto repair shop, Mike who owns it is wonderful to us and helpful not only with auto repair but things at our house
for which I'm greatful. We had a little store in town but
the owner well went to jail its closed.Then there was the arsonist that burned down an old farm house. Our immediate neighbor hood well its not, people live on our street, you Might say hello but I honestly feel like if I fell outside no one would notice you, its really sad. there are a few farmers around which I tend to do business with for produce during the summer if i'm not growing it in my own garden. We have a resivore that feeds Troy N.Y. water. can't put your feet in it, you can fish there. Would I say come live in our wonderful town NO. I can't wait for the day to come to move west.

I love reading this thread because most of these places are nothing like where I live. On a typical day, I can hear English, Creole, Russian, Chinese, Tagalog (sp? what they speak in the Philipines), and may be a little Spanish. And that's a typical day. Brooklyn alone has a population of over 2.5 million. If I had to list every store, post office and restaurant here, I think it might crash the QB server. I recently heard that in all of New York City, there's 24,000 restaurants.

There's negatives to living here such as congestion, some really bad drivers, and some very rude, opportunistic people. But there's also lots of positives as well. I've met some absolutely wonderful people since I've lived here, had experiences and talked to people I never would have in other places. It's a very accepting place to all kinds of people. You can find any kind of food you can imagine, and even some food you can't imagine. In addition to the famous skyline, there's also lots of beaches with amazing sunsets, so it is possible to get close to nature even here.

At one time my town had all cute little stores including a grocery store and ben franklin. by the time i moved here most of that was gone and the store fronts became bond bailsmen. i live in the county seat and all the courts are here. there is also the university of cincinnati clermont campus. it is not a college as there are no dorms. ther is a lot of history as batavia was part of the underground railroad. ther are markers on what was safe houses at the time. it is just over the ohio river and the river wasn't that wide at the time so tyhe slaves crossed to freedom. i wish my town was still a town with all cute shops but those days are gone. besides bail bondsmen there are 4 banks, 2 pizza places, 1 bar, 1 luncheon type eating establishment a florist a gas station/convience store and a hair salon. not much of a main street if you ask me.

I loved Brooklyn, my grandma lived on South 4th Street in Williamsburg when I was little. Then she moved to Manhattan Ave in Greenpoint. I LOVED walking up the Ave. eating pizza and window shopping. That is what is so wonderful about Brooklyn and Manhattan. My dad had a butcher shop on Atlantic Ave. I miss it all...........

I live in a rural area, we have 34 acres mostly trees and about 11 acres of field. There's no town per se- we are beyond the suburbs of Wilkes-Barre, the county seat. The City is having its difficulties- loss of jobs, crime rate going up, gangs are now here, typical big city stuff. But at the same time, we welcome diversity, I do closings and I love to hear the stories of the families who come here to give their kids a good education and get away from the crime of NYC. There are buses that run everyday to NYC so many commute.

We have a ton of things to offer- an arena for big name acts to come in, ice hockey-the baby Penguins are here, in the summer we have minor league baseball- the Yankees. We have an airport within 45 min., outlets for shopping, the famous Poconos are 1 1/2 hrs. away. Let's see- we have multiple ski resorts and state parks for fishing and boating. Yep- lots to do here.

There is good and bad everywhere. I love my home and my job, but would love to move someplace warm as I have never liked the snow and ice. But it is home and I'll just visit my warm places on vacation.

I live on a farm north of a small town of 5000 which is growing because many recent residents commute to the city to work. There is a good assortment of shopping, two grocery stores, drugstore, large hardware store and building centre, two women's clothing stores, jewellery store, two pet food stores, two video stores, two furniture/appliance stores, flower shop, two dollar stores, family department store, several restaurants, three banks and best of all a great quilt store. We also have a great arena, curling club, swimming pool and two gyms. There are churches, service clubs and other groups to join. If you can't find something to do in this community it's because you won't leave your house. Hiking, skiing and snowmobiling are available not far from town. It's a good place to raise a family as it is still small enough to know many people but large enough to offer lots of opportunities and Toronto is only an hour and a half away!

I live 100 mile north of Phoenix Arizona. It is a small town located in what is know as the verde valley. About 14 mile from Sedona AZ which is a tourist town and is beautiful red rock country with Oak Creek Canyon on the other end of town which is also beautiful. There is not much shopping where I live or culture. We go to the White mountains which is about 250 miles from here in the summer and it is alot cooler. I lived in Ohio until I was 15 yrs old and then in Phoenix for 30 yrs. and here for 26 yrs. Not much rain or snow here. It was cold here last week. Got down to 16 degrees a couple nights and one day it never got higer then 37. that is cold for us. It was almost 70 degrees today.My panseys are still ok I covered them up for a few nights. This is considered high desert and not very pretty. Mountains all around us.

I live in a town that has a river separating the US from Canada. We are the largest town in the county and we have the only 2 traffic lights in the county. Our high school takes in 15 small surrounding towns and usually graduates out 50-60 kids. We celebrated out Bicentennial in 2009. We have a Walmart and 2 grocery stores, McDonalds, Burger King and Dunkin Donuts. We are the shopping hub. Our claim to fame is probably that we are the eastern most city in the country (there are a couple of towns a little more east). For most our roots run very deep. My grandchildren are the 9th generation of my family to live here.

Reading some of your posts makes me a bit homesick of the small town life where I grew up in northwestern CT. But it's not even the same anymore. I am located in a growing community - 16,000 people (just got a zip code about 9 yrs ago.)We are between a city of about 170K people with lots of crime and empty businesses and the town of Napa. You've all heard of the Napa Valley and their wineries. American Canyon is called the Gateway to the Napa Valley. It's growing -- we have a Wal-Mart and a major grocery chain store and a few small shops but nothing really exciting yet. No clothing stores, book stores or movie theater but they are all only a few miles away. We've have our own high school for the first time and it's supposed to be one of the best, high-tech schools in the country. We have a library and a senior center now. Would be wonderful to have a quilt shop.

i live under a mountain and beside the bay .... absolutely gorgeous winter or summer. my town is different now from when i grew up here ...... an earthquake and tidal wave tried their best to do us in, but that was 50 years ago. now it's a tourist town, but oh, so much more than that.
besides, moose and bear stroll through town; porpoise, whales, otters frolic in the waves off the beach. it's bird heaven.

I live in the town with a theme park and it is known as the Roller Coaster Captial of Americal. Rated in the top 5 parks in the USA. It is called Cedar Point and is visited by people from all over the world.
In the summer it is constant congestion, traffic everywhere and on the weekends the locals don't leave their homes til after noon because cars are lined up for miles. But the area is beautiful in the summer, because we live right on Lake Erie and can see water for miles around.

Oh, SewingSuz, I was in Cottonwood,AZ when I was 12 years old. Had some family friends that lived in Prescott and went into Cottonwood to shop. I spent the whole summer there with them, from right after school got out in June till Labor Day. I just loved it. Of course this was over 50 years ago. Always wanted to go back. I remember the Indians coming down off the mountain and walking through town with their papooses on their back and moccasins.

another things (or things) about our area is we have 5 colleges within driving distance. We have a medical college- brand new. Churches- tons and tons of them and all sorts of activities for the youth- church and sports.

We are also very close to NYC and Phila., so days trips are common.

My family has also been here since the area was settled in the late 1700s. I live 2 miles from the family homestead and can say we know many of the neighbors since we were "knee high to a grasshopper". My hubby is a transplant here- he was raised in the City but is accepted here because he married me. :)

Whatever joan_quilts had written, thats what its like here. If you ever want to "run away" this is the place to go. Since Laura Ingalls Wilder wrote all of the Little House books, the town celebrates with..."festivals"...every year, plays depicting Lauras life with the locals, ..no bars...churches everywhere, no stop lights, one old grocery store. There are 2 WalMarts 18 miles away on either side but if you want FRESH food and a selection of anything. you would need to go to Springfield, 50 miles away.
There are MANY casinos just a short drive away in Oklahoma, Kentucky, or Illinois.