[donbo50]

Oooops, I meant to say that you forget that Walmart is NOT right door.

[ArkansasBound]

----------------------------------------------------------------
"They have worked hard all of their life and are good hearted but their educational level is low and the related cultural environment is definitely middle class or lower. Do not expect a population of well educated peers with a diversity of ideas."
----------------------------------------------------------------

How can you classify who's 'smart'? My dad only went through the sixth
grade (he was born in 1923). He had to help his family during the depression. He was an expert gardener, good mechanic, knew how to run every piece of construction equipment on his job, was an artist in wood, and helped out needy people in his community. He helped ME with my homework when I was growing up.

I've known people who are college graduates and never seemed to have a lick of common sense. I'm a high school graduate, never went to college,
but managed to support me and my family on wages that were higher than a lot of people with college degrees. Where I'm from getting a degree doesn't necessarily mean you get more pay, just more certainty of a job.

As far as the 'native population being poor', how do you know if THEY think
they're 'poor'? Most of the time I rarely have 2 nickels to rub together, but that doesn't make me POOR.

Moderator cut: personal - off topic

[McFlip00]

Well, I think there's a bit that's been covered so far, but it seems somewhat skewed. So here is MY opinion of Mountain Home. I'm 25, I live in St. Louis. I moved here for better work/education opportunities for my future. I grew up in Mountain Home. My family moved there from California when I was just a toddler. So here's what I came away from that place with:

Weather - It's nice. It's terrible. The seasons don't seem to mean much, they sometimes jump out of their normal boundaries. It's been known to snow in the middle of March or April, it's been known to be 70+ degrees in the middle of December or January. In the spring, there are wonderful thunderstorms, it rains and there are flash-flood warnings from time to time, which is neat if you have a creek or other body of water nearby, and sometimes tornadoes do come through town. Once in awhile. I personally, never saw one. Although they did happen every year I lived there. Summers can be hot and humid or desert dry. Winters can be freezing cold and never even give a drop of snow or ice. I guess the weather in Mountain Home depends on something like the stars or the alignment of the planets?

Demographics - I'm amused by the constant '53 years old' average I see here in the forums. Mountain Home is a retirement community, or at least, it once was. It's beginning to grow now, and there is a large youth population there. Yes the area and it's businesses are geared towards the elderly as they are the driving force but I see that changing already. One of the most amazing and vibrant places in town is a VFW Auxiliary post or some such, which allows the 'kids' to rock out on Friday and Saturday nights. Bands come from all over on their tours and play heavy metal, emo, screamo, etc. Pick a new-age genre of music and you will hear it there. Show up late at night and see a sea of youth all with their eye-liner and leather jackets and tight girls pants (even if they are guys), and watch them scream and jump into one another to the music.

Schools - I'm possibly over-qualified or under, it depends on how you see it, to criticize the local school system. I myself dropped out in 10th grade. They didn't have anything left to offer me. At least that's what I thought at the time. I managed to get a college scholarship though after I completed my GED, but I was constantly hassled by the local Juvenile services for going against the grain in this. The school system itself is pretty good. It leans towards the average student so it teaches you with an average intelligence and style. Bright kids may want to be home schooled, or get into the gifted programs that they offer as soon as possible. The gifted programs are quite fantastic up until junior high/high school, then it just turns into 'advanced' classes which are basically just college preparatory with an overly unnecessary amount of homework, which doesn't even matter that much once you do attend college. So, somewhat of a waste of time and academic energy. The music and sports programs are fantastic and top notch. See the Jet we have in front of the school? That was acquired by the ROTC program, painted the the Art gang, and refurbished by the shop class. In fact, they rebuilt the jet engine and did something with it... It's actually a really good school system.

Employment - Do you like factories? Shopping centers? Restaurants? Good, because that's about the limitations here. The main driving force behind the local economy is the boat factories & construction. For some reason, we are constantly building new banks and churches? I never understood that... The majority of the population are either employed by a factory of some sort, work at Wal-Mart or one of the surrounding area shopping centers/restaurants, or are employed by the health-care industry somehow. BCRH is a large employer in the area and despite what reports so far may say, it is actually quite a state of the art hospital. They have almost everything they need right there, and only rarely do they have to air-evac someone to Springfield or Little Rock, in those cases, it's mostly children who have dangerous internal injuries and bleeding. My mother has worked at BCRH for almost 20 years now and it has treated her well so far. I guess you could always go into local government but it really seems like you have to be related to someone to get in those positions.

Crime - Mostly young people. Young and dumb makes a bad combination in almost any sense. Young and dumb and feeling desperate because of drugs makes it even worse. The drug business is big in Arkansas in general. In Mountain Home, you'd be hard pressed to find a teenager who isn't a drinker, smoker, or toker. Marijuana is a big business for them, and the older youth, ages 20-40 and even up pick their deadly poison as Meth. It's not a dangerous town by far. You can walk through your neighborhood or through town at whatever hour of the day and you might get harassed a little bit by a passing police squad car, but that's about it. Every now and then, just like everywhere else in the world, something bizarre and violent happens and it's all over the news and everybody panics and talks about it and acts scared, and then a few days or weeks later they forget and move on and it's somewhat peaceful again.

There's Mountain Home in a nutshell. Did I miss anything? Let me know, I will be happy to elaborate or expound upon any ideas. Oh and as to the local intelligence thing, that's not true. You just have to associate with the 'dregs' of society to find really good conversation, unless you like talking about the weather, the animals, and what Jimmy did yesterday that was so gorsh darn funny. What to talk about Nietzsche? Goto the kids at the music hall. Or better yet, catch one of the younger guys that looks a bit scruffy at Wal-Mart on the night shift mopping the floors. They are REALLY interesting people sometimes.

[where2go]

Hi! Thought you might want to know that the abbreviation for Arkansas is AR not AK (that's Alaska). I've lived in a dry area before and long to again, since the humidity in Arkansas makes it hard to really enjoy the great outdoors in the summer. Crackerjack is right.....you will sweat, sweat, sweat! Can't even take a little bike ride or walk in the summer without needing a shower afterwards. :-(

[silver_bullet]

For everyone's information about the Mountain Home area. I was raised in Gassville (about 6 miles away) and have been all over the country. I left a high paying job in Nashville TN to raise my children here. It's nice to know you can feel safe walking down the street in the middle of the night. If you need information about Gassville or Mtn. Home e-mail me at Moderator cut: please, no personal info - communications can be sent by clicking on the poster's name on the above left and utilizing the tools there.

[solutionz]

Hi All, my wife and I went to Mt. Home in July of 2006. We found little to no humidity at all. From what I have been told it was very hot and dry during a record heat wave before that.

As to the cost of living, everything we found, including eating out was 30% less than So. Fl. where we live now. Property taxes are AMAZINGLY low.

We met some great prople there and plan to make the move sometime in the beginning of 2008.

[Pita11]

I am 22, I was raised in Mountain Home. I now live in Orlando FL. Reason for that being I am young and there aren't many job opportunities for a young person in Mtn. Home. I love Mtn. Home, I honestly miss it. I always tell people it's a great place to raise a family or retire. We have two lakes (very clean lakes), rivers, bluffs and very nice people.

The only downside to it I would say is the fact that young people don't really have a way of expressing themselves. The police there like to breathe down our necks if we sneeze wrong. But on the other hand, that is why there are no serious crimes. I am thankful for the chance to bring local bands to Mountain Home to help the kids have an outlet.

I would also like to remind some elderly; that sometimes make it hard for the kids to have these events, if the kids didn't have this outlet they could be doing much worse things; and there are worse things...trust me I know, I live in Orlando, murder capital of the US last year. (Props to the St. Louis guy, I was one of those crazy kids at the concerts)

I hope to go back to Mountain Home one day and share my experience with my kids. I have visited almost all the US and four different countries, Mtn. Home and Fayetteville are a couple of the most wonderful places I have ever been. Simplicity at its best, charish it before its gone!

[venshore2003]

I think there was an earthquake in Harrison ARK today that was a 3.1. Yes there are earthquakes in ARK.

[rlcg37]

Very entertaining forum! I grew up in Mtn. Home, graduated from MHHS, and my parents still live there. I'd say that the town is growing and getting younger. Still big on retirement, true, but since ASU built a branch there, it's been growing. Economically as well.

Yes, there are tornadoes and copperheads and ticks (the latter two are more common in the country). But it's a gorgeous area. The people are nice. Despite the size we always had a high percentage of international exchange students (maybe 15 at a time?). Yes, the area is mostly white. I didn't notice a lot of racial tension there as compared to other places I've lived since, but then, when you only have one race you can't tell what people will do in a diverse situation. A lot of residents are from out of state, so there is some "diversity" in that respect (uh--don't laugh). If you are not Southern Baptist you might find some suspicion.

The schools are great, for anyone wondering. The high school regularly sends kids to top universities and they score a lot of national scholarships.

MH is not near any freeway, so it is a bit off the path. And while the economy is growing, I wouldn't exactly say there are tons of jobs there (I may have grown up there, but I don't live there any more, for example). It's a great place to raise kids or to retire, but the other generations might have a harder time making a go of it, simply because you need money to live on. One thing that does make me crazy is the lack of a decent bookstore. Hastings is as big as you get, and that's mostly a video store, with a few top-40 type books (and a large dose of Christianware) thrown in. But if books are your thing, you are going to be buying an awful lot from Amazon. The library is always adding on, so they are growing, but again, it's not huge, and the selection reflects the population. If you're not into born-again fiction or books for retirees, then Amazon is, again, your friend.

I've lived in a lot of places (8 states and 2 foreign countries), but of all of them I still claim Mtn. Home as "home."

[LISAMEDLISA]

I have to tell u that I lived there for 3 years (coming from Chicago, IL), with great hopes in that town. Unfortunately, it was not meant to be .. . . ..

Yes, there are a lot of "transplants", as the locals liked to call us. Many from IL, CA, MI and other larger cities, so I thought I'd fit right in, no problem! Wrong.

The city has a true "feeling" a "tone" about it - a lack of energy. I'm not talking about the craziness of Chicago - that's why we moved to MH in the hopes of getting away from all of that, but the town lacks a "life" about it. If you don't fish or hunt . . . .well, what else is there to do in MH?? Good food? Name a restaurant that isn't a fast-food chain or a franchise. Can u get lobster and steak, sushi, anything NOT fried? No. Entertainment? Tell me where there is any in that town?? The Morton Building movie theatre, maybe. Shopping? Well, there's always WALMART. To drive to gain these options was a long, windy 1 1/2 hour car ride to either Branson or Springfield, MO. If u wanted to dress up and go out on the town for a celebration . . . .forget it. Dressing down there is the way to fit in and a way of life. I remember living there after 2 years and a woman came in with a black skirt, white blouse and heels and I just stared at her in amazement because she stood out like a sore thumb. I then realized it had been that long since I actually seen someone dress UP.

Overall, if u don't care about these things then it can be a truly nice place to live. Low crime, low taxes, pretty surroundings, weather was very nice all those years and u can buy a nice home for low price. I just missed my options - not Chicago - but the options.

GOOD LUCK!!