opinion of Taneytown? (Frederick, Laurel, Westminster: real estate, skateboarding, renting)

[westsideboy]

Locations like Taneytown are places where generations of people have lived, worked, and experienced life in the same community. Over time these towns create their own unique, insular character. Places like this are very rare and fading fast in Maryland. To an outsider moving to Taneytown for "more house" to suppliment their commuting suburban lifestyle, this parochial culture can seem strange and intimidating. It is certainly nothing like the "just add water and watch them grow" communtities of most of the state.
While the locals may not strike outsiders as tolerant or open-minded or any of the other qualities that you value in yourself and your neighbors, make sure to consider true small town people have something suburbanites can never have. A true home town. A place where groups of families have been rooted for generations . A place where yesterday looked alot like today, and hopefully looks like tomarrow. Once a family is uprooted from their traditional homeplace, this continuity is lost forever. This is what is missing from most of this state. The suburbs have some nice people, nice restaurants, fancy new houses, etc., but the no real connection to the past, and no real stake in the future.
Many people like this kind of lifestyle. Pack up the stakes and move somewhere new. Get high paying jobs, get "more house," find the best schools, but I feel much is lost in this process. Anyway, I am sure the residents of Taneytown don't mind that they have this reputation, it may be the only thing that saves their town the homoginization that is affecting most of the state.

[md to nc]

I have to comment on the post about "uneducated" "prejudiced" people of Taneytown. I personally have family who lives in Taneytown and have lived there for 40 years. Yes they may not have gone to college like some of those who have moved in just to get "more of a house" but they have provided for their children, my cousins, and actually sent my one cousin through college at McDaniel. Must not be too uneducated for her to go to a college like McDaniel. But it is close minded people moving in who look down on others because of the way they live is the reason I have since moved out to NC, rural NC. I had to get far and away unfortunately the influx is following. I enjoy being redneck and having "Bmore-ites" telling me how to live and what is expected of me just of course ran me out. But also raising the taxes like they were just so they could continue the same lifestyle as they had in Baltimore, Washington, Anne Arundel, Howard and everywhere they are flocking from. Don't get me wrong, I actually made $200K on my house by a couple moving from Catonsville, so thank you.

[Moveaway]

I am sorry to have posted, as I said, I typically never post to things as this however the original question was about opinions of Taneytown, and having lived here for over 2 years now, I felt as though I could post an honest OPINION.

I did not mean any offense at all to those who have not gone to college, who have lived here all their lives,etc.... I appreciate that there are generations of I am sure, very hard working, honest, good people.
I am NOT closed minded and feel as though I accept all people as they are.

Unfortunately, I have to say, that many of those same local people here do not accept others for who they are. THEY are the ones judging and being ignorant.
My husband & I happen to be white, upper middle class individuals who do hold college degrees and work hard for our money. We also happen to be raising 2 beautiful children who have been adopted. When YOU (you as in the poster who moved to NC to leave all of us close-minded people behind)
are questioned time and time and time and time again HOW MUCH YOUR CHILDREN COST? and ARE THEY YOUR REAL KIDS?..... well, then you can tell me just how close minded we really are. I would never ask anyone any such ignorant questions and do not feel that I should be accepting of that type of ignorance. There are far to many incidents that we have experienced here to name, and I will tell you that every single one of them are with local individuals and not people who have moved in to get more of a house!
I know because I am curious when people ask such questions ,where they are from and I ask them. I then carry on conversations with them and find out that they have lived here their entire lives and have THEIR OWN KIDS as though our children are not our own.

As I stated in my first post, I have met wonderful people here, many are local to this area their entire lives and many not.
Those who are not have the right to have chosen to live here because ,Yes, we do get more of a home here than in other parts of the county. We also have the right to live here without being judged by others. Just as they expect from us.

There are many other reasons for my opinion, not just the ignorance of people because as we all know, they are all over this world.
There is nothing at all to do here with young children. We visit the library on a weekly basis, sometimes more than once. One can only enjoy the library so often. In order to participate in any type of gym,etc... one must pack the kids in the car and drive to either Westminster or Frederick. This is no one's fault but our own for not looking into the area more prior to moving here.
Now we know, that is why we are choosing to leave.

It is merely our OPINION which is what was asked of to begin with.
I judge no one and have respect for those who live here with their families and work hard to raise their children.

[westsideboy]

Don't have regrets about posting here. Just understand that people's opinions are supported or questioned by others in an attempt to counter balance one individual's opinion.

I am sorry you didn't find what you were looking for in Taneytown. Not every place in this state is a cookie cutter suburb full of the attitudes and mentalities you value. You obviously moved there for the primary purpose of materialism (bigger house, more land, etc.) rather than because you valued the character of the town. To expect the traditional residents of this town to instantly value and repect your transplated expectations is unrealistic. I am sure a suburban community will be a better fit for you and your family.

[Moveaway]

To expect individuals to accept diversity and others for who they are and not judge my family because I have children of a different ethnic background , I feel, is not unrealistic, it is human.

Thank you for your insight though, I do truly appreciate it, especially coming from someone who admits they have only driven through here and stopped at the McDonald's or Sheetz mini-mart.

[westsideboy]

It doesn't matter whether it is Taneytown, Thurmont, Boonsboro, Hancock, Cumberland, Grantsville or any other. Being from a traditional place in Maryland myself I suspect I know and understand better how rural folks think and feel than you have picked up in your 2 years in a cul-de-sac with a Taneytown address.

Also, just understand that believing in the value of respect and diversity and all that stuff is great. I agree with you. Folks that have access to higher education and varied and diverse life experience normally understand and accept this value. Not everyone has access to that though. To someone in a small, overwhelming white, insular community, these values are abstract at best and nearly irrelevant to everyday life. Tolerance is not something that is inborn in people, it must be taught. I take issue when someone assumes that their insight and life experience is not only correct but universally evident.

[md to nc]

Moveaway, I could not even finish your post, about how people look down on you because you adopted children. For your d--n info, my cousin who went to McDaniel and has lived in Taneytown all her life did happen to adopt two BEAUTIFUL children, probably like your own, from Korea. She unfortunately cannot have children of her own as well. I can say for a fact she has never been questioned about where they came from or how much these cost. Sounds to me like there is more to the story than you want to let everyone know. Face it, you hate it there and want to tell everyone else how ignorant us rural country folk are. But actually street smarts is sometimes better than book smarts. Oh and by the way, I am a graduate of Villa Julie College so don't call me stupid, ignorant or close minded to diversity. I just call it like I see it. And what I see is somebody who probably experienced one bad thing and decided all people local to Carroll County are ignorant, only to people like you of course.

[Moveaway]

I am again so sorry, I did not mean to offend anyone.
For the person who posted in response to mine, MD to NC, if you go back and read my other posts I did not say that I believed ALL people in Taneytown,Carroll County,etc were ignorant. I also never once used the word stupid to describe anyone, as I would never do that.
What I said was that we have met many people with ignorant questions.
It is wonderful that your relatives have adopted for the same reason my husband and I have, and more wonderful that they have never experienced these type of questions.
Unfortunately, there is nothing more to my story, I wish I was that interesting. Nothing more than again, our opinion of some unfortunate comments that have been made to us.

This forum is not to discuss adoption or people's values and morals. I answered a question honestly and did not mean to offend everyone.

This will be my last post as I am not here to judge others or to be judged by others. I will say one last time, Taneytown has wonderful people, both local and "transplants", we have just not had a good experience here and that is all.

[Moveaway]

My wife showed me this site last evening after reading the previous post.
I feel compelled to write in defense of her.

I would like to clarify some information first. We DO NOT live in a neighborhood in Taneytown, we did in fact, move here to get "more of a home" with more land, we live on a rural route. Our closest neighbor is a car ride away. This is what we wanted. We have the right to do that without being called materialistic.
We both know what a rural community is like as we both grew up in them in NJ.
Our children (one boy and one girl) (both from Guatemala) have been picked on since moving here because their parents don't look like them and we have endured many ignorant questions about them. One should not make an effort to put themselves in our shoes unless you have walked in them.

As my wife clearly stated, Taneytown does have wonderful people, both of whom have lived here all of their lives and who have moved here from other areas. A question was posed about opinions on the area and an honest one was given.
There is not much here for young families, that is a fact and should not be taken as a criticism.

It is our fault for not researching the area more so prior to moving here. Upon driving through the town, it does appear to have a wonderful, small town feel to it. We have lived in many,many small towns with our children and have never once been exposed to the questions and harassment that our children have since living here. They are older (pre-teens) now and able to somewhat stick up for themselves, however, it does not make it right.

I have had many conversations with individuals of diverse backgrounds and if you want to get into specifics, why not look into why a certain individual left the Taneytown Vol. Fire Dept last year? I am sure you will see that we are not the only ones feeing that diversity is not an accepted quality here.
Also- don't other previous posts state that the Klan still exists here? I am not aware of this, but have heard it several times.

Please understand that everyone is entitled to their opinion but for someone to make unfair accusations about my wife's perceptions is not right.
If you have not spent time living here and have not experienced the situations we have, then what gives you the right to ridicule ? I don't believe in judging individuals unless I have been given reason to do so.
As my wife also stated, it was merely an opinion and one that is supported by personal experiences here.

Thank You.

[westsideboy]

This board is about giving opinions and having discussions about various communities in Maryland. We have been having a rather lively and, in my mind, important one here about Taneytown.

I am sorry that you and your children did not mesh well with the community. It sounds like what you need and want in a community are different than what this town provided for you.

The point I have been trying to make is part of a bigger picture than just you, your family, and Taneytown. All over Maryland people from other places are moving into rural traditional small towns because they can buy more and still commute to their city/inner suburban jobs. If you have a different term for it than materialism, fine, it doesn't change the reality that you choose where you lived based on the size of the house and amount of land that you could buy. Is there anything inherently wrong with this. No, of course not, it is American after all.

When people such as yourselves move to these traditional places you bring your values, your culture, your expectations with you. You want to basically transplant your previous life and the values of your previous community in the new place. This is the essence of suburban culture. What invariably happens next is that the people that move out to the country are then shocked and repulsed to find that they are living next to real country people, imagine that!

So much of this discussion has been about being judged and not judging others. We all judge. Some residents judged you harshly. You obviously have judged them back as being backward and ignorant of the enlightened and noble values that you see as self evident. It is not really about this, people's life expereinces dictate what they believe. Their is no shining light of truth that pierces the clouds into men's souls to teach them what is important to value. Your New Jersey suburban educated life experiences have taught you a certain set of values, their Maryland, rural, real life experience has taught them something different. Should other kids have left your kids alone? Of course. Is it fair to expect that children in a white rural insular environment are going to understand the value of diversity just because you say it is true, no.

In the end this about everybody finding a place to live that matches their values, rather than expecting every place in the state to change overnight to accommidate the outward migration of suburbanites.