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Old 11-29-2012, 10:37 PM
 
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Never be rude to anyone. That person could end up your boss, your nieghbor, or related to you one day....you never know.
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Old 11-30-2012, 12:31 AM
 
Location: I live wherever I am.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by michellelasher View Post
i have to ask, are you really a gypsy?? btw, all your negatives are positives in my book, definitely reassuring me that i am making the right choice.
I'm about as much of a gypsy as I can be. It's 1/4 of my ethnic heritage, and I've always flitted and floated from place to place. I wish I could be more of a gypsy... perhaps my wife and I will do that soon. We're touring musicians, among other things.

But yeah, I agree that the stuff I mentioned is not necessarily negative. I live in a fast-growing small city right now and I don't like it. I had lived in a small town for a while and I liked everything about it except the lack of opportunity, which really stunk when I had debts to pay off. Now that the debts are entirely paid, I'm looking at going back to a small town so I can have all the rest of that other stuff I mentioned. There's nothing like a small town.
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Old 11-30-2012, 10:03 AM
 
Location: Capital Hill
1,599 posts, read 3,121,426 times
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Originally Posted by michellelasher View Post
I dont live in a small town but I'd like to. I saw the 'You know you live in a small town when..." post and thought this would be interesting
I had my experiences with 'small farm towns'. I once taught high school school in a small town at the foot of the Cascade Mountains. The main industry was logging and dairy farming. The head of the school board owned the logging company in town and everybody in town was related to him, including most of the students and some of the teachers. You didn't dare say anything bad about anybody or they would be all at your throat, including the head of the school board. He had a small plane which he used from time to time to fly over the school yard to check to see if everything was OK and that there were no students cutting classes. An incident occured where one of the girl students had a party at her home while the parents were gone. Apparently it was a little wild, with a lot of booze. It was a scandle everybody knew about. The head of the school board walked right into my homeroom class where she was at and was ostracized right in front of the whole class. I really felt sorry for the poor girl.
I was raised in a small town in the Yakima Valley and know what small town living is all about. It wasn't as bad as the small town I taught school in but everybody knew everybody and gossip was rampant. Don't you dare get on the wrong side of the gossipers. Anyway, the town is setting up a community museum and wanted us oldtimers to write our biography for a history of it's residence. This is part of what I wrote: 'Our favorite hangout when in town was Bell's Pharmacy. He had a real old fashioned drugstore soda fountain that served the greatest milkshakes and sodas on God's green planet, the perfect respite for a hot summer's day. He always kept the coffee pot percolating and he gave it away free, and was where all the old timer's would be, chit-chatting the day, if they were not at Lonie's Tavern where all the riff-raff and lazy no-gooders would stay and foray, -as Mom would say; this is yet another reason I long for yesterday'.
Anyway, I live in Seattle today. In a big town you can live next door to your neighbor only 10 feet away and not know anything about them, or even where they work. This is impossible in a small town. This could be either a good thing or a bad thing.
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Old 11-30-2012, 11:04 AM
 
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Originally Posted by RomaniGypsy View Post
I'm about as much of a gypsy as I can be. It's 1/4 of my ethnic heritage, and I've always flitted and floated from place to place. I wish I could be more of a gypsy... perhaps my wife and I will do that soon. We're touring musicians, among other things.

But yeah, I agree that the stuff I mentioned is not necessarily negative. I live in a fast-growing small city right now and I don't like it. I had lived in a small town for a while and I liked everything about it except the lack of opportunity, which really stunk when I had debts to pay off. Now that the debts are entirely paid, I'm looking at going back to a small town so I can have all the rest of that other stuff I mentioned. There's nothing like a small town.
Oh okay, thats pretty cool. I know that was random, but ive always found that lifestyle very interesting. I think my husband wishes he was a gypsy sometimes, Just so he could travel around like that. I've watched that show My big fat American gypsy wedding. A little extreme? or is that realistic?

I am in San Diego and hate it here as well. I dont understand what people like about it. A city is not even pretty to me. Well, lack of opportunity is probably a good thing for those who can manage to find a job. Less appeal for other people to come there. My husband doesn't have a specific field he has to find a job in, he will pretty much do any kind of labor job, so Im thinking it will be pretty easy for him to find something.
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Old 11-30-2012, 11:11 AM
 
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Originally Posted by RyanR View Post
Never underestimate a farmers knowledge or skills. They know a heck of a lot more then you think.

Also, don't ever assume he's poor because he drives an old beat up truck. It's beat up because it works as hard as he does. And when you slide off the road in your $40,000 SUV, he'll come drag you out with his $100,000 tractor.
I can tell ya, I'd be friends with, and take advice from a farmer long before a lawyer, politician or teacher. Plus, only people poorer than me are the homeless.
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Old 11-30-2012, 12:00 PM
 
Location: I live wherever I am.
1,935 posts, read 4,752,976 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by michellelasher View Post
Oh okay, thats pretty cool. I know that was random, but ive always found that lifestyle very interesting. I think my husband wishes he was a gypsy sometimes, Just so he could travel around like that. I've watched that show My big fat American gypsy wedding. A little extreme? or is that realistic?

I am in San Diego and hate it here as well. I dont understand what people like about it. A city is not even pretty to me. Well, lack of opportunity is probably a good thing for those who can manage to find a job. Less appeal for other people to come there. My husband doesn't have a specific field he has to find a job in, he will pretty much do any kind of labor job, so Im thinking it will be pretty easy for him to find something.
What I've always found amusing, for as long as I've been paying attention to it, is that the vast majority of people yearn to be gypsies. I was talking with the mother of a couple of my students about this on Wednesday. She was talking about how she's grateful that she had kids young so that they can be grown and out of the house later on... and then she can travel. Ain't many people out there who say things like "I can't wait to retire, so that I can stay in one spot forever and never have to do anything else again". Everyone has that wanderlust to an extent.

I also find it amusing when people who are living their comfortable, well-heeled, suburban lives tell me about how they envy the way I can live my life. I got this over the summer when my wife and I did our last tour. Okay. We traveled almost 5,000 miles in my old pickup truck, and every night when we slept, we found some truck stop to park at... blew up an air mattress with a cigarette-lighter-powered air pump, and slept there. Peed in porta-potties sometimes (or even just in the bushes when the porta-potty was too nasty), lugged a cooler from which we made most of our food, etc... and played our gigs as we had them. It was like camping every night. I was amazed at how many people thought that was the coolest thing ever! I was thinking to myself "well, it's cheap, if I can do it, anyone can... so what's stopping you?"

The same thing goes for small town living. A lot of people yearn for small town living. It's easy enough to do if you can keep your standard of living down, minimize the amount of "stuff" you have to have, drive an older vehicle that you own outright without making payments on it, etc. They want small town living but aren't sure they could simplify their lives enough. I say - they should try it. There's freedom in simplification.
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Old 11-30-2012, 06:23 PM
 
192 posts, read 347,187 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by RomaniGypsy View Post
What I've always found amusing, for as long as I've been paying attention to it, is that the vast majority of people yearn to be gypsies. I was talking with the mother of a couple of my students about this on Wednesday. She was talking about how she's grateful that she had kids young so that they can be grown and out of the house later on... and then she can travel. Ain't many people out there who say things like "I can't wait to retire, so that I can stay in one spot forever and never have to do anything else again". Everyone has that wanderlust to an extent.

I also find it amusing when people who are living their comfortable, well-heeled, suburban lives tell me about how they envy the way I can live my life. I got this over the summer when my wife and I did our last tour. Okay. We traveled almost 5,000 miles in my old pickup truck, and every night when we slept, we found some truck stop to park at... blew up an air mattress with a cigarette-lighter-powered air pump, and slept there. Peed in porta-potties sometimes (or even just in the bushes when the porta-potty was too nasty), lugged a cooler from which we made most of our food, etc... and played our gigs as we had them. It was like camping every night. I was amazed at how many people thought that was the coolest thing ever! I was thinking to myself "well, it's cheap, if I can do it, anyone can... so what's stopping you?"

The same thing goes for small town living. A lot of people yearn for small town living. It's easy enough to do if you can keep your standard of living down, minimize the amount of "stuff" you have to have, drive an older vehicle that you own outright without making payments on it, etc. They want small town living but aren't sure they could simplify their lives enough. I say - they should try it. There's freedom in simplification.
Oh, people and their talk. My husband honestly would just do it if it wasnt for me and our daughter. Ive noticed that it is fun for rich people to play poor. They can run around in ripped jeans sitting on the sidewalk, but when it comes down to it, they couldnt survive without all the luxuries they have. My MIL says she could live on a big plot of land in an airstream trailor and be perfectly happy, that is all she wants. yet, when invited places, she wont go anywhere that doesnt have sidewalks. Maybe they think in order for you to be happy with what you're doing they need to justify it for you. They must not really mean it, I on the other hand actually dream every night about being alone, living simple, growing my veggies and home schooling my daughter in peace. That is really funny, though.

My husband and I are going to have a mini version of that because we're driving from California to Tennessee and are going to make a lot of stops due to having a 7 month old. We are thinking it will take us 2 weeks. We decided it would be fun to camp instead of renting hotels the whole way over. I'll be quite honest and say I probably couldn't travel as a lifestyle though.

I always got so worried when people would say things like, 'you just think the grass in greener on the other side' or 'small towners dont like outsiders' or that i wont like that life. and the more they talk and share their negatives to a small town, the more i realize I belong in a small town. My husband and I share a jeep we bought for $2,000 and LOVE not making payments on it or paying out the ass for insurance. Im even looking forward to things like not having cable (only have it now cuz we live with my MIL and she wants it). Also I am realizing that is why everyone in our country is struggling so much, not because its not possible for one man to work and support a family, but because things like cable, an expensive phone plan (I pay 15 dollars a month for my flip phone), and 2 new cars are considered essentials. Disgusting. Cant wait to move myself into a place that does things the old and better way.
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Old 12-04-2012, 11:47 PM
 
Location: near bears but at least no snakes
26,635 posts, read 28,427,436 times
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Look around you and do try to fit in. Notice what the people are wearing, not that you have to dress that way but don't go strutting around town in some hugely expensive winter jacket, probably made of alpaca. Designer boots, perfect hair, smug look on your face and talking in a boastfully loud voice won't really help you here. Don't sit in the coffee shop with one of your friends conversing loudly about all the fabulous places you've been and the great things you've done because you just sound obnoxious and no one here really cares about that stuff.
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Old 12-06-2012, 08:25 PM
 
192 posts, read 347,187 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by in_newengland View Post
Look around you and do try to fit in. Notice what the people are wearing, not that you have to dress that way but don't go strutting around town in some hugely expensive winter jacket, probably made of alpaca. Designer boots, perfect hair, smug look on your face and talking in a boastfully loud voice won't really help you here. Don't sit in the coffee shop with one of your friends conversing loudly about all the fabulous places you've been and the great things you've done because you just sound obnoxious and no one here really cares about that stuff.
Sounds easy enough
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Old 12-06-2012, 10:37 PM
 
Location: In the Pearl of the Purchase, Ky
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My grandfather had a nationally syndicated newspaper column until his death in 1938. He made up a small town and all the citizens, but also talked about the small town he lived in, which is where I live now. One of his tales that would fit in this thread is, if you go out of town by train on a weekend (remember, this is in the 1930s) you better wear your Sunday go to meeting suit and shine your good shoes, because everbody hangs out at the train station on weekends to see who is coming or going. lol
Got one for you to think about. He wrote a little thing about riding the train to the next town, about 30 miles away. He said there was a moth flying around the light bulb on the train the entire trip. What my grandfather was asking was did the moth fly the 30 miles to the next town or did it ride? lol
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