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I'm in my late 20's. Moved around a lot growing up. Only lived in a handful of different towns/cities but it was more like my family would move from town A, back to town B, back to town A, and then back to town B. We probably did this 5 times or so in my teenage years. I was born in FL. Lived in a few different counties in FL in elementary school. Then we moved to upstate NY on a whim (parents both from Long Island but my parents couldn't afford moving to Long Island. That's mainly the reason). And that's when the moving back and forth began. Currently living in central FL again and there is this weird part of me that misses upstate NY. It was a small town... like 8k people. Where I live now... it's 30 mins from Disney World. In a growing suburb. It's weird... I talk to a lot of people/meet a lot of people due to my line of work and I meet very, very few people that are actually from (born and raised) in this area. A lot of transients. This town used to be "nothing but orange groves" I hear a lot of older folks say.
I would always say that I hated the snow/the long winters. But after being back to central FL and having been back here for close to 7 years (moved from upstate NY right after high school to back down here) I miss it... I wouldn't move back to that same town because to be honest... yeah I really don't think I could do the long winters again and I don't like NY politics (I don't like politics in general but the least amount of government interference the better IMO). I've been in a slump for the past probably 1-2 years. I'm sick of FL. But don't want to move back to upstate NY. I'll probably wind up being nomadic and/or unsatisfied to some extent my whole life... lol. Either that or stay here and continue to be miserable. I've just about had enough of that though.
The small town in NY I lived in... it was like a hippie town. Whenever I think of this town I think of the Grateful Dead, the times I had friends, hanging out with friends "in town", the trees/natural beauty, and school. I get a very weird nostalgic, very melancholy feeling whenever I think of that old town... right now I'm on google maps "walking around town" and I can't help but feel very empty and sad. I'm too old to cry about this sort of stuff but it just makes me feel sad. Anyone else feel this way?
I personally would rather move to the Skelton Coast rather than move back to my small and insular suburb in Prairieville. Nostalgia is a weird concept and I hope I don't fall victim to it.
People are often nostalgic about their past for no actual reason other than they had less responsibility and no bills.
Not really. I grew up in only 1 small town in western NYS and hated it. After my parents died I never went back and never will.
If you're serious about leaving FL but don't want long winters there are a lot of in-betweens.
The Carolinas, TN, KY, probably a dew I'm missing. Southern PA winters aren't as bad as northern PA. oh, the VAs too.
Those friends have all gone on with their lives. You won't find that group as a group again. As far as the "feel" of the place, good luck Left leaning small towns tend to be in left leaning states. The culture and "vibe" is different than right leaning towns in right leaning states. You have to figure out what you want most and make compromises.
You are too young by decades to be feeling blue about the old days. Time to see more places of all kinds!
The small town I spent almost my whole childhood in didn’t change much for a really long time after I moved away, in 1975. I think I had last seen it resembling my old town in 2002 or 2007. Then there was a big gap till I next returned, in 2017.
It looked like yet another victim (or beneficiary, depending on your viewpoint) of the mega-urban sprawl. The growth of the sine qua non big city that was the starting point of the spread had finally enfolded it. No longer did it feel like its former freestanding pleasant small town self. It had turned into an outlying suburb, one that used to be 40 minutes’ drive from the hub back in the long ago time.
With your childhood spent moving around so much, you probably long for a place to become attached to, which is understandable. But you have time to explore enough to find that place—or places, plural. More than one place can feel like home!
The small town I grew up in isn't small any longer. Things don't stay the same. If you are living in a small town you don't notice the changes so much as when you have been gone for ten years or so and return to visit. It's like neighborhoods. Good ones can go to seed and bad ones can be gentrified.
The small towns I grew up in are gone, swallowed by "progress", but I loved the feel of a small rural community. It was kind of like an extended family where you knew everyone, they knew you. If somebody needs help, everyone pitches in to help them.
I had to live in a larger town to work, but when I retired, I found a new small town where the values and people were still good honest hard working folks.
I moved here 3 years ago. I've lived all over the world, but here I'm happy and I'm not going anyplace else.
I personally would rather move to the Skelton Coast rather than move back to my small and insular suburb in Prairieville. Nostalgia is a weird concept and I hope I don't fall victim to it.
People are often nostalgic about their past for no actual reason other than they had less responsibility and no bills.
I don't think that's why they are nostalgic. I find myself being most nostalgic for the time I had my first job in high school to going to college. I started driving (freedom), earning money so I could pretty much do a few things and by then, my mom was done raising kids. I could have either gone one way or another. It grew me up a lot and I liked running my own life as opposed to other people doing it.
I also think people are nostalgic over their lost potential. When you are young, you have your whole life ahead of you and the possibilities are limitless. When you get older, not so much.
OP, you don't know what a 'small town' is. When I was born my home town had about 1200 people, by the time I graduated HS it was around 800, today it's down to 283 and losing more every year. THAT's a small town. Would you want to live there?
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