Tell us A Bit About Where You're From

[Asmodean]

A blind man walking next to someone spraying paint on a turkey's ass?

Fixed 

[Squid]

That would be the annual turkey race.  Each year in October the town has a festival revolving around the theme of turkeys.  Cuero used to have a huge turkey industry many decades ago.  This race in which two turkeys are run down the street is to remember how the farmers used to run the turkeys through town to to be slaughtered.  It's become a fairly big event each year, it's called Turkeyfest.

[lomfs24]

I covered a bit of this in my introductory post but I suppose I could post a bit here as well. I am originally from central Montana. I went to a small school where my class was really 12 kids, 9 boys, 3 girls. About midway through my freshman year, I moved to a larger town in Central Montana and I don't really know how large my class was but it was a little mind boggling to begin with. At the end of my sophomore year of high school, my dad decided to up and move to Oregon. Central Point, OR to be exact. I don't really regret the move, I was afforded opportunities in school that I would have otherwise not had. I finished school there and stayed in Oregon for a couple years. I soon got home sick and returned to SW Montana. Where I lived for a period of years, started a family and had an OK job. I wanted to further my fire fighting career and moved to Northern New Mexico. That move turned out to be a big mistake and I was not happy there. In order to get out of that area I took a job as a full time EMT in Western Kansas where I am now. The town I live in is rather small by most standards. There is about 1500 people in this town with about 2500 people in the entire county. The little town is very religious. There are three questions that are asked to new comers and by those three questions you are judged. 1). What church do you go to? 2). Do you have kids? 3). Where do you come from? And in that order. If you say that you do not go to church or you do not have one, you are given a friendly invitation. And that pretty much sets the theme of how you will be treated and associated with in this town. I don't have many friends here aside from my boss and a couple others who are also not from this town originally. The town prides itself on, and is called the Christmas City. And they take their Christmas very seriously.

And that, in a nutshell, is where I am from.

[m.condon]

I grew up in Michigan City Indiana, its a small democratic pocket in Northern Indiana. I spent alot of my time in Chicago and to this day it is my favorite city, except when its cold. I now live in southern Indiana which is completely different from Northern Indiana, I would say backward but I dont want to offend anyone

[Tank]

I grew up in Michigan City Indiana, its a small democratic pocket in Northern Indiana. I spent alot of my time in Chicago and to this day it is my favorite city, except when its cold. I now live in southern Indiana which is completely different from Northern Indiana, I would say backward but I dont want to offend anyone

I've spent some time working in Chicago and I liked it a lot.

[Anne D.]

Grew up in west central Wisconsin, USA, in the Chippewa Valley, named after the Chippewa tribe.






Quite a while back, logging was big in the region. Here are Mr. Paul Bunyan and his blue ox, Babe, figures in regional tall tales:



Went to college in Madison, WI, and then moved to Austin, TX, where I've been the last 14 years:


Austin's a fun town, and there's always something to do/go see, but I miss having seasons, especially fall.

[Thunder Road]

...

[Thunder Road]

Welcome to Business-Friendly Bensalem, PA, USA!

Red- approximate location of my house.

Green- my former church and elementary school.

Orange- The original Lincoln Highway, built sometime around 1920. 

Purple- The Pennsylvania Turnpike, America's first superhighway.  Built in 1940 in western PA, the final leg through Bensalem opened in 1956.

Black- the former grounds of Eastern State Hospital, an asylum that was famous for the mistreatment of patients as late as the 1980s (athough it pales in comparison to the atrocities committed at nearby Byberry Hospital, which was just southwest of the southwest corner of my pic).  Now it is a Wal-Mart and other stores.

Blue- Philadelphia Park racetrack and casino, and home of Smarty Jones, the 2004 Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner.  (He came in 2nd at the Belmont Stakes, narrowly missing the Triple Crown.)

Gold- Growden Mansion, now in disrepair, former home of the Galloway Family and where some people believe Ben Franklin's kite experiment took place.  Others say it was closer to Philadelphia, and many more say that he never really did the experiment at all (because it would have physically killed him if he had), but I have faith that it happened there, despite what science says!


Not circled is a warehouse in the southern end of the township, where the movie Signs was filmed (which I've actually never seen, believe it or not).  Also down there is the Kings Highway, which George Washington traveled numerous times, and the shrine established by Katherine Drexel.  Also for those of you familiar with Rita's Water Ice...their corporate headquarters are located in Bensalem.


Bensalem, and the whole Philadelphia area, is very Catholic.  When you ask somebody from Philly what part of the city they're from, they don't tell you a neighborhood, they tell you their parish.

Ok well that's about it for my boring, middle-class suburb.

[The Magic Pudding]

Ok well that's about it for my boring, middle-class suburb.

Thanks for that, your boring can be of interest to someone unfamiliar with it.

And thanks Anne D too, that water looks very green.

[McQ]

Welcome to Business-Friendly Bensalem, PA, USA!

Red- approximate location of my house.

Green- my former church and elementary school.

Orange- The original Lincoln Highway, built sometime around 1920. 

Purple- The Pennsylvania Turnpike, America's first superhighway.  Built in 1940 in western PA, the final leg through Bensalem opened in 1956.

Black- the former grounds of Eastern State Hospital, an asylum that was famous for the mistreatment of patients as late as the 1980s (athough it pales in comparison to the atrocities committed at nearby Byberry Hospital, which was just southwest of the southwest corner of my pic).  Now it is a Wal-Mart and other stores.

Blue- Philadelphia Park racetrack and casino, and home of Smarty Jones, the 2004 Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner.  (He came in 2nd at the Belmont Stakes, narrowly missing the Triple Crown.)

Gold- Growden Mansion, now in disrepair, former home of the Galloway Family and where some people believe Ben Franklin's kite experiment took place.  Others say it was closer to Philadelphia, and many more say that he never really did the experiment at all (because it would have physically killed him if he had), but I have faith that it happened there, despite what science says!


Not circled is a warehouse in the southern end of the township, where the movie Signs was filmed (which I've actually never seen, believe it or not).  Also down there is the Kings Highway, which George Washington traveled numerous times, and the shrine established by Katherine Drexel.  Also for those of you familiar with Rita's Water Ice...their corporate headquarters are located in Bensalem.


Bensalem, and the whole Philadelphia area, is very Catholic.  When you ask somebody from Philly what part of the city they're from, they don't tell you a neighborhood, they tell you their parish.

Ok well that's about it for my boring, middle-class suburb.

I can see my house in this picture!

No, not really. But it ain't too far out of the photo. Born in Abington, grew up near Ambler.

And was catholic,too. Shocker!

[Tank]

Ok well that's about it for my boring, middle-class suburb.

Thanks for that, your boring can be of interest to someone unfamiliar with it.

And thanks Anne D too, that water looks very green.

One person's mundane can be another person's WoW!

[Asmodean]

One person's mundane can be another person's WoW!

No, WoW is evil. Here is a better one: One person's pest is another Asmo's beloved Small One.

[Ali]

I was born in Joplin MO (of last year's tornado fame.)  I don't really remember that much about living there, but I know that the apartment complex that we lived in before we moved was destroyed by the tornado.  A lot of my family still lives there, and a couple of them were injured in the tornado, but luckily all lived. 

http://www.joplinmo.org/

When I was 6, we moved to Ohio.  Our mailing address was Springfield OH, but we actually lived outside of the city of Springfield in a very rural area of Ohio, and actually much closer to a small town called St. Paris, which is where I went to school.



The marker in the picture shows the house I grew up in.  My brother and I spent most of our time playing in those woods that you see across the street.  I still love being outside and wandering through nature as an adult, but I have a lot less opportunity to do so now.  The mountains in CO are beautiful, but you have to drive to get to them from where I am, so I have to make special trips when I have time.  As I mentioned, when I lived in Ohio, I went to a very small rural school in the closest town (St. Paris.)  My high school had about 400 students all told.

When I was 17 (a senior in high school), we moved to Highland's Ranch CO (a suburb of Denver). 



My graduating class was 847 people - twice as big as my entire high school in OH!  And it wasn't just the size difference - I moved from a very working class area of the mid-West to a pretty affluent suburban area of the country.  To say that I was a fish out of water in an understatement.

That was 1997.  Since then, I've lived all over the metro Denver area.  There are things that I love about living in a metropolitan area (I love love LOVE the food - all sorts of food I had never even dreamed of in rural OH - Greek, Vietnamese, Moroccan, Israeli...And the diversity of people.  I'm 1/2 Mexican and my family and the one Jewish family in the district were considered "exotic" at my high school.  But, there are also things that I hate about living here.  I hate the chain stores and restaurants.  In St. Paris and the surrounding areas, there were so many family owned businesses.  Our local grocery store was a family owned store named Cain's.  The restaurants were all family owned, as were the shops in "downtown" St Paris.  We didn't have a McDonald's, or a Wal-Mart.  It was a big deal when they put in a Subway in one of the gas stations, because that was the only "chain" restaurant in town.  Everyone had to go and give it a try!

I look out at the sea of "Best Buys" and "Bed, Bath, & Beyonds", and "Applebees" and "King Soopers" and it all makes me feel so freaking numb sometimes.  I was so impressed when I got here, because I was finally in a "big city" with "real stores" but now I just wish it wasn't all so much more of the same.  I miss the little stand on the side of Cain's that was only open during the summer where you could get homemade ice cream and the best coney dogs on the planet.  I miss the De La Rosa's General Store, and the way Mr. De La Rosa loved our family because we were the only other Mexicans in town.  I miss knowing everyone and knowing their families.  I can't even tell you the name of my across the street neighbors here in Denver.  It's just not like that here.  I miss the woods.

Wow, this got super maudlin and sentimental!  LOL!!!!   I guess I just don't think about all that stuff very much any more, but talking about it reminded me of the stuff that I kind of lost when I moved here.  But there are lots of good things here too.  I met my husband here, and my parents and brother are here, and his whole extended family is here, and I love them all dearly.  So there's that. 

Here I am, in my house in suburbia!

[Anne D.]

Hey there, RunFromMyLife  . It's always nice to run into someone from the same neck of the woods.

I lived in Minneapolis, Minnesota for 9 years and then decided to move to the other side of the river and have been in St. Paul for the past two years. The Twin Cities are known for Bob Dylan, Prince, and Michele Bachmann and I pretty much can't stand all three of them.

I love the Twin Cities and have friends in St. Paul. Such a cool place to live. Re: being known for Michele Bachmann: Makes me sad how both Minnesota and Wisconsin seem to be leaving behind their progressive traditions.

(And you're probably already aware of this, but somehow you accidentally included Prince among those Minnesotans you can't stand. Surely, this was a mistake, as his rocking-ness is acknowledged by all   .)

[Ali]

(And you're probably already aware of this, but somehow you accidentally included Prince among those Minnesotans you can't stand. Surely, this was a mistake, as his rocking-ness is acknowledged by all   .)

Mos def.  *nods solemnly*