Dumb Kwestion #26

Time again to ponder a pointless polling!  This one comes straight from the book of "starting a conversation when nobody want's to converse".


Would you rather live in the country or the city?

I'm getting the to point where I think living off the grid would be quite desirable.

It depends. I'd probably pick the country. It's more quiet and I've felt safer in the country. It would be useful to live near a city, though. I would assume that's where jobs are and I don't want to be too far.

I grew up in a small town and spent alot of time on my grandfathers farm in the country..hated it and i now live in the city and will live there forever..i love the city.

I've almost always lived in a more rural setting and can't imagine it any other way.

As John Mellencamp said in his song "Small Town":


"Small Town"

Well I was born in a small town
And I live in a small town
Prob'ly die in a small town
Oh, those small communities

All my friends are so small town
My parents live in the same small town
My job is so small town
Provides little opportunity

Educated in a small town
Taught the fear of Jesus in a small town
Used to daydream in that small town
Another boring romantic that's me

But I've seen it all in a small town
Had myself a ball in a small town
Married an L.A. doll and brought her to this small town
Now she's small town just like me

No I cannot forget where it is that I come from
I cannot forget the people who love me
Yeah, I can be myself here in this small town
And people let me be just what I want to be

Got nothing against a big town
Still hayseed enough to say
Look who's in the big town
But my bed is in a small town
Oh, and that's good enough for me

Well I was born in a small town
And I can breathe in a small town
Gonna die in this small town
And that's prob'ly where they'll bury me

I have lived in a city my whole life. In the beginning it wasn't too bad. Over the past some odd years we have had a population boom. I am at the point that I wouldn't mind moving out to a smaller town/city/community. I have family that live in some smaller areas (Iowa,Minnesota). Since I work at Walmart I could just get a transfer. The only bad part is it would be way up north.

Country.

I lived in Los Angeles growing up, and even as a child I felt smothered and claustrophobic. 
I'm no Country-Bumpkin, but I love the area I live in now. Not country, rather desert... but it's still open spaces, areas where there are hundreds of acres without the touch of a human hand, yet the town in the midst of this desert still has everything we could want. I can work a good paying job, shop at big name places and eat and well known restaurants... all less than 3 minutes from our home.

The funny thing about considering where I live "country" (or more realistically, open "desert") is this: when we moved from L.A. to this desert in '79, the population was less than 10,000... and we knew practically everyone it seemed. Since '79 it's exploded around here with the change to an official "Town" with a pop of 22,000 +.  Everything my Dad was trying to escape by moving from L.A. has followed us here: drug dealers, crime, gang activity, "homeless" beggars, etc.  
I still love it here and wouldn't live anywhere else (except perhaps the deserts of Arizona or Nevada where it's much easier to get a carry and conceal permit - here in CA it's nearly impossible to obtain a C&C -only ones who carry are the criminals)

Definitely the city. I was born in Pontiac, MI 30 minutes from Detroit. I loved going into the city and watching the Tigers in the summer. Yeah, Detroit is a bad city now and I would not want to live there but we moved to Knoxville, TN in 1981. That was also a wonderful city. So much to do and see. Then when I graduated from college we moved to Cookeville, TN. I hated it there. Nothing to do. It wasn't the country but it was too small for me. In 97 we moved to Missouri 90 minutes south of St. Louis. That was OK too but pretty small town. IN 2000 we moved to Panama City and it too is a small town that hates to change and grow. I only stay here because I have a good job but if my plant were to shut down I would move to to a big city (big meaning Knoxville, Nashville, Charlotte, not "large" like Miami, Chicago, Detroit).

Definitely in the city.  It's where the food trucks are

I grew up in the country and now live in the city (well, the suburbs...).

Honestly, if you look at a map of Missouri and Illinois near St Louis - right across the river (on the Ill side) there are several small towns - Collinsville, Columbia, Red Bud, Waterloo... I'd like that area, I think. It's country and private, but only ten minutes from Downtown Lou.

I prefer the country.
Cities are to busy for me.
To many cars, to many people.

I have lived in both larger cities and the country.  I love the convinience of living in a larger city, but cannot stand the traffic and the large crowds of people....and that dislike has gotten worse the older I get.

I have spent the last 15 years living barely inside the city limits of a small town (population only about 7000).  I love the feel of being in a small town where you recognize people daily.  I run into people all the time that I know and I'm not even a very social person (so I don't know all that many people).  Nice thing is that my small town is only about 20 miles to Tacoma (3rd largest city in the state) and about 40 miles from Seattle (largest city in the state)...so it doesn't take too long to get to a city full of museum's, zoos and stadiums.  Kind of like the best of both worlds.

Well, I don't want to live in the heart of a city, but I don't want to live in the middle of nowhere either.  I guess if I had to choose I would prefer the city because I remember as a kid having to drive 10 miles to get to a grocery store of any size and that's just not for me.

messiaen77 wrote:

Well, I don't want to live in the heart of a city, but I don't want to live in the middle of nowhere either.  I guess if I had to choose I would prefer the city because I remember as a kid having to drive 10 miles to get to a grocery store of any size and that's just not for me.

Perfect answer. I don't mind driving 30 minutes for a sporting event but I want a grocery store 5 minutes or less away. Not in the heart, but not in the middle of nowhere either.

Quote :

I guess if I had to choose I would prefer the city because I remember as a kid having to drive 10 miles to get to a grocery store of any size and that's just not for me.

You get used to it with time.  Walmart is 12 miles for me.  Kroger is on the other side of Lebanon, so it is probably closer to 16 miles.  I can hit the Dollar General here in Watertown, though, if I need something but don't want to run to the store.

Quote :

I have spent the last 15 years living barely inside the city limits of a small town (population only about 7000).  I love the feel of being in a small town where you recognize people daily.  I run into people all the time that I know and I'm not even a very social person (so I don't know all that many people).  Nice thing is that my small town is only about 20 miles to Tacoma (3rd largest city in the state) and about 40 miles from Seattle (largest city in the state)...so it doesn't take too long to get to a city full of museum's, zoos and stadiums.  Kind of like the best of both worlds.

Your town is still larger than Watertown.  We are around 3,000 and pretty much like it this way.  LOL

Like yourself, I live about 40 miles from anything in downtown Nashville and often go into the city for some cultural refinement or entertainment.  However, when it is all said and done, I like living in a town that I don't have to be afraid of forgetting to lock my door when I go to bed.  That happened just last week, and no one came in.  Of course, had they come in, my loaded .22 Ruger or 9 mm would have been readily available for me to defend myself.

I like the quietness, how slow time seems to move, and not having people around all the time.  Go back and see those lyrics I posted again.  That's me.

I was so lucky that I never lived in a big city.
I went to school in a big city and always was glad when I saw the city was further and fuurther away.
I loved to te the meadows, the cows and the woods on my way home.

I grew up in a spot well outside of town, but in a subdivision with about 20 houses on it (there was about half that when I was younger), so it wasn't lost in the woods either. It's about half an hour's bike ride into the west end of town, which doesn't have much. Where I am now at school is perfect, as I'm about a 20-30-minute walk from things like the bank and the convenience store, and much less by bike or by car, and yet it's very quiet here. Also, I can walk through the woods as easily as I can walk through a suburb as easily as I can walk to the shops. So, I've always been sort of a mixture of growing up away from cities, but yet having the conveniences thereof nearby.

I've stayed in towns on vacation before, and the noise and light is just too much at night. Sure, being able to get stuff from the shop down the street is nice, but things are more expensive in towns and I couldn't put up with the stress. So I'd have to answer country… but probably not backwoods.

On the edge of town (near the country and the city). That's actually where i live now.