Do you still live in your "hometown", if not, do you wish you could move back there?

I got out of there right in the nick of time. The quaint little town turned into a bustling hispanic hood, complete with stores all written in spanish and no jobs could be found unless one spoke spanish. The neighborhood and the house I grew up in used to be in the "nicer" part of town but when I left, it was considered the ghetto due to the neighbors that moved in along with their uncles, nephews, nieces, friends, relatives..and their washers thrown on the front stoops, old couches in the yard, kegger parties and mexican music blasting at all hours.

I then lived 30 years only 2 blocks from the beach. THAT was home. But...I lost it. Now I am up North in the forest. Big change this is. Wetter, colder, mostly old fat tattooed rednecks straight out of duck dynasty. I like it..but it is not home. And there are wayyy too many pit bulls. Someday, I hope I can go home. I don't like extreme weather and "home" was usually around 65 year round since it was central calif coast area. Up here in the north in the woods...the winters get really cold and the summers are horribly hot in the 3 digits..and the skeeters can be saddled.
 

I don't really have a hometown. There was the place where I was born, there were places that I lived. I have feelings for all of them - some good, some bad, some very bad. All I can say now is that I am happy where I am living, but I've got no idea where 'home' is.

I would add that I've never quite understood being born and staying in the same town, and/or being close to family. We all run our own 'race' and settle where it suits us best.
 
Yes,I live 2 blocks away from my childhood home.I'm the only member of my family who stayed here in Buffalo,my brother and sister never wanted to come back and live here. My sister,Mary lives in England.
After my parents moved to a retirement community in NH in '92,I gave some thought of pulling up stakes and moving to be closer to where my brother,John lives in Westchester County,decided against it. I had a good job as a pharm tech at a local hospital,never thinking I would stayed for 27yrs.,I have a group of close friends who are like my 'extended family',been involved with volunteering at my church and other orgs over the years.
Its wonderful after so many delays to have a revitalization happening here in Buffalo esp downtown.In Oct, John and my eldest nephew,Jay came home for 48hrs to attend a Bills football game. They stayed at a new hotel down by the waterfront,John was impressed by what he saw.If I had to do it all over again,I'd probably stay Sue
 
Still live in the home where I was born. It was built by my grand-father in 1922 and over the years has been passed to my mother, then to me, and at present is owned by our youngest daughter and her family. The home has been shared by different generations and is large enough to accommodate a couple of families. In 1995, we gave the house to our youngest daughter and retained a life lease for us to live out our days here. It freed us up to spend a good part of each year between Florida and Maine without any concerns regarding the property. Also relieved us of the usual expenses involved with home owning - - heat, electricity, taxes, upkeep and so on.

All of our children and grandchildren (with the exception of one grandson and wife) live within a two hour drive, some less than 10 minutes away. We live on the outskirts of a city of 95,000 people but in an area that has always been zoned "residential" so other than a few previously empty field having houses built, it has remained largely as I knew it as a child.

After reading the "family relationship" portion of the forum, I wouldn't recommend this as a solution to many but if you have the right relationship with your family it is truly a blessing.
 
I grew up on the outskirts of a rather large city. I liked it. There was a wide diversity of backgrounds of residents. Things were always busy and open because of factories and shift work at that time. BUT I wouldn't want to move back because of the weather. Winters were too long, too much snow, too cold.

I moved to Georgia, just by chance, because there was a job opportunity. The town I live in now is a little smaller but even more diverse. No one expects you to fit in. In fact not fitting in is encouraged. LOL! I love that. Plus the warm weather. I would consider moving, but it would take a lot of other incentives to make me want to move back north.
 
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Not at all. Grew up in Chicago and left at 18 very happily. Have lived in the San Francisco Bay Area ever since (1969). Glorious!

We love the city. Dining out is one of our joys. Just got back from a trip through Sonoma County, our second this year. Brought back a cooler filled with New Zealand meat pies from BurtoNZ Bakery and delicate French pastries from Patisserie Angelica.

Going to Napa this weekend with some friends. Told them we need to stop at Model Bakery to get those English muffins Oprah Winfrey has shipped to her. It's a variant of focaccia dough, really amazing for cheese toasties!

Yesterday we drove out to the suburbs to shop at the 99 Ranch (Asian supermarket). There is one over here in our county but we like the one out in Concord better. The deli there is superb: they make the best Cantonese roast duck, using Liberty breed ducks. I love using the bones in our soup stock; in a couple of days we'll have duck noodle soup with wontons for dinner, yum.
 

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