What did you like / dislike about where you grew up?

Bretrick

Bretrick

Well-known Member
Location
Perth Western Australia
I loved being surrounded by bush, and mountains to climb.
I loved being so close to magnificent rivers.
I loved going fishing every weekend.
I disliked living in a small town where everyone knew your business.
Where all the adults told the youth what to do as if they were their parents.
Adults going tut-tut, all the time, saying, "I told you so"
 

LOL - My family was rather poor when I was 3 or 4. We lived in a run-down apartment somewhere in downtown L.A. I loved it because it came with its own pets - rats.
I'd sit on the floor in the dining room & share my lunch with 4 rats that sat in my lap & let me pet them. They showed up every day at the same time.
In fact, I told my mom "Let's never move from here; I love this place."
She'd say, "What do you mean; this is a dump."
When I told her about my "pets," her eyes got huge & she said "You're CRAZY!"
 
My home town: From the perspective of 2021, education, intelligence and science were respected.
I only realized when I got much older how comparatively diverse it was., ethnically, due to a number of WW 2 refugees , other races, diverse religions, living mostly in harmony.an urban capital city but with agriculture, lake and mountain resorts, and some industry.
Respect for others, but willing to state one’s position.
I just took for granted that life was like that, and in many places it turned out not to be. But,
For a woman in my generation, that background made me usually feel well equipped to handle whatever came along.
 

I grew up in southern Wisconsin. Enjoyed it for the most part. Great people, and loved living in the country as a kid. When I got back back from overseas, John Denver got me interested in Colorado. Went and took a look, and never looked back. Had to go back to WI to handle two family estates a few years ago, and it was a far cry from what I remembered as a kid. Everything was built up to the point it was unrecognizable. Hard drug use was rampant (spent six months getting my last surviving nephew off of heroin), and what had been a fairly liberal environment, seems to have morphed into something from Animal Farm. That, and the weather. Hot and humid in the summer, mosquito's, and cold and grey in the winter. Still some great folks there, and parts of the state are beautiful, but couldn't wait to get back home. Mike
 
Even though I lived in the city, I had to walk almost a half mile to school and home each day. Going was ok as it was all down hill but coming home laden with books uphill was torture. Those city blocks are very long ones, believe me.
 
For the most part, I liked the places I lived when I was growing up. But I really missed my grandmother and aunts, uncles and cousins when my parents moved us to FL from NY. FL was wonderful and so much to do. But so was NY and that is where my heart stayed even though I was almost 10 when we moved to FL.
 
Bretrick said:
I loved being surrounded by bush, and mountains to climb.
I loved being so close to magnificent rivers.
I loved going fishing every weekend.
I disliked living in a small town where everyone knew your business.
Where all the adults told the youth what to do as if they were their parents.
Adults going tut-tut, all the time, saying, "I told you so"
Click to expand...
Very much the same. Not exactly Bush, mountains and rivers, but sea and countryside.
For the dislikes, I would especially add the influence / interference of the (largely Presbyterian) church.
 
win231 said:
LOL - My family was rather poor when I was 3 or 4. We lived in a run-down apartment somewhere in downtown L.A. I loved it because it came with its own pets - rats.
I'd sit on the floor in the dining room & share my lunch with 4 rats that sat in my lap & let me pet them. They showed up every day at the same time.
In fact, I told my mom "Let's never move from here; I love this place."
She'd say, "What do you mean; this is a dump."
When I told her about my "pets," her eyes got huge & she said "You're CRAZY!"
Click to expand...
...and she was right..... :sneaky::ROFLMAO:
 
My original hometown was, in my opinion, ideal.

When we moved to a different area, everything was different, and I never really fit in.

While they were both good places, good people, mostly safe, I learned something in my second environment: although there are some things that are wrong, in most cases differences are nothing more than differences, and something/someone being/doing different doesn't necessarily make it/them wrong, bad, weird, etc.
And looking back, with only one exception everyone around had that same viewpoint.

Since then, I've been all over the U.S., and it wasn't til the last couple of decades or so that I began encountering quantities of individuals who do not see it that way.
 
I grew up in the city.. I loved the city , lots of friends, loads of places to play or go to as I got older and in my teens, dancing, roller disco... and even huge city parks and boating lakes on summer afternoons. I still love the city, I love the vibrancy ... but now after living over 40 years in the countryside I love this more... just sad there's nothing to do , and if you cough everyone knows how many times

What I hated about where I grew up was living in the best part of the city... in the nicest house, and not being able to bring friends home because our family was dirt poor, and pretending they weren't.......living beyond their means, paying for a home they couldn't afford with so many kids .. so we had no carpets on the floors.. some rooms had lino some only bare wood.. we had no sheets on our beds and our blankets were old army coats...and we very rarely got toys.. just a token cheap thing at Christmas which would break within minutes of play .. so we had to always go and play at our friend's homes instead..

ETA I also forgot to mention that we moved house many times albeit in the same -ish area..
 
hollydolly said:
I grew up in the city.. I loved the city , lots of friends, loads of places to play or go to as I got older and in my teens, dancing, roller disco... and even huge city parks and boating lakes on summer afternoons. I still love the city, I love the vibrancy ... but now after living over 40 years in the countryside I love this more... just sad there's nothing to do , and if you cough everyone knows how many times

What I hated about where I grew up was living in the best part of the city... in the nicest house, and not being able to bring friends home because our family was dirt poor, and pretending they weren't.......living beyond their means, paying for a home they couldn't afford with so many kids .. so we had no carpets on the floors.. some rooms had lino some only bare wood.. we had no sheets on our beds and our blankets were old army coats...and we very rarely got toys.. just a token cheap thing at Christmas which would break within minutes of play .. so we had to always go and play at our friend's homes instead..

ETA I also forgot to mention that we moved house many times albeit in the same -ish area..
Click to expand...
@hollydolly - We also didn't have blankets when I was very small. My 2 older sisters and I, slept on a pull-out chesterfield bed .. with all the winter coats piled on us. We also never got toys, maybe a piece of clothing. However, we always had a Xmas tree. That was plenty enough for me.
 
Pinky said:
@hollydolly - We also didn't have blankets when I was very small. My 2 older sisters and I, slept on a pull-out chesterfield bed .. with all the winter coats piled on us. We also never got toys, maybe a piece of clothing. However, we always had a Xmas tree. That was plenty enough for me.
Click to expand...
we didn't have a Xmas tree.....I'm sorry you had a very poor upbringing too Pinks.. but you had a happy one, which is what's important.. sadly as you know I didn't...
 
hollydolly said:
I grew up in the city.. I loved the city , lots of friends, loads of places to play or go to as I got older and in my teens, dancing, roller disco... and even huge city parks and boating lakes on summer afternoons. I still love the city, I love the vibrancy ... but now after living over 40 years in the countryside I love this more... just sad there's nothing to do , and if you cough everyone knows how many times

What I hated about where I grew up was living in the best part of the city... in the nicest house, and not being able to bring friends home because our family was dirt poor, and pretending they weren't.......living beyond their means, paying for a home they couldn't afford with so many kids .. so we had no carpets on the floors.. some rooms had lino some only bare wood.. we had no sheets on our beds and our blankets were old army coats...and we very rarely got toys.. just a token cheap thing at Christmas which would break within minutes of play .. so we had to always go and play at our friend's homes instead..

ETA I also forgot to mention that we moved house many times albeit in the same -ish area..
Click to expand...
Same here mostly. I could never figure out why my dad worked at the same kind of job--defense contracting/cold war industry--that the other kids dads did and they lived in nice houses, their moms didn't have to work outside the home, there was money for new school clothes/supplies every year, but in my family, none of that, cars being repossessed, etc. Finally one day, my sister said to me, "You really can't figure it out?! It's because Dad keeps giving money to all his girlfriends on the side!"
 
hollydolly said:
we didn't have a Xmas tree.....I'm sorry you had a very poor upbringing too Pinks.. but you had a happy one, which is what's important.. sadly as you know I didn't...
Click to expand...
@hollydolly .. Unfortunately, it wasn't a happy childhood, Hols .. but, there are rare good moments I try to remember. It makes life better that way. Mom, who we adored, helped.

It seems you have become a strong person, despite all the adversity you've been through. I admire you for that.

Yes, I made sure our daughter was acknowledged in every way, without spoiling .. she did get a lot of presents :)
 
Pinky said:
@JaniceM .. thank you for the kind words. When one is a child, they usually don't have a lot of expectations. Christmas was still magical, despite the lack of presents.
Click to expand...
it's funny now thinking back... I wonder why we were encouraged to write letters to Santa, asking for gifts when my parents knew we were never going to get them.. we were always so excited to wake on Chritmasmorning, and at the bottom of our beds we'd have an orange, some sweets, and a small toy... I remember one year my brother got a bike.. a whole brand new bike, none of the rest of us ever did.. and I have no idea why he got one... but yet another weird thing that happened in my childhood..
 
Where I grew up was Miles City, Montana. The authentic cow town of the West!
The Yellowstone River (MY River) was what I loved the most! I spent every day I possibly could at the river or climbing the hills. Loved the Cottonwood trees, the thunderstorms,( which would come up in a moment) the colors in the skies.
the rodeos, parades, the lights downtown at Christmas, the smells of homemade soups at the restaurants, the wheat fields and cow manure,
and when I turned 15, the cutest BOYS!

Your question took me back to childhood momentarily on a nostalgic ride. I really loved being alive, waking up every morning wondering what wonderful things were going to happen that day!
 

You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top