vkimo wrote :
My wife is from Pennsylvania. I'm from northern California in one of the wealthiest counties in the US. My family is actually lower middle class though, my folks lucked out on the house when the real estate was still logical. So we're smack dab in yuppie central. The people are uptight, wealthy and drink exotic brew tea. It seemed different when I was a kid, but after spending time on the east coast in a town that never made it out of the 80s I realized how much my hometown changed. I feel comfortable around broke, honest people. I definitely feel out of my element at home, and it sucks. -end quote
That does suck. To return home... that old hometown that you knew and loved, and come to the realization that it just isn't home anymore... that sucks big time. I suppose I have come to a similar realization living here, that I don't fit in with most folks here. But at at the same time, I DO fit in enough for it to feel like home. Despite the fact that my hobbies, my likes and dislikes, are different, my personality and my values very much match that of most folks around here. That hasn't changed, thankfully.
Also, the three county area in which I am currently in the middle of is the poorest section of Ohio. If you're looking for broke people, they don't get any more broke than here.
Ehh... not really. I was born and raised in New York, and when I moved to PA I found myself surrounded by the more country, small town types of people. The area of PA where I am now is far more different from that original area. -end quote
Being born in Mississippi I don't really connect with the Southern culture. I don't really hunt or fish or do outdoorsy stuff like alot of people do down there. I'm just a nerd that likes to read, tinker on computers, listen to unique music, travel when I can, and for some reason feel more comfortable talking to old people rather those my age. I prefer the Virginia area much better than MS.
My background and upbringing is so different from what would pass as typical. There's a bright dividing line in my life from the year 1965. Before 1965 I lived under racial segregation in an all black neighborhood near the Naval Air Station in Norfolk, Va.
And it's my life under segregation that you guys will not believe - it was spectacular!
Black life in Norfolk before 1965 was an amazingly "international" experience with navy kids living all around the world then sharing what they learned with us kids stuck stateside. Food, music, clothes, customs and language. The world was brought to me and my friends in a way that few of you would understand unless you also grew up with navy kids.
Beyond the Navy, Norfolk had strong ties to England, a cultural holdover, believe me. My grandparents like many older adults back then, took tea time very seriously. Many of my best friends had family members with noticeable english accents. We had a black family of redheads up the street from my house and I knew several kids in school with slight blue eyes.
Sundays were always "dress up" days and we were expected to visit around the neighborhood, maintaining "good relations". And every visit my family made back in those days resulted in a game of Croquet or Badminton because all the families had children and huge back yards with swings and slides available. In fact, croquet was always a birthday party favorite and every family had a croquet set, including mine.
Due to Navy influence, the all black school I went to spent lots of time with foreign languages and customs. In 1963 the school put on a play where each grade performed a skit representing a European country. My class reenacted a scene in a german beer hall for Oktoberfest.
All the Navy dads were thrilled to see their kids onstage drinking and singing, (Only water of course).
Ever see a school full of black kids sing "Oh du Lieber Augustin"? I lived it!
After 1965 my city desegregated and my old neighborhood quickly changed, first with the closing of our neighborhood school and then many families moved to be closer to the new mixed-race schools out away from the Naval Air Station.
That strange/wonderful world of my early childhood was disappearing fast, replaced by a more standard kind of lifestyle. If I went into detail of the things I saw and did as a boy, none of you would believe me. That world I experienced as a child was more amazing than many of you would expect given what you all know of racism in the South.
But I want you guys to know that I saw something wonderful, something that shaped the man that I am today.
I do fit in and I don't. And I'm very glad to be here now.
I was born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio (now living right outside in a suburb), and I have never fit in. Most people my age are out drinking and partying, I'm the one sitting inside writing fanfic, playing video games, watching Fantasy Island (so hard when I have no one to talk to about the episodes, my mom's seen them all and doesn't like when I talk about it), or drawing. I also love Star Trek (mostly the reboot, but TOS is good too), and not many people around my area do. (Or I haven't encountered them yet.)
Yes and no. I live in a town that's just normal but certain things do make me feel a little different.
Like around halloween i decorate outside but not many other people on my street do, i think that some people started doing it after i moved to this street. I live on a dead end street so not many people come on halloween and not many people decorate so sometimes i think why even bother putting everything up but i still do because i think it's cool.
And then with music and movies that i like, i sometimes wonder if anyone else on my street or in my town also like it. And i'm not talking about weird, crazy or obscure stuff.
I love my home town, but didnt fit in. Fortunately, there was a good group of us weirdos who stuck together. A lot of them stayed around there, and seem to have accustomed to the life of a town that isn't exactly a suburb full of housing tracts and big box stores, but definitely isn't a city either. Me, I moved to a city and continued being weird.
They got married and have kids and a two story house with vinyl siding and granite countertops. I stayed single (although with my girlfriend for 8 years now) and have an old loft while my girlfriend has an old graystone a block away. Mine is the art and hers is the antique.
They might go to concerts at arenas once a year or two, spending $100 a ticket to see bands we loved in the 90s. I ride my bike every month a mile or two to a small bar and see a slate of current bands for the price of another drink or two, and I'm more likely than not to know people behind the bar or in one of the bands.
I do have one friend back there that didn't, in my eyes, lose what we had in high school. Thank goodness for him.
