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Do you ever miss your hometown?

German Hops

GAF's Nicest Lunch Thief
I'm grew up in a suburb of Boston, but I currently live out west in Texas. I love living over here, but I often find myself truly missing the place I grew up. Admittedly, Boston is one of my favorite cities in the world, but I'm not from the city itself, but a smaller suburb about 25 miles away.
Sometimes I miss the accents, lobster rolls, baked beans, and even the all too rude Boston sports fans..

Only my mother and a couple friends still live in the town and I wonder if she decided to move away, would I still miss it?
Sure, I love going back to see where I went to high school or where I hit my first homerun (both places have been torn town) or where I had my first kiss.

But if I lost that my emotional connection to that town (my mom), would I miss it? I really don't know. What about you?
 

jshackles

Gentlemen, we can rebuild it. We have the capability to make the world's first enhanced store. Steam will be that store. Better than it was before.
I've been gone so long that the last time I was there, I hardly recognized the place...

I miss my hometown but I can't ever go back, not really.

EDIT: not just being philosophical here, my home town was ravaged by a massive tornado in 2011 and has mostly been built again from the ground up since.
 
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OneMoreDay

Neo Member
Not really, no. I guess I was too much of a nerd, even back then. As a kid you mostly found me in front of a screen, I never really connected with my town. It has also grown immensely since then (the population has almost tripled in 20 years), so much has changed.
 

Relativ9

Member
I grew up in Narvik and Svolvær (split parents) in the north of Norway, I spent a few years in Dublin where I met my wife and now we live in Romania (Cluj). It's pretty much as different to my home as it can possibly get without leaving Europe.

I do really miss it sometimes, not so much Narvik cause it's kind of a shithole, but my friends from there which I still keep in almost daily touch with (gaming). It's more Lofoten and the beautiful nature and culture of Norway I miss. Romania gets a bad rap but it's actually got some great qualities, but man, Norway is just something else...to me at least.

I miss going hiking/camping in the mountains so much, we have beutiful mountains here too, but there's not really any right to roam so it's a bit sketchy.
 
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Fbh

Member
Nah

Grew up in a big city, now I live in a mid sized town at the end of the world.
Sometimes I miss some of the commodities of a bigger city, you know like more events, concerts, restaurants, stores, supermarkets with more varied products, etc.

But I feel no particular fondness for the place and I'd never move back. It was way too overcrowded and too crime infested back then, and in the past 10 years it has only gotten worse.
 
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p_xavier

Authorized Fister
Yes I did. I lived in 3000 people town. Went to live the city life for twenty years, loft, designer clothes, fancy car, high roller. COVID being a thing, left to live in a rural town. Traded Prada for John Deer. I like John Deer more. I now live in a 3200 people town.
 
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Went back after 10 years and it just gets depressing after 20 minutes driving around. Wonder how people chose to stay for so long (small town middle of nowhere).
 

Aesius

Member
I moved away for 15 years and didn't really miss it. But after having a kid, I wanted to be closer to family, so my wife and I moved to the nearest "big" city. We are only 35ish minutes away from it but at this point I want to just move back for real. I don't like the idea of raising my son in this city. There are basically 3 decent school districts and the rest are shit. And it's expensive to live in an area with a decent school district. In my hometown, all the schools are pretty good. it doesn't really matter where you live. There's also very little crime. Small to mid-size cities are so much better for raising kids IMO. I'm over the whole "hipster coffee shop and overpriced hipster restaurants/bars" thing. I don't give a shit about that stuff anymore. Give me chain restaurants and suburbia and peace of mind.
 

haxan7

Volunteered as Tribute
I miss the peace of living in a tiny town in the middle of nowhere. Ideally I'd own a place in a tiny town and a more urban area with all the shit I want to do near me and just swap my time between them.
 

AJUMP23

Member
I have lived all over so I don’t know if I have a hometown. My younger years in central Florida were a lot of fun to me. It would be fun to go back there.
 

nush

Gold Member
Not a bit, it was a small town and growing up it was a good test bed for life skills good community and walkable.
 

TylerD

Member
I grew up 3 miles outside of a town of with a population of ~7000. I enjoyed where I grew up but once I left and moved for school to a place with ~90K population (120 with university) and in a larger metro area I was done with small town living. I don't ever want to live in a small town again unless it's a resort place like Telluride or something like that but I could see myself retiring to somewhere outside of one of the bigger cities in eastern Tennessee possibly.
 

Rival

Gold Member
I grew up in a really small town but moved away in high school. I don’t miss the town so much as the idea of being a kid there without a care in the world.
 

Tschumi

Member
Actually yes. I've lived all over the world in some pretty great cities but i still look at Canberra, Australia as a place of wonderful nature, a laid back feel, and some pretty great architecture.. my family always lived around Yarralumla, red Hill, forest kinda suburbs though, don't think I'd feel quite the same if i came from the ass end of beyond, edge of the sprawl areas like tuggers or something
 

BadBurger

Is 'That Pure Potato'
Obligatory



I am pretty close to my hometown, but I do not miss it. It's part slum, part lower class suburbs, with a downtown that is actually pretty nice but always clogged with traffic.
 

Yoshi

Headmaster of Console Warrior Jugendstrafanstalt
Yes, when I want to eat greek food or pizza. I haven't found a greek restaurant or pizza shop quite as good as my favourites in my home town.
 

gimmmick

Member
Aside from my friends / family back home, i honesty don’t care about visiting the east bay.

Union City is just so boring. Great place to raise kids but Jesus Christ there is nothing there but over priced houses and terrible fast casual dining spots. The only thing that kept me visiting was attending raider games. Now the raiders play in the city I live in (Las Vegas). Only a matter of time till my favorite baseball puts up shop here too (A’s).
 
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Star-Lord

Member
No. When I was growing up, where I lived was a small back-country kind of town with a small(ish) population of roughly 6000 people. Since then, it's developed into a large tourist town with a population of 20,000. I visited there a couple of years back, and I hated it. I'm much happier where I am now. I miss the town as it was.
 

farmerboy

Member
Still live where I was born. Only ever lived in 3 houses, all within 5km of each other.

And I love it. The family has been in this town since 1955, and when you bed down your roots it gives a sense of stability thats hard to match. The only thing I dislike, is that as the town grows over time, it becomes less like the town of my childhood. But it is what it is.
 

kittoo

Cretinously credulous
I spent my childhood in the middle of nowhere. I don't mean a town middle of nowhere, but rather a home literally in the middle of nowhere. We had only 4 total families nearby, each around ~200 meters apart from each other. Nothing else all around. Just plains almost as far as the eyes could see. Nothing would happen all day. Silence, peace and calm in the day, eerie scary dark at night.
We had a TV, but only 2 channels I recall. Mom and dad would go to work so I usually spent my days roaming around alone- creating my own games, talking to myself, watching one of those 2 channels. The only other person during the daytime was a housewife in another house. I have very fond memories of talking with her for hours, she taking care of me like her own son- feeding me, letting me play with toys of her daughters etc.

We were kings. Everything all around us was ours. We could roam anywhere and play anywhere. Another set of fond memories I have is with an elder girl who lived nearby. I considered her my sister and we would go on long walks in those plains- talking about life, movies, girlfriends, games and what not.

So yeah, I miss that. I went back recently and everything is changed. There are houses now everywhere, the plains and beauty is gone, the tranquility is gone and even some people are gone (the housewife I mentioned above, she passed away of cancer a couple of years back). But as soon as I entered my home, the outside faded away and memories rushed in. Every corner of the house had a story to tell. Its a rush, nostalgia and deep ache in heart that is hard to describe. My time there is something I will always cherish and miss. Those were the best days of my life.
 
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Kaachan

Member
Not really since my family was going through hard times, but I occasionally think about and miss friends I had there as a kid
 

Vagswarm

Member
Not at all. I much prefer living in a bigger city over the small town... And although a lot of things have since changed as far as personal development, I didn't have fond memories of the situations and people I was involved in back then.

(Still go back to visit family though.)
 
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xrnzaaas

Gold Member
I never left!

kill me now.
I never left... and I love it. There was a time when I wanted to live in a bigger city (mine is ~200k), after that for a short while I wanted to live somewhere outside the city for more peace & quiet, but eventually I figured out I like where I am. It's not as hardcore as big cities, but it's busy enough for me to be comfortable living among other people.
 
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I’m from a small village, but moved when I was very young, to a small city/town in northern Sweden. There I lived until I moved from home. My family still lives there and I visit a couple of times a year. In a way I still miss the town, mostly the nature. But I would never move back, I moved to southern Sweden for a reason 😂 It’s nice tho have family there so I can visit and see all the places I used to go as a kind an teenager. But I don’t think I would ever visit if my family moved.
 

DKehoe

Gold Member
Not really. It's a small town without much going on. I go back to visit family pretty regularly so it's not like I'm ever away from it for that long. It's not a terrible place but I can't see myself ever moving back there.
 

DeafTourette

Perpetually Offended
I miss it only because of my family, my mom's house, my cousins and uncle and aunt (I have more but they aren't in Mississippi). Looking back at where I went to school (I have mostly bad memories but some good ones)... Where my grandparents lived (their house isn't there anymore)... I have a lot of good memories that are mostly because of family. If they all moved from there, I wouldn't miss the town at all.
 

Amory

Member
my parents still live in my hometown, and actually still live in the same house.

I'd never want to live there as an adult but it's nice to "go home" a few times a year. i do think I'd miss it if they moved away and I had no reason to go back.
 

Mossybrew

Member
Yep, hometown is San Diego, now live up in the PNW. Miss the endless sunshine, the beaches, the proper Mexican food. Don't miss the death weather heat during the Summer, the traffic and massive overcrowding of So Cal in general.
 

lachesis

Member
I've been moving around quite a bit, so to be honest - I have no place that I can really call hometown for my soul.

If I recall the neighborhood that I grew up in Asia and remember the most fondly in my childhood is from 6-10 years old. Late 70s to early 80s.
I did revisit that place when I visited my home country back in mid-late 90s. In short 10+ years period, that place has gone thru so much change, I felt almost gutted... that quaint neighborhood's small road was widened (by cutting into the yard that I used to play when I lived there) into half, full of fake old cafe's that's never been there but tout as if it's been there for ages - basically a cheap tourist attraction.

My retired parents are living in a different town, so when I visit there... I don't know a thing nor feel like I'm at home tbh.

Within U.S... I do miss Iowa where I spent my high school and college days, about 6 years. However, being an Asian, I never really felt I fit in, especially living by myself away from my own family - but people were welcoming and nice back there, unlike rude and indifferent ones in NE. It was more of me not being able feel at home... but Iowa is certainly one of possible retirement place that I'm thinking now. Hot summer and cold winter is one thing, but I am however a bit scared of tornado - so maybe, maybe not.

I've lived in NY/NJ area for over 20 years now - the town that I'm living in NJ Bergen county being the longest for about 10 years. It's very safe suburban neighborhood and my house being in the cul-de-sac, away from the main roads - it's exceptionally quiet and all - just the way I like it. Very good schools for my child and all - however property tax being so high - I can't really justify staying here for my retirement either. But since I'm so used to living in NY/NJ - when I come back from my Asia visit, where everyone's super friendly (at least in service) & met with sheer brutal rudeness of JFK airport personnel - with their unfriendly, rude voice tone - I go like "Hmmm... I'm back home." ;)
 

NahaNago

Member
Yeah , I miss it. If it was easy enough to live there I would but it is in another country and the visa situation is complicated. My family moved away from there but I would still love to live there.
 
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