Country or City or somewhere between

[carolina]

Originally Posted by Carolina

It sounds lovely... I always dreamed of living in the country, who knows one day?
My accent gives out where I am from, but just because I am from Brazil and that is one tough accent to hide!

In there, I had no accent, as I am from Brasilia, the capital, a new city in the middle of the country - a big mixture of people from all over - the accents got so diluted, they got lost

I guess I just answered 1/2 of the question

...
I live in the city, about 3 exits from Downtown Dallas... Always lived in the city, Since I was a toddler - before that I lived pretty much in an outside, almost desert beach

My town, even though is close to Downtown, is really fantastic, very quiet quiet neighborhood, very safe, clean and organized, feels like suburbs. My building was built in the 40s, and has a nice feel to it... My neighbors are also very nice, and we all watch out for each other... I really love it here... But I gotta say I do miss my BIG heart city... Los Angeles, which I left behind in '07...

 

[cococat]

Country. I sleep best with the sounds of horses, cows, frogs, coyotes, and other fun country sounds. It is very rare to hear police or ambulance sirens. Wide open land is important for me. The "yard" work never ends.

 

[darkmavis]

I grew up in a city in Pennsylvania, not a huge city, but we weren't in the suburbs. About a mile from the downtown area. My mom still lives there. I moved to Long Beach, CA 3,5 years ago and it's great! BF and I lived in an apartment building on the beach, close to downtown, easy access to everything with buses all over the city, and the train to Los Angeles/Pasadena if we wanted. In August we bought a house, about 5 miles inland. A few weeks after we moved in, we were out riding bikes in the neighborhood and I said "Heh, we live in the suburbs now!" We do! It's weird, it's a bit too quiet, even though we're close to main roads and stuff. 4 short blocks in either direction and you're on a main road and can catch a bus downtown. We're don't have as much bus access here, and of course it takes a lot longer to get where we want to go, but man, living in our house is amazing! We have a beautiful backyard that backs up to a storm channel, with a park on the other side of that. Fruit trees, flowers, birds, cats (Mister...), possums, squirrels.. I still can't sleep very well because instead of the white noise of the ocean and traffic at the apartment, now I hear all sorts of creaks and fridge noises and whatnot.

So, I guess my short answer then is we live in the suburbs but close enough to the city part of the city. I like to be close to stuff. The country is beautiful to visit, but I couldn't live there.

 

[tavia'smom]

Wow, we all come from such varied places. I love hearing about different areas and how different people live and what things we do that is similar. Like here we generally do our grocery shopping for about two weeks and we have two deep freezes although we are debating emptying one but dad is afraid if we do it will ruin. We also have to drive everywhere we go and ther isn't a mass transit system here except for the disabled or the elderly. And the on bad thing is that jobs tend to be scarce here even in good times.

 

[sk_pacer]

Originally Posted by TigerOnTheProwl

If my dream comes true and I can adopt a cougar and maybe a few other exotics, I'll have to. I don't think my neighbors will like a 200 pound cat jumping the fence and walking up to their back door

.

Now, you KNOW there ain't no cougars in Saskatchewan, just as the dingbats at wildlife. They say there ain't, so it must be true despite sightings in Weyburn, Regina, and dozens of small towns. I've even seen one of the non-existant beasties and tracks from another.

Anyways, I live way out in the boonies, close to where the non-existant cougars live. Right now, I wish I lived somewhere without snow - been spending hours every week digging out, and have to again. Regardless, wouldn't have it any other way, cannot stand being cramped like in the city, living one on top the other or crowded with only a few feet from your house to the next one and it takes only one trip to the city to make my snow problems seem minor since most cities have already overrun their snow removal budgets. I also have things that city people do not - can stand outside in spring when seeding starts an smell the raw, fresh, earthy smell of the land when it is worked. I can smell fresh cut hay in summer and the heady scent of harvest dust; cant put a price on any of that. Also the summer birds, more variety than cities......about the only birds I don't welcome are sparrows (do they EVER leave??), rats with wings.....er pigeons and the twice annual shriek fest that is migration of snow geese, probably about the only water fowl that is truly foul in all aspects - it is noisy, messes all over vehicles (arial bombing), destroys crops, fouls water and is totally inedible

 

[mbjerkness]

I live in a small town. The woods are a block away. It is fairly common to have bears, moose and the occasional fox come down the street. I would like to move to the country.

 

[sharky]

Small town( 24000) , no town center as it is a suburb of another small town

... BIG city of half million plus is about 45 minutes and over the river... I live in a sub rural area... ie woods behind me and about a mile away on two other side s and a big river about 8 blocks ( wildlife abounds ) ... I do have a grocery store, pharmacy and a few shops within two miles as the Main road is only about a mile away..

Grew up in a VERY big city , number 9 in the US back when I left at 17.. Moved to a mid size city in the mid west , then a small city( large town) in the west then here...

 

[nurseangel]

I love this thread! It's so interesting hearing about where other TCS members live.

I live on the outskirts of a small town, on an acre lot near the end of a gravel road. We have a long country porch. We are an easy driving distance from three good sized cities, but we have fairly decent shopping and restaurants in our town. I love where I live, and I'm happy here. My second choice would be a very popular nearby lake, but one either has to have owned land there before the price of lake property skyrocketed or have a big bankroll to buy there now.

(I've almost given up on my dreams of Maine, where there is real snow.)

 

[Willowy]

I live in a teeny tiny town of around 2000 people, with an area of approx. 1.8 square miles. OK, that was from the 2000 census but evidently they haven't added up the 2010 census yet. I think there might be more people than that now; they built a new golf course, with the accompanying golf course McMansions, so possibly around 2200 now, maybe. I live right next to the city park.

There isn't much in town, just a small (overpriced) grocery store, a drug store, a Dollar General, and 2 fast food places. And a Post Office of course! (That's where I work) But it's right on the Interstate, only about 25-30 minutes from the largest city in the state (that's not saying much! There are fewer than a million people in the whole state) so I don't mind the lack of local shopping options.

So any direction I go, I end up in the middle of farmland (corn and soybeans) in less than a mile. I saw a deer in my neighbor's yard one night. . .but that's rare. Since it's so easy to stay away from town, most of the wild animals do. I did have a possum eating my cat food once, but that's about it.

I like living in the small town atmosphere but with the "big city" easily accessible. Best of both worlds. And since this town is really a bedroom community for the city, I'm able to avoid a lot of the tiny town problems that happen when everyone works together, like in most of the tiny towns in the area.