City vs Country Decision

[JaneV2.0]

The suburbs I've lived in, like Beaverton, OR, and Bellevue, WA are thriving. But they're mature entities, and not exurbs.

[iris lilies]

In 1967 Felice and Boudleaux Bryant wrote "Rocky Top". They said city life was like being trapped like ducks in a pen.

That is silly, and untrue.

[Gardnr]

Medium college town works for us. We're in a quiet mid-scale subdivision with multiple generations up and down several blocks. We have 3 immediate neighbors who are retired as am I (hubster in a few years) and we're all stayin' for life! Can't buy good neighbors. 6 miles to downtown and most of what we need over the course of a month is just 2 miles away.

[dado potato]

Rocky Top lyrics:

I've had years of cramped-up city life
Trapped like a duck in a pen
All I know is it's a pity life
Can't be simple again.


I believe this really is the way Felice and Beaudleaux Bryant wrote the song.

[Alan]

Rocky Top lyrics:

I've had years of cramped-up city life
Trapped like a duck in a pen
All I know is it's a pity life
Can't be simple again.


I believe this really is the way Felice and Beaudleaux Bryant wrote the song.

This is one of my special needs grandson's favorite songs. He has it on his iPhone and plays it full blast in my truck whenever we're going somewhere. I can attest that's the way the Osborne Brothers sing it.

[catherine]

Speaking of Rocky Top type songs about fleeing city life, my favorite one is Elton John's Goodbye Yellow Brick Road:

So goodbye yellow brick road
Where the dogs of society howl
You can't plant me in your penthouse
I'm going back to my plough
Back to the howling, old owl in the woods
Hunting the horny-back toad
Oh, I've finally decided my future lies
Beyond the yellow brick road

I do agree that social capital is very, very important. We have SO much more here than we did in NJ.

[jp1]

Personally this song suits me better:

When you're alone, and life is making you lonely
You can always go
Downtown
When you've got worries, all the noise and the hurry
Seems to help, I know
Downtown
Just listen to the music of the traffic in the city
Linger on the sidewalk where the neon signs are pretty
How can you lose?

[iris lilies]

Speaking of Rocky Top type songs about fleeing city life, my favorite one is Elton John's Goodbye Yellow Brick Road:

So goodbye yellow brick road
Where the dogs of society howl
You can't plant me in your penthouse
I'm going back to my plough
Back to the howling, old owl in the woods
Hunting the horny-back toad
Oh, I've finally decided my future lies
Beyond the yellow brick road

I do agree that social capital is very, very important. We have SO much more here than we did in NJ.

I’m glad that you’re experiencing that small town/country neighborliness.


We got a little bit of that in Hermann already, and I know we can build a wider social circle if we put a mind to it.The social institutions, and like mindedness, was something I was looking for when we settled on Hermann. A garden club, a historic preservation group, two historical sites, etc—this is the stuff that interests me.

Las for likemindedness—Just for instance—on our block there are at least 4 older houses where people have hired the same contractor to do major expansions to their house. Rather than move away from where they are, they’re spending money to retrofit their house, and that is seldom the smartest economic plan if you’re looking at recovering real estate costs. But that’s what we are doing because we like the location and like Our little old house. Hang the money!!!

Last week I drove through Elsah, Illinois. That is just about the cutest village in the entire state of Illinois. It sits on the Mississippi River. It has stone houses from the 1840s and 50s. It’s the closest thing our area has to a New England Village and it is as cute as many New England villages. Anyway, my heart is with Elsah, Illinois,! But I had to have a big thinK about buying one of those wonderful stone houses because – this is a tiny village of a few hundred people. The social institutions are long and center around the historic architecture and – the Christian science religion. It’s a Christian science community, set up by Christian science, Christian science folks live there, and they work at the College up the hill, Principia College (a Christian Science Institution.)


I can only imagine Elsah s an extremely insular CommuNity, difficult to break into. The other caveat is that weekenders buy houses in Elsah so some are not occupied full time which limits even more neighboring as an activity. But that is true for
hermann as well.

There are not coffee shops let along restaurants, there is a church, a Reading room, and a meeting hall.

In the end, Elsah is TOO twee for me. I am not that much of an introvert. I like to have people around I just don’t want to talk to them ha ha Ha ha ha

[Teacher Terry]

It can take years to build close friendships and it isn’t always easy to find your tribe. We have a lot of close friends here and that’s extremely important.

[Geila]

In the past, I couldn't imagine living anywhere other than the Bay Area. All my family moved out to smaller towns and tried to get me to follow. Nope. Loved it here. Now in my 50's, I'm ready for something small, maybe 100-150k pop. That's my idea of a small town. I could happily retire somewhere like that. Interestingly, the past 4 months have been very easy living in this large city. Everything easy to find and plentiful, medical care when needed, etc. Kind of like it used to be 25-40 years ago. Much less traffic on the roads. Now that we're starting to open up, the congestion is coming back too and it overshadows the benefits. For me anyway. Dh is a big city guy.