Why do you live there?

A

akivory

Joined
Feb 5, 2001
Messages
808
After a very cold dark January I cannot help but ask why I live in the interior of Alaska.I hitchhiked to Alaska from Prescott Arizona 35 years ago when I was 17 and returned almost every summer fighting forest fires through the
70s.I brought my young pregnant bride north to my remote fire guard station almost 26 years ago in 1980.Do to complications with the pregnancy we had to leave my job and ended up here in Fairbanks.
There are many reasons we stay but the most important to me is family and the people we know.We now have four daughters 7 grandchildren and two foster daughters that have been with us for a year and a half.
There are also about 15 family members that now live here and all our friends.
In a few weeks my favorite time of year will start.the days are getting longer
and for two months the conditions will be perfect for snow machining,ice fishing. skiing,dog mushing and ice carving.After about month of break up our glorious summer start.That is topped of with September that in a perfect world that did not include work would be spent floating one of the hundreds of rivers hunting moose or some other large critter.I guess we will have to stay another year. What keeps you where you live?
 
What keeps you where you live?
Click to expand...

Primary reason, the weather; it's nothing like Alaska! :D

But we do have abundant wildlife, mountain scenery (also deserts, canyons, and grasslands), a sufficient amount of public land, and lonely highways.

Best Wishes,
Bob
 
The huge amount of money I owe on my business loan for my clinic. Most of my wife's family lives within 1-2 minute drive. My Dad still lives with the step-beast in the house I grew up in not too far away. My favorite mexican food place is within walking distance from my house. That's about it.
 
Force of habit and family.

I was born and raised in Maryland, and when I was given my medical discharge because of service injuries, I was sent to Walter Reed Army medical center for rehab. Right back down the road where I started from.

But after a life of raising three kids, and now they have kids of their own, I think the political climate of Maryland is going to be making us move in the future. I love my home state, as it has a bit of everything. Close to the mountains and A.T. but close to the salt water where I was raised. Having been raised on the Chesapeake Bay I can't get too far inland before I start feeling a bit lonely for the sound of a sea gull. And in summer time I would miss the crab feasts. You'd think after working every summer on the familys crab boats I would'nt want to bother, but I guess it's a social occasion thing, like a barbacue. Maryland is a water state, with bays and rivers for us to explore and fish in.

Then theres the close location to Washington D.C. We love going downtown to the Smithsonian when they get traveling exibits from some of the museums overseas, and likewise for the National Gallery of Art just across the mall from the Smithsonian. We've loved plays at the Kennedy Center For the Preforming Arts.

Karen and I are seriously looking now at a place in South Carolina near Hilton Head called Sun City. The milder winters of the south are attractive to us, as is the fact that S.C. is a carry state, and we like that idea. And it's on the water and we both like that. Karen grew up on the Gulf Coast of Texas and she wants to be on the water as bad as I do.

Maryland has been good to us, but now that we both are retired it may be time to move on south.
 
I choose to live here in the Portland, Oregon area as a self-sacrificing act of charity. By living in this horrible place, I volunteer to free up a spot in some more desirable place for someone more deserving than me.
 
Gollnick said:
I choose to live here in the Portland, Oregon area as a self-sacrificing act of charity. By living in this horrible place, I volunteer to free up a spot in some more desirable place for someone more deserving than me.
Click to expand...

That's what I like about Gollnick... his altruism...
 
I'm a California native with no desire to leave. The thought of living somewhere else actually makes me a bit uncomfortable. And then there's stuff like this:

hwy7017av.jpg
 
I've been booted out of 49 other states, all the English-speaking countries (and several Spanish speaking ones) on God's green Earth, as well as several other planets. Nevada's the only place that'll have me......at least until the gaming commission hunts me down and blacklists me. :D

Job actually brought me back here but I love getting out of Las Vegas for camping, fishing, four-wheelin', exploring ghost towns, rock climbing, disturbing the nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain, and occasionally going to Pioche to harass the citizenry and try making knives at Art's place without killing myself, Art, or any of his dogs or tools. There's a lot more to Nevada than gambling your life-savings away in Vegas, Reno, or Tahoe.
 
Great thread topic. Well, I live on the Cape, because that is where I choose to live. I had a job where I moved every 13 weeks, and did this for 4 years; the purpose was to determine where in the country I wanted to live. (And make money.) I fell in love with the Cape. I LOVE trees (if we didn't live here, I would live in NH.) AND the ocean. The Cape is a very special place to live!!
 
I like looking out the window and watching these guys all year.

pc0900067cz.jpg


That and the fact that I have too much junk in the basement, garage and outbuildings to move.:D
 
I have honest to God no idea why I stay here...

17 years ago I moved here for a Job ( Lansing Mi area) a year later I left that job and took a regional sales rep position and have been doing that ever since so the area is centrally located.

But Lansing is a dirty dreary shitty town. The people here are either Government snobs or Auto workers. Both parties hate each other. My Oldest son is hooked into a traveling choir and a Autistic links group at school which my wife and I started. If it was not for my kids I would be long gone. After 17 years we have no friends in the city, The phone never rings. No one invites us over to super bowl parties, New years eve parties, We could leave tomorrow and no one would miss us. Its kind of sad.

Its partially because I believe in spite of all the civil rights training and education that people have been given people are turned off by my son. Autistic people have strange mannerisms. Rednecks and Snobs are equally threatened by this.They are frightened by the "retard" and although they never would admit it..we know this is the case. We have heard of events at my wifes work etc. where every one has attend but we were never invited. This has hurt my wife very deeply.

You can forget clubs and churches for social interaction too. It just does not happen in this town. People take one look at us and my son and they put up their walls. After 16 years I know the look. Screw them.

So at the penning of this post I have six years, ten months, 22 days, 10 hours, 55 minutes, and 25 seconds till I can move away from this fucked up shitty mean spirited shit hole of a town.

My home town and my best friends in life are actually here on BFC. I wish I could see you guys more often.

anyway not looking for pity..its just the way it is. I accept it and grow where you are planted. I put my investment in my kids and my wife. Those are the relationships that will last forever..

As far as Lansing Michigan goes...Fuck this place...
 
The wife's job, otherwise I'd move back to the midwest and buy a diesel pickup.
 
Good question. Although I live in a very nice area of Long Island N.Y. in a great development it's not for me. I would love to live in the country but I realize that can never happen. I live here because my 4 children and 2 grandchildren live around here. There is nothing more important to me than my family. I am 56 yrs old and have 2 grandchildren. Luckily I am able to enjoy them at my age. I never thought I would make it to this age and I still can't figure out why I am still around. My closet friends are gone for one reason or another and I am still here. I will enjoy my remaining time with my family and cherish every moment. That's why I stay here.
 
In sunny San Diego for the last 20 years. Came here as an economic refugee from Portland Oregon. Wife has family in town and the jobs have been very good to us. I love Oregon but I'm here for the career. BTW - it's 77 degrees bright and sunny - maybe another reason. :D
 
My family and my horses.

I used to live in New Orleans, and I absolutely loved it, but I'm not going back there..
 
I live in MA--and am definately NOT an East Coast person.
(tho my wife is...) we may be moving soon... I hope.

The ONLY reason that we are here now is because of my job,
which gives me opportunities available in few other places on Earth.
 
My job and my wifes keep us in S. Fla. That's it. We can count on being ground zero for at least a couple of hurricanes every year for at least the next decade. The traffic is terrible, and it has turned into a concrete jungle everwhere. My P.D. can't recruit anyone to work for us because no one can afford the price of housing anymore. 4 1/2 more years and we are off to TN. if mother nature does not take us out first.
The only thing I am going to miss is the Cuban food.
 
I just recently moved back to the Eastern Shore of Va from Richmond, more out of financial reasons than anything. I'm finding that I missed this place more than I thought. There are no Walmarts (yet). If there is traffic on the highway, I can take Rt 600 and enjoy the scenery. 90% of the people you pass on the road will wave to you, whether they know you or not. Though I certainly miss the convenience of the city, I don't miss the crowds, or the noise, or the traffic. In the summer, I'm no more than 20 minutes away from a beach.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top