Yes, but it’s a large city. Am still hoping I’ll get to live somewhere else for a change. That’s a large part of why I encouraged my children to attend college in a different part of the country - so they wouldn’t feel tied down to living here.
No, don’t live where I grew up and have no desire to ever live there. The best thing I did was go away to college and every time I would come home for break the more I realized how little my home town had to offer. After college I moved South and now live in the Midwest. I am actually going back home in about 3 weeks but I haven’t been back in in about 10 years. I still have good friends and family there but no real reason to go live there.
Yes, though since my hometown is Chicago, you can be pretty far from home and still in town. I consider Hyde Park to be my hometown, and I don’t live there any more, though my parents are still in the home where I grew up.
Interesting replies! I didn’t realize how out-of-the-ordinary it is! I guess economics do play a large part. We are in a northern Connecticut suburb;. back in the day, it was more of a farm town but has evolved over the years. I’m a member of the "you know you’re from " group on Facebook. Many of the people who moved away years ago are very nostalgic - they’d be surprised at how it’s changed (yet some things never change!!)
No and thought about it. Like @eyemamom, I grew up on the Jersey shore, but I don’t think there’s one way to be someone there. Work took us to North Jersey, but now I’m half living at, and eventually will completely live at, the Shore, but at the other end of it (grew up on the northern end, moving to the southern end, because it’s cheaper and less crowded.I really like my old stomping grounds, still.)
@justamom5465 remember that CC is not a representative sample of the US population 
Most people do live close to or in their hometowns:
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/12/24/upshot/24up-family.html
http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/03/staying-close-to-home-no-matter-what/387736/
I not only live in my hometown, but in the house I grew up in (from age 10). We bought it when my widowed mom decided to downsize.
It’s in a Seattle suburb, so we should have trouble selling in the next 5 years or so. I want my next home to be all about me.
Most of the people I work with grew up in the area as well.
No and no. The Madison WI area is great and my suburb was a great place to grow up in, but it is good to have moved to a different area. Decades ago I thought about life there if one was not connected to UW or state government. Many of my HS classmates never left the area and most are within the general area. I eventually went to a different city where I met My Indian H and was there his entire career. A year or so later my sister moved there to the other side of town. So much for having MY town…
My brother raised his family in the hometown and his kids all returned after stints in the military. My sister’s and my kids all ended up OOS, in liberal cities. I look backwards and see how previous generations did not stay put- my parents moved and theirs either moved or were only first/second generation immigrants. No deep roots anywhere!
We retired to Florida (H gets his heat and rain). Will return for 50th reunions (HS and medical schools) but no reasons to visit otherwise. Phone calls to relatives work. Never that close to people in our city or HS classmates. I left my hometown behind. I even had to find my H from far, far away. We have excuses to visit other states to see relatives and they have an excuse to visit Florida in the winter.
My answer is no and yes, if I could afford it. I grew up in NYC. Not Manhatten. But that is where’s I would want to live if I moved back.
I am surprised at the “no and no” answers too. But you are right Romani ( #45) that this s CC. Almost all of the people I know in the town I live in, not associated with the college I work for, are from here. My kids always said that they couldn’t complain about or say anything about someone because they were probably related to the person they were talking to.
D1 ives in Manhatten. I love going down to visit her or babysit my grandcat. I often wonder why I left. But of course I know if I hadn’t, I would wonder if I only had.
The grass is always greener… When you leave you often forget those things that bothered you. Visiting Wisconsin needs to be done in summer- not early May as we did one year. Trees need to be fully leafed out for me. Moving from a small-medium sized city to a metropolis and going back- it only takes x minutes to cross town! But there is no x, y, z… Weather is a trade off. Foliage and wildlife- I miss them but winters aren’t worth it. So many variations across this large country of ours- people and places.
I grew up in north Jersey. It was a nice suburban community where almost all the working parents (mostly dads) commuted to New York to work. The town is now very expensive and financially and socially competitive. I have absolutely no desire to live there. Most of my family still lives in NJ, but have moved to saner areas.
H is from the greater Boston area. His brother lives in the family house and his sister lives about 5 minutes away. No one in the extended family would dream of leaving their hometown. They probably still think its my fault that H & I left the Boston area 30 years ago.
We live in a nice suburban area outside a major city where it seems like many people have lived here for multiple generations. Friendships seems to be divided into 2 groups: the friends-from-birth group and the newcomers (like us, even though we’ve been here 25 years). The newcomers rarely cross over into the natives group. Its a little strange.
No but I have lived in the same city since graduating from college. Still I’m selfishly hopeful that my daughter does not follow in my footsteps and decides to live in her hometown after college.
No, I got an education to get out. I had a near meltdown when my mother suggested I stay in my home town and go to a local university. It is still stuck in the 1970’s with attitudes. Never wished to return.
What I see from this thread is how economic highs and lows have moved about the country during the last 40 years. When I was in high school in the Seattle area there was a bill board asking the last resident moving out to please turn off the lights. It was a very depressed area. I had friends with fathers who had engineering degrees who were working at Sears after being laid off at Boeing. Things quit getting worse, stayed ok, and then the tech boom happened.
Now, the house I grew up in is more expensive than my current much larger house in a different state but comparable school district.
I don’t see many responding No and No who grew up in areas that have retained or regained value.
As I spend my days with families in crisis, I am able to observe the socio eceonomic differences. Blue collar families and some white collar tend to have families in the local area. Or what I consider local area. "Oh, they moved away and live an hour and a half north. " Far for them, near for me. When I talk to a family where someone needs to fly in from Boston or Seattle for the crisis, typically there are advanced or professional degrees involved. Sometimes I wonder if we know what we’ve given up, with all the transitions. The ones who are local know their family members, the college students stop in to visit grandma in the hospital, and there is more than one person supporting in time of need.
Westwood? I attended first grade there, family left SoCal, and have barely been back since. I take it the place has prospered?
When people ask where I’m from, my question in reply is whether they want the short or long version. All family members have been transient, for generations. I have many home towns, in lovely and interesting places. Though I’m glad to have lived in the same essential neighborhood for 32 years.
Westwood has prospered. Nightlife suffered greatly…20years…? ago. There was a gang shoot out and an innocent girls was a victim. Now? Even those little houses south of wilshire start at 1.2
We moved around a lot when I was growing up, but mostly in Calif. I’m not sure where my hometown is. The last time we moved was to a small, agricultural town in So. Calif. when I was in high school. My siblings and I did not like it- it was small and hicky compared to the San Fernando Valley (which was very nice in the 60’s when we lived there), and I got out when I went to college. Eventually, my husband and I moved back to the same county but to a much larger town and much closer to the beach. The weather is perfect here and the town is nice- we will stay here I think. My brother, who was a junior in HS when we moved to the last house, and who absolutely hated it, ended up settling back there permanently.
No, and NO, but my parents did move to my town now from my hometown to be 3 miles from me and I love it.
My hometown is in northern Wisc (touristy area – lakes and trees). I live in the Quad Cities area now.
I miss the beauty of my hometown and the high school sports teams, to which I am fiercely loyal. (I still check the scores of at least the football and basketball teams). I was able to take my wife up there for my 20th HS reunion recently. Turns out plenty of HS friends are still up there, along with many of my friends’ parents and other assorted friends. I really miss them sometimes and hope to make weekend trips back up there now and then.
Yes, and I love it here - close in DC suburbs, Maryland side.
Although it is congested, very expensive and has other issues, I can’t imagine living anywhere else. There is SO much to do here, cultural, outdoor, etc. that we plan on staying here forever. Plus, we are lucky enough to have lots of family here and lifelong friends. In addition, both our kids have voiced their desire to settle here too (they also love it here, although S2 currently lives in a different city) which, if happens, will make us very happy people!