Spendius, are you ashamed of your county?
I remember a similar question was asked about thirty or forty years ago, and the investigative report claimed that most people eventually returned to their home town to die. With the mobility of the American family since then probably changed that dynamic, but I wonder what percentage of people today return to their home towns in old age?
Lola wrote:I hope you have a nice garden there in Edmond, Lady J, and enjoy the rural life. My father went to school in Edmond many years ago. It's a suburb now of OK city isn't it?
Edmond is lovely! Actually all that I have seen of Oklahoma so far has far exceeded my expectations.
And yes, Edmond is now a suburb of OKC. Can't tell where one ends and the other begins. Funny you should mention gardens...I am SO looking forward to a real garden there!
Thank you so much, Lola.
cicerone imposter wrote:I remember a similar question was asked about thirty or forty years ago, and the investigative report claimed that most people eventually returned to their home town to die. With the mobility of the American family since then probably changed that dynamic, but I wonder what percentage of people today return to their home towns in old age?
I will not return. And I know that parents will not return to theirs either. If we accept that "home town" means the place of our birth. We have all be too long gone from our "home towns" to really consider them home anymore.
Nature has a habit of implanting in the deepest repositories of your being, a sacred and indissoluble attachment, to that country you owe your infant birth and nurture.
I'll agree with that, most definitely. Born and raised in the US of A and that is indeed where my ashes will remain after I die. Unless of course my kids decide to take them elsewhere and if that's the case, how the heck would I know anyway?
Mathos, I believe you answered my question. Since the great mobility era in the 70s and 80s, "home town" doesn't have the same sentiment it once did when most people lived, married and died in their birth place. That mobility trend became evident in California when the high tech industry emerged in what was essentially farm country in Northern California. Today, my immediate neighbors are from the UK and Hawaii. We're one of the last one's left on this street from the early 70s.
My home is wherever the center of my soul feels at peace. It could be anywhere. My truest self is a nomad.
I prolly have a touch of that nomad blood in me too! That's the reason I love travel.
cicerone imposter wrote:Mathos, I believe you answered my question. Since the great mobility era in the 70s and 80s, "home town" doesn't have the same sentiment it once did when most people lived, married and died in their birth place. That mobility trend became evident in California when the high tech industry emerged in what was essentially farm country in Northern California. Today, my immediate neighbors are from the UK and Hawaii. We're one of the last one's left on this street from the early 70s.
I think the ease of fast travel has contributed as well. Memebers of my immediate family live all over the US and Canada. And I see them all regularly.....plus the internt and cell phone.....when I'm not with them in person, I'm in touch every several days. Oregon, North Carolina, Texas, New York, Alaska.........
North to Alaska where the.....couldn't resist that Lola. CI, Syn, & Lady Jane, (that's an interesting and tantrum backed up handle LJ.)
What were we discussing, Yes as infrastructure and modes of travel in general have exploded with such magnitude over the last fifty years or so especially, everything has changed. At one time you married the girl/boy from the same village, hamlet, town etc. your family or somebody they knew well would know the background etc of your intended beau.. A little like an arranged marriage so to speak. The travel expansion and planet earth shrinkage combined, now lead to much different horisons. Lola having rendered perfect examples. I think you are aware my wife is of American descent. Now when I met her she was living in England with her grandfather, a fine specimen of a man, who carried a shillelagh and actually beat the bonnet of my car with it, on our second date, when I took her home 15 minutes late. He also narrowly missed my skull one time (that's another story, remind me in the future)
He did not care for his innocent sweet and beautiful 17 year old granddaughter going out with a flash leather jacket wearing, city originated clever clogs like me. I grew to love the old iron head though and he lived with us from some five months after our wedding, until he passed away eleven years later. He was 84 years old, and had raised my wife virtually from birth, and maintained and looked after her even after his own wife died , my wife being 11 years of age when that happened. I have to admit the protection he afforded her gave me cause for concern at first, but as I realised the hell he had been through to raise her, his love for her was beyond explanation, I held him in extremely high estimation, and still think of him with a great deal of warmth. So my explanation is formidable, but look how easy it is today to marry somebody from anywhere on the planet, they even have mail order brides.
Synonymph wrote:My home is wherever the center of my soul feels at peace. It could be anywhere. My truest self is a nomad.
I totally agree Synonymph - although I think I've finally found someplace I feel truly at home and would like to settle in at least for a while. When I saw the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina - I felt an instant and very strong sense of recognition - though I had never been there before. It felt like my spirit's true home. I would have stayed there, but circumstances conspired to make me leave - and I've never been able to get back there to live again - although if I do go back to live in the US - that is where I'll live - in the benevolent shadow of those beautiful blue mountains.
I felt the same when I came to England. Although this is not the country of my birth - I believe it is encoded in my DNA somewhere - the British Isles are the home of my ancestors. Again, I felt instantly at home and familiar here though I've never been here before.
It reminds me of a song by Karla Bonoff I've always loved:
"And home sings me of sweet things,
My life there has its own wings
to fly over the mountains -
though I'm standing still".
Perhaps Aidan, there is reason as yet unknown for your arrival on these shores.
Perhaps Aidan, there is reason as yet unknown for your arrival on these shores.
Perhaps Aidan, there is reason as yet unknown for your arrival on these shores.
Yes Mathos - perhaps there is.
perhaps there is.
perhaps there is.
Quote:North to Alaska where the.....couldn't resist that Lola.
Where the river is winding,
Big nuggets they're finding?
Why couldn't you resist that?
aiden, I've been to chimney rock park in north carolina when my nephew got married. the views are spectacular from there, and The Last of the Mohicans was filmed there.
And I am
still planing on going there sometime, c.i. We spoke of that place a long time ago...and you mentioned you had been there. It's not in the National Parks Registry, but it is a State Park and one I can hardly wait to visit! Thank you for the reminder, c.i.
You are welcome, Lady J. I hope you can visit soon.
