What city/town/place where you born in?

[mvd]

For me, it's Washington D.C.

[flamingyouth]

1. Seattle

[graywarrior]

220. Lynn MA

[arcane1]

2. Richmond, VA

[CBGLuthier]

3. Hamilton Ohio

[eoberhauser]

217. Hamilton!

I guess they dropped the exclamation point now? I used to live in Hamilton, went to school at Talawanda.

Erin

[BlueJazz]

4. Sydney, Australia

Mate :)

[Beaverhausen]

5. Pittsburgh, PA

[Richardo]

6. Downriver in East Rochester, PA

:hi:

[Allenberg]

91. Another native Pittsburgher here.

born at AGH.

[Beware the Beast Man]

120. Sewickley, PA- Sewickley Valley Hospital

:hi: Yinz guys!

[AlCzervik]

7. Boston Massachusetts

[lpbk2713]

143. Boston also.

Haven't been there in 30 years though.

[Reverend_Smitty]

8. Trenton NJ

n/t

[SoCalDem]

9. Smoky Hill AFB.. Salina Kansas

The spot where the hospital was became a baseball diamond when the base was renamed Schilling AFB, and when the base closed, the land became part of the Beech aircraft facility..

I cost $12.00...and my mother stayed in the hospital 12 days.. It was $1.00 a day for meals..

[arkie dem]

224. Hey, I grew up in Salina

I remembered it as Shilling AFB.We moved from there in 65.

[HereSince1628]

10. Elgin, Illinois

In the old St. Joseph's hospital (it was on the east side of town).

[TyeDye75]

13. does that have anything to do

with the guy who took the marbles from Athens

[SoCalDem]

17. or the guy who made watches??

:)

[LiberallyInclined]

65. and there was a "Lord Elgin" model watch...

http://www.finertimes.com/asp/watches/manufacturer.asp?code=127

...In 1920, wrist watches comprised 48% of Elgin’s output (compared with 4% for Hamilton and 28% for Waltham). The company produced more than half the watches made in America (both wrist and pocket) from 1920 through 1928. An Elgin advertisement in 1928 claimed there were more than 14,418 retail jewelers in the United States, and all but 12 of them carried Elgins.

During the ‘40s and ‘50s, Elgin not only dominated the United States market, but held a stronghold in Mexico and Latin America. Print advertisements containing testimonials from such American actors as Elizabeth Taylor and Henry Fonda proclaimed Lord and Lady Elgins were, “Exactos como las estrellas!” (Exact as the stars!)

Starting in the mid to late 1930s, Elgin introduced a new line of wrist watches called “Lord Elgin.” They were designed to compete with other manufacturers whose watches were perceived as “premium.” They are a step up from the regular Elgins in a couple of respects:

* They were almost always fitted with 21-jewel movements rather than 17- and occasionally 19-jewel movements for the regular Elgins.

* Gold-filled cased Lord Elgins were usually had gold-filed tops and backs, compared with stainless or base metal backs for plain Elgins...

[HereSince1628]

20. Not really...the founder of the town had a brother who founded a

nearby town. They named them Elgin and Dundee after places their family came from.

Curiously, there is a Lord's Park in Elgin, which sort of makes one wonder about English and Canadian connections but I don't think there are any...

When I was a boy the Elgin Watch Co was still going strong supplying time pieces to Sears & Co.

[LiberallyInclined]

63. don't forget Elgin Sweeper Co.

the pelican still keeps streets clean around the world.

[HereSince1628]

24. BTW that's pronounced EL-JIN (not El-GAN) El-A-Noy

Just for those that don't speak the Laurentian Dialect of English.

[LiberallyInclined]

62. Me too.

same side of town...
same hospital, i think (I was pretty young back then...), but i may have been a few blocks away at sherman.

[HereSince1628]

82. Plato Center...MacDonald Rd...Udina...the Burlington Blacktop

Rt. 47... I know...

My mother worked at Sherman for many years as a nurses aid.

But although I cruised the backroads of Kane Co, west of Elgin, my life was focused on one girl from Bartlett.

Ya know there are somethings that are better as dreams never fulfilled. I am quite sure I would have wrecked everything.
The dream is probably so much better than the reality ever could have been.

[LiberallyInclined]

127. i have some friends in montegue forest...

and pedersen's will be sorely missed.

[mopinko]

203. down river from you- aurora

also born in st joseph's hospital, but not the same one. 3 blocks from our house on rt 31.

[TyeDye75]

11. St Helens, England

[keithjx]

12. Sewanee, Tennessee

But left at 6mo. and have never been back. :(
KJ

[slutticus]

14. It's beautiful there. You should visit!

:)

[soupkitchen]

15. Hoboken, New Jersey (It was a very good year)

[ElsewheresDaughter]

151. my children were born in Hoboken..my hubby is a captian on Hoboken FD

[soupkitchen]

168. As was Frank Sinatra's father

[slutticus]

16. El Paso, TX

[nykiera]

18. Ft Wayne, IN

[Emops]

19. Dayton, Ohio

[Mikimouse]

21. Holden, MA

[caledesi]

22. Newport, RI nt

[Worst Username Ever]

23. Minneapolis MN

[Zing Zing Zingbah]

25. Bangor, Maine n/t

[vikegirl]

26. Minneapolis n/t

[donheld]

27. St Anthony Central, Denver Colorado

[cags]

28. Hollywood

[gizmo1979]

29. marinette WI

Pretty boring.Almost a yupper but whew I made by a mile!

[sakabatou]

30. Palo Alto , CA

[montana_hazeleyes]

213. Hi sakabatou!

I was looking down the thread not expecting to see my birthplace Palo Alto, but there you are. Hi.:hi:

[yellowdogintexas]

31. Clarksville, Tennessee is where I was actually born

but I lived the first 20 years of my life in southern Kentucky, just north of Clarksville

[Bok_Tukalo]

40. I was in the 101st. I am very familiar with the area

Nice.

[yellowdogintexas]

50. Yeah, it is nice there ! When were you in the 101st?

I graduated high school in 1966 from Todd County; that is the county to the east of Hopkinsville

[Bok_Tukalo]

54. I was there from '83 - '87

We used to go almost every weekend to Pilot Rock for rappelling.

[yellowdogintexas]

61. we used to go to Pilot Rock for Sunday afternoon drives when

I was a kid. all the old handrails, etc were in better shape and on a pretty fall day, there would be loads of folks out there to climb the rock and look at the foliage.

Have not been up there for a long time, I hear it has been fairly well trashed.

[Bok_Tukalo]

67. "I hear it has been fairly well trashed"

That's unfortunate. But inevitable, I suppose.

But cheer up. Places like that go through cycles of neglect and restoration. Although the restoration process tends to lend itself to onerous rules; reminding you that people simply can't self police and have to have an authority figure saying "pack out your trash or I'll fucking spank you."

[yellowdogintexas]

69. how unfortunately true

Ok, so you were at Ft Campbell
and you know about Joe T's (do you live in this area)

are you following me around?


LOL

[Bok_Tukalo]

72. Now that you mention it, it may seem so

But you mention Ft Worth and Clarksville, two places I'm familiar with.

I live in Bedford (about as close to Dallas I can stand) but Ft Worth is my hang out and has been for some time.

[Zomby Woof]

53. That is my Dad's birthplace!

I know the town well. :hi: When I was little, my grandparents lived there, and I visited often.

[Dervill Crow]

209. oh my, what an earworm

Take the last train to Clarksville, and I'll meet you at the station.
You can be there by 4:30 'cause I've made the reservation.
Don't be slow.
Oh no, no no . . .
Oh no, no no!

Every time I scroll through this thread, I hear Micky Dolenz.

[AlbertoB]

32. South San Francisco, CA

[DODI]

33. Concord, New Hampshire

[rug]

34. NY, NY

[sbj405]

35. Cleveland, OH

[blondeatlast]

36. Winfield, KS--also the home of the Mary Ann character from

Gilligan's Island.

Edit: It's very much for real, and I can name at least 50 Democrats there; they are all relatives!

[City Lights]

37. Chicago. eom

[borlis]

88. Me too, just like my sis.

:hug:

[wolfgirl]

38. Huntsville, AL...

back in 1954! Yeehaa!

[seemunkee]

39. Peoria Heights, IL

[ScreamingMeemie]

41. Milwaukee, WI

:hi:

[Dastard Stepchild]

57. Me too :)

[ScreamingMeemie]

60. 1970 for me!

44th St. :hi:

[Dastard Stepchild]

80. 1975 here...

Franklin Place :)

[bobthedrummer]

152. Milwaukee, 1949!

:hi:

[Maine-ah]

42. Peterborough, New Hampshire.

I'm a transplant, not a true Maine-ah, but my husband is. Been here since 1986.

[Wapsie B]

43. Oelwein, Iowa

n/t

[HEyHEY]

44. New Westminster, B.C.

[Corey_Baker08]

45. Greenville, OH

Sux of course

[greatauntoftriplets]

46. Evanston, Illinois....

It's just north of Chicago.

[Bullwinkle925]

47. El Dorado, KS (Long "a" sound in El DorAdo.)

[hippiechick]

48. Green Bay, Wisconsin

St. Vincent's Hospital.

[salin]

49. Bloomington, IN

[uppityperson]

51. Fargo, ND. n/t

[SmileyBoy]

164. Me too!!

:hi:

[Groggy]

52. Madison, WI

[Nikia]

55. I don't know why I'm so paranoid about this: Tiffin, OH

A town with a rich past and a rather sad present and future. Still, it is part of who I am.
I moved away and went to college. I visit every once in a while. I read the online paper everyday. I watch from a distance, still hoping for better things for it's future, but knowing mostly that everything that it once had and valued has disappeared in 21st century America.

[tjwmason]

118. Have you ever seen Carry on up the Khyber? n/t

[Nikia]

136. No, does it have a reference to Tiffin?

Or how I described the town?

[tjwmason]

162. Tiffin is used as a euphemism

The term was used in the British Empire in Asia to describe afternoon tea, in the film it was given a slightly different interpretation. ;)

[last_texas_dem]

56. Orange, TX

Southeast Texas; easternmost city in Texas (mile from the Louisiana border); very humid and polluted. But it's home...

[SCDem]

114. Orange, CA

born in the city of Orange, CA here! not humid and now filled with yuppies and hare krishnas!

[pres2032]

58. same town as Jesus Christ

only different hemisphere and continent.

[pink-o]

59. Pretty close to the DC-er who started this thread

Baltimore, Md.

Now...how many people still live in the town they were born in?

(My family moved to San Francisco when I was 4--in 1959. I've lived in London, Rome, Montego Bay Jamaica, but never again lived in Baltimore.)

[mvd]

75. Was born in D.C., but..

quickly moved to Maryland after - and now I'm in PA. I like being born in Washington D.C,, though.

[5thGenDemocrat]

192. I was born three blocks from where I live now

Saginaw General Hospital, Saginaw, Michigan. October 4, 1956, 5:31 p.m.
My family has owned this house since 1951 and lived in it since 1961.
John
Oh, and Nikia? My stepson was a three-time small college All-American football player at Tiffin University. The school just retired his number about two months ago. Go Dragons!

[BamaGirl]

64. Atlanta, Ga nt

[Richard Steele]

66. Kingsville, TX...Dad was in the Navy in '68, I cost him $20!

He was a hydraulics maintenence specialist (mechanic) for the old "Tomcat" jets on the USS JFK...Uncle Sam covered all my delivery bills.

Betcha it doesn't work that way today...Mom remembers that Navy housing was kinda run-down, but she never qualified for no WELFARE!

[nytemare]

68. I was born in Foggy Bottom too!!

Lived in Silver Spring/Wheaton 'til I was about 8. :)

[Withywindle]

70. Cortez, CO

Dad worked at Mesa Verde National Park at the time. Got transferred to the Blue Ridge Parkway in VA a year later.

[Scout1071]

71. Kansas City.......and yes.....I'm a crazy little woman

[proud2BlibKansan]

137. Me too Scout

KCMO
St. Mary's Hospital

[deadparrot]

73. St. Louis, MO

[NightNurse]

74. Philadelphia, Pa.

So did Gallerygod:smoke: my hubby

[Penndems]

76. Arlington, Virginia

Right across the river from you.

[Hand]

77. Santa Monica, Calif.

LONG ago, when normal middle-clas folks could afford to live there. Houses in my old neighborhood now start at $1.5 mil. Bummer.

:hi:

[scarlet_owl]

78. St. Louis, MO.

[GOPisEvil]

79. Athens

Greece, not Georgia.

[Not_Giving_Up]

81. Nacogdoches, TX

The oldest town in Texas!

[Maddy McCall]

132. Lots of my family lives there.

Teneha, Timpson, Bobo, and Blair. :toast:

[Not_Giving_Up]

158. I have relatives in Cushing

But we haven't spoken in years

[shesemsmom]

83. Muncie Indiana

along time ago lol

[peterh]

84. Astoria, Oregon

My Norwegian heritage on a half shell…

[TheCentepedeShoes]

85. Chandler

Oklahoma. Just NE of OKC.

[Dave Reynolds]

86. Lansing, Michigan

[NC_Nurse]

87. NYC

Mt. Sinai Hospital in Manhattan!

Pretty funny since my whole family is from the South. My parents had moved to the Big Apple for his job. We moved when I was 2....

[drhilarius]

89. Philadelphia.

[WMliberal]

90. Pittsburgh, PA. North Hills Passavant.

[Behind the Aegis]

92. Nashville, TN

[ashling]

93. "Where you born in" ?

:)

Henrietta, Texas

[Maraya1969]

94. Weirton, West "By God" Virginia

[Hans Delbrook]

185. Hey, I was born across da' river in Steubenville, OH

Here, I'll make you feel at home:

"Yuins going to the store for some pop? Get some chipped-chopped ham while you're there."

[cmd]

205. Me, too!

Put that in a poke, it will be easier to carry it home.

[Hans Delbrook]

206. No way!

Small world. Can you get me some De Carlo's pizza?

[Dervill Crow]

211. Yuins makin' me homesick for Pittsburgh!

Actually, I'm from Portland, Oregon, but lived in Pgh for awhile and learned the PA/Ohio lingo.

My mom is from NC, so I'm fluent in several states.

[driver8]

95. Ellsworth, Maine n/t

[AVID]

96. Nuremberg, Germany

yup, army brat

[tavalon]

97. Lost Wages, Nevada

Really.

[Blue_In_AK]

98. Wilmington, Ohio

[enigmatic]

99. Porkbutt, Idaho

It's scarred me for life!

[maveric]

100. Methuen MA

Bon Secour Hospital.

[Moloch]

101. Norfolk, VA (nt)

[njdemocrat106]

102. Belleville, New Jersey

Almost exactly on the border with Newark, though.

[CO Liberal]

111. I Used to Live Across The Street From That Hospital

I shared an apartment on Rocco Street with my then-girlfriend.

[DelawareValleyDem]

119. Know them well

Right by the Amvets hall. My cousin lived there a few years in the late 90s

[DelawareValleyDem]

117. My mom is an

old Silver Laker herself. Grams lived on Belmont Ave right up until the time she died three years ago.

[njdemocrat106]

159. Actually, I never lived in Belleville; I was just born there

I still have a lot of family in Essex, Bergen, and Hudson counties, though.

[Rhiannon12866]

103. Albany, NY. n/t

[rainbow4321]

104. Hillsborough, NJ. n/t

[huellewig]

105. Click the link..

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=springfield%20oregon&ll=44.054260%2C-123.003668&spn=0.005341%2C0.010441

[Seabiscuit]

106. Bronxville, New York

[Anarcho-Socialist]

107. Bishop Auckland, County Durham, U.K. n/t

[B Calm]

108. Danville, Illinois

[RebelOne]

109. Philadelphia, PA n/t

[madinmaryland]

110. Ada, Ohio

[terrya]

112. Decatur, Illinois. n/t

[CO Liberal]

113. Montclair, NJ

At Montclair Community Hospital, which is no longer open.

[sniffa]

115. TPRC - cambridge, ma

the peopLe's repubLik

[Joe Power]

116. Toledo, Ohio

GO ROCKETS!!!

[fryguy]

121. Seoul, South Korea

not Army brat, Fulbright brat....

[tjwmason]

122. Ipswich

In the great county of Suffolk, England.

We nearly got England's third university, it was either Cardinal Woolsey or Henry VIII; in the end the plan came to nothing, and England had to wait until Durham in the 19th century to get a new university.

I left aged 1, and don't really know the town very much.

[aWaKeNoW]

123. Lakenheath, England

on the USAF base there

[HippieCowgirl]

124. Cowhill, TX

[Lavender Brown]

125. Schenectady, NY

:P

[Jessica]

126. Kingwood, WV

Home of the Buckwheat Festival ... :)

[bigwillq]

128. Yale-New Haven Hospital in

New Haven, CT!

[name not needed]

129. Princeton, NJ

[Padraig18]

130. Westmeath General Hospital, Mullingar, Co. Westmeath, Ireland.

To be precise.

:)

[legally blonde]

131. Okinawa, Japan

[Maddy McCall]

133. San Antonio, TX

[nickgutierrez]

134. Naples, FL n/t

[tsakshaug]

135. Lanesborough Massachusetts

Actually Pittsfield had the hospital.

[RetroLounge]

138. Chicago, IL

1961

Swedish Covenant Hospital...

RL

[City Lights]

149. I didn't know you were born at Swedish Covenant.

Me too, but I'll never tell the year. ;-)

My mom's OB-GYN was Dr. Olsen and our pediatrician was Dr. Waldman.

[RetroLounge]

154. Well, I know it wasn't all *that* many years before me...

:D

RL

[City Lights]

169. Hey, no fair giving clues!

I stopped counting years ago. :P

[RetroLounge]

176. Well, I'm none too happy about being referred to

as "aging" by my wife last night.

Time for me to stop counting too!

RL

[City Lights]

178. Aging? Ooo that hurts.

You should use a page out my husband's playbook and remind her that it's not the years it's the miles. :7

[RetroLounge]

179. Well, truth be told, I got 10 years on her

and a whole LOT more miles...

RL

[City Lights]

181. Well, in light of that information

I have to agree with your wife. You are aging. Welcome to the club. :evilgrin:

[RetroLounge]

191. Ouch! Now from you too?

I tell you, I get no respect...

RL

[City Lights]

197. My apologies, Sir.

Didn't mean to rub salt in the wound. :7

[RetroLounge]

215. I'll live.

at least for a few more years, being "aging" and all...

:hi:

RL

[borlis]

186. I was born there too!!!

At a much later date though. ;) My Mom used to say "Swedish Covenant is where all the brats are born." :D

[arismomkoofie]

139. Takoma Park, MD - right outside of DC

I moved away for a long time, but now I am back in Silver Spring, in the house I grew up in

:o)

[TheMightyFavog]

140. Lancaster, WI, Grant County

End of Line.

[huskerlaw]

141. Lincoln, Nebraska

Yeah, I've lived here (at least 6 mos. out of the year) my whole life.

[CalebHayes]

142. South Philly

[Merrick]

144. San Diego, CA

[maveric]

146. At Balboa?

[Merrick]

150. No. Scripps in La Jolla

also where I went thirteen years later to re-apply my face and fix my fractured jaw after a particularly nasty skateboard miscue.

[RevolutionaryActs]

145. I was born.... in a van, down by the river

[maveric]

147. I miss that guy!!

A great character too.

[RevolutionaryActs]

148. Yeah, me too.

:(

[catzies]

153. Miami F-L-A

My zip code was even a palindrome: 33133.

[General Zod]

155. Clarksburg, West Virginia

...Almost Heaven!

[Jessica]

166. Hey there!

:hi: Preston County gal here.

[General Zod]

189. Are you from Kingwood?

[Jessica]

219. Yeah. Grew up there.

[qnr]

156. Buffalo, NY n/t

[sphincter]

157. Malmo, Sweden.

[Nailzberg]

193. I have a friend from Malmo.

She is currently studying in the the US

[AverageJoe]

160. Somerset, Kentucky

Kentucky Is My Land / by Jesse Stuart

Kentucky is my land.
It is a place beneath the wind and sun
In the very heart of America.
It is bounded on the east, north, and west by rivers
And on the south by mountains.
Only one boundary line is not a natural one,
It is a portion of southern boundary
That runs westward from the mountains
Across the delta lowlands to the Mississippi.

Within these natural boundaries is Kentucky,
Shaped like the mouldboard on a hillside turning-plow.
Kentucky is neither southern, northern, eastern or western,
It is the core of America.
If these United States can be called a body,
Kentucky can be called its heart.

I didn't have any choice as to where I was born,
But if I had had my choice,
I would have chosen Kentucky.
And if I could have chosen wind to breathe,
I would have chosen a Kentucky wind
With the scent of cedar, pinetree needles,
Green tobacco leaves, pawpaw, persimmion and sassafras.
I would have chosen too,
Wind from the sawbriar and greenbriar blossoms.

If I could have chosen the spot in Kentucky,
I would have chosen W-Hollow,
The place where I was born,
Where four generations of my people have lived,
And where they still live.
Here, too, I have always lived where
The hills form a semicircle barrier against roads
And there is only one way to get out.
This way is to follow the stream.
Here, I first saw Kentucky light.
Here, I first breathed Kentucky air.
And here I grew from childhood to manhood.
Before I had been away to see what lay beyond
The rim of the hills that closed my world.

I followed the little streams
That flowed over the rocks between the high hills to the rivers
And then somewhere into the unknown world.
I hunted the wild game in the hunting seasons
Skillful as an Indian.
And I ran wild over the rock-ribbed hills

Enjoying this land of lonesome waters, sunlight,
Tobacco, pine, pawpaw, persimmion, sawbriar, greenbriar and sassafras.
I enjoyed the four seasons,
Sections of time my father used to divide his work for the year,
As much as any boy in America ever enjoyed them.

For Kentucky has four distinct seasons.
I learned this in childhood
And I didn't get it from a book.
Each season I learned was approximately three months.
Kentucky wasn't all summer, all autumn, all winter or spring.
The two seasons that I wanted to be longer and longer,
Were the Kentucky spring and autumn.

When winter began to break, snow melted
And ran down the little channels on the high hills.
Spring was in the wind.
I could feel it.. I could taste it..
I could see it.

And it was beautiful to me.
Then came the sawbriar and the greenbriar leaves
And the trailing arbutus on the rock-ribbed hills.
Next came the snowwhite blossoms of percoon in the coves,
Then came the canvas-topped tobacco beds,
White strips of fortune on each high hill slope.
Then came the dogwood and the wild crabapple blossoms,
White sails in the soft honey-colored wind of morning
And red sails of the flowering redbud,
Stationary fire hanging in the soft mellow wind
Of evening against the sunset....
The weeping willow, stream willow, and pussy-willow
Loosed their long fronds to finger the bright wind tenderly.
Then came the soft avalanches of green beech tops
In the deep hollows that hid the May-apple,
Yellowroot, ginseng, wild sweet williams, babytear and phlox.
When I learned Kentucky springs
Could not go on forever,
I was sick at heart.

For summer followed with work on the high hills.
I plowed the earth on steep slopes
And hoed corn, tobacco, cane, beside my strong mother
With a bright-worn gooseneck hoe.
Summer brought good earthy smells
Of tobacco, cane and corn and ferny loam and growing roots.
Summer brought berries too
That grew wild in the creviced rocks,
On the loamy coves and in the deep vallys.
Here grew the wild blackberries, strawberries, raspberries and dewberries.
All I had to do was take my bucket and pick them.

Then came the autumn with hazelnuts ripening on the pasture bluffs
Along the cattle paths and sheep trails.
The black walnuts, white walnuts, hickory nuts, beech nuts
Fell from the trees in little heaps.
And the canopy of leaves turned many colors
After the first sharp frost had fallen
And the soft summer wind turned cool and brittle
And the insect sounds of summer became a lost murmur
Like the dwindling streams.

Autumn brought sweet smells of the wild possum grapes
And the mountain tea berries
And the blood-red sassafras and persimmon leaf...
Autumn brought the mellow taste of the persimmon
That after frost did not pucker my mouth with summer bitterness.
October pawpaws with purple-colored skins,
I found in heaps beneath the trees when I went after cows.
I opened them to find the cornmeal-mush softness,
Yellow-gold in color and better than bananas to taste.

These things are my Kentucky.
They went into the brain, body, flesh and blood of me.
These things, Kentucky-flavored, grown in her dirt,
Helped build my body strong and shape my brain.
They laid foundations for my future thoughts.
They made me a part of Kentukcy.
They made Kentucky a part of me.
These are the inescapable things,
Childhood to boyhood to manhood.
Even the drab hills of winter were filled with music.
The lonesome streams in the narrow-gauged valleys,
Sang poetic songs without words.
And the leafless trees etched on gray winter skies
Were strong and substantial lines of poetry.

When I was compelled to put poems on paper
They wrote themselves for they were ripe
And ready for harvest
As the wild berries, the persimmons and the pawpaws
As the yellow leaves and nuts falling from the trees.
Then I went for the first time into other states
And I knew my Kentucky was different.

As I observed the closeness of the tombstones
In the the eastern cemeteries
This gave me a feeling that land was scarce.
I saw the tall smokestacks of industry
Etched against the eastern skies
And the cities that were a pillar of fire by night
And clouds of rolling smoke by day...
I saw New York, a city so large it frightened me,
Cliff dwellings as high as Kentucky mountains,
The streets and avenues were deep gorges
Between high walls of multicolored stone.
And while it interested me
To see how fellow Americans lived,
I longed for Kentucky sunlight, sights and sounds
And for the logshacks and the lonesome waters.

I was homesick for the land of the fox

And spring's tender bud, blossom and leaf,
For white sails of the dogwood and the crabapple

And the flame of redbud in the sunset.

I knew that my Kentucky was different,
And something there called me home.
The language too was different,
Not that it was softer
But it was more musical with the hard "g"s
Left automatically from the spoken word
And the prefix "a" supplemented...
I knew more than ever before my brain
Had been fashioned by sights and sounds
And beauties of wildgrowth and life of the hills
That had nutured my flesh from infancy to full growth.

Then I went beyond the hills to see
America's South of which I had always thought
We were a distinct part.
But I learned we were different from the South
Though our soils grew cane, cotton and tobacco...
We moved faster and we spoke differently.

The west I visited where land
Was level as a floor,
Where the endless field of growing corn
Was a dark cloud that hugged the earth,
Where the single field of growing wheat was endless, endless,
And the clouds always in the distance
Came down and touched the earth.
No matter how fast the train or the car ran,
It never reached the spot where the clouds came down to earth.
The people moved quickly,
They talked with the speed of the western wind.
They were "doers" not talkers.
I knew this was not the heart of America:
This was the West, the young strong man of America.

I visited the North where industry
Is balanced with agriculture
And where a man is measured by what he can do.
I did not find the softness of the pawpaw and the persimmon,
The lusty morning smell of green growing tobacco,
The twilight softness of Kentucky spring
But I did find the endless fields of corn and wheat
Where machinery did the work...
Beyond the cornfields and wheatfields
I saw the smokestacks of industry,
Belching fire and smoke toward the sky.
Highways were filled with traffic that shot past me like bullets.
And I found industrial city streets filled
With the fast tempo of humanity...
Then I was as positive as death Kentucky
Was not east, west, south, or north
But it was the heart of America
Pulsing with a little bit of everything.

...The heart of America
A land of even tempo,
And a land of mild traditions,
A land that has kept it traditions of horse racing,
Ballad, song, story and folk music.
It has held steadfast to its pioneer tradition
Of fighting men, fighting for America

And for the soil of Kentucky,
That is filled with bluegrass beauty
That is not akin to poetry .. But is poetry...
And when I go beyond the border,
I take with me growth and beauty of the seasons,
The music of wind in pine and cedar tops,
The wordless songs of snow-melted water
When it pours over the rocks to wake the spring.
I take with me Kentucky embedded in my brain and heart,
In my flesh and bone and blood
Since I am of Kentucky
And Kentucky is part of me.

[greymattermom]

212. Paducah, Kentucky

[hickman1937]

161. Detriot, Michigan

Home of possibly the kindest people on the face of this earth. When my Mom was dying at Henry Ford Hospital,downtown,(my parents moved to oakland county when I was 1)I got lost constantly. Every time I stopped and asked for directions, I was met with sympathy(I looked white suburban, and scared)and tolerance. Detroit:toast:, I salute you.
on edit: Thank you.

[SmileyBoy]

163. Fargo, North Dakota

Where I am now.

[noonwitch]

165. Indianapolis

My family lived there very briefly before returning to Michigan.

[Tafiti]

167. Missoula, Montana.

I'm guessing I've got a monopoly on that one, eh?

[movie_girl99]

170. Dallas, Tx n/t

[Cush]

171. Fredericksburg, Virginia

we moved when I was about 2, so I don't remember it.

[Drifter]

172. Syracuse NY

Currently live in Rochester

Cheers
Drifter

[RedSpartan]

173. Livingston, NJ

[NoSheep]

174. Oxford NC

:(

[GOPBasher]

175. Syracuse, NY. That explains me.

This city has a history or progressive causes. It was a hotbed of the abolitionist movement, as well as the women's suffrage movement.

[WilmywoodNCparalegal]

177. Bologna, Italy

The Wise (for its university, one of the world's oldest), The Fat (for its superb cuisine, easily Italy's best) and the Red (for its brick porticoes and its politics :)

[UrbScotty]

180. Greensboro, NC (nt)

[jdots]

182. scenic New Brunwick N.J.

home of Sincere Sidney's Used Dryer Lint Drive Thru Resteraunts........

[DeaconBlues]

183. Ranson, West Virginia

fifty cents says no one has heard of the place, much less been there

[Kathy in Cambridge]

184. Ramstein AFB, Germany

[traco]

187. Great Falls Montana

[HeyManThatsCool]

188. Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania N/T

[tibbir]

190. Houston, Texas

I grew up in Metairie, a suburb of New Orleans, but then moved back to Houston after finishing college eons ago.

[barb162]

194. Chicago

[KamaAina]

195. Baltimore, MD

or "Bawlmer, 'Merlin" to be precise. "You rollin' or strollin', hon?" (actually I grew up in the county far from any semblance of local culture :( )

[NewJeffCT]

196. Hartford, Connecticut

Still live pretty close to there.

[Danmel]

198. Brooklyn, New York

East Flatbush to be precise- I can't believe I'm the first Brooklynite.

[KyndCulture]

199. Jacksonville, FL happy MN resident now. nt

[Cuban_Liberal]

200. Hialeah, Florida n/t

[Squeegee]

201. Seattle

[Merope215]

202. Blytheville, AR

on the old Air Force base.

[steely]

204. Bristol, PA

the kids in bristol are sharp as a pistol

[Hans Delbrook]

207. Did you work at US Steel in Fairless Hills?

I'm taking a leap from your screen name. (My Dad's a retired steely.)

[steely]

225. No - sorry

The coincidence surprised me - it's just a nickname an army bud gave me.
We moved from Levittown when I was 2 or 3 - oddly, yrs later I considerded a job at the "Fairless works".

[Hans Delbrook]

227. That is funny

If you had worked there - you would have had to pick a new nickname! That one covered everyone there.

[PoiBoy]

208. Chicago

IL.. Cook County Hospital :hi:

[Zuni]

210. Annapolis, Maryland

[Strawman]

214. Detroit, MI - Hutzel Hospital n/t

[donheld]

216. I was born in the wagon of a travellin’ show

My mama used to dance for the money they’d throw
Papa would do whatever he could
Preach a little gospel,...

[eoberhauser]

218. I was born in Winterset Iowa

In Madison County as in "Bridges of Madison County"

Erin

[Stop_the_War]

221. Asheville, NC

[Kire]

222. Military capital of the American Revolution.

Morristown, NJ

[Kellanved]

223. In Frankfurt

Which is German for "Boring Provincial nest with many banks and an inflated ego, bad beer and good sausages.".

[Shredr]

226. Chelsea, Mass.