City mouse or country mouse?

[jeana]

Just curious...
Given the broad range of opinions, politics, preferred drinks, drives, and hardware on this board...is there are any difference depending on whether we're from urban, suburban, or rural areas?

Does seeing a lot of people from different races and ethnic backgrounds every day affect our opinions on racism? Does seeing a lot of poor people every day affect our feelings on welfare, gun control, or taxation? Does living in an apartment affect your preference for Athlons or for Jagermeisters?

I'm a city slicker myself (Boston, MA, New Haven, CT, and Bridgeport, CT), though raised in Suburbia.

[Mntsnow]

I guess you could say either for me...I raised in a small town in Utah but now live in Salt Lake City (BIG for Utah!) and would prefer to go back to a small town if there were good enough jobs to replace what I am currently making. I Can say though there is just as much crime and drugs in the small towns as there is in the big city's but it's easier to find in the big citys http://www.sysopt.com/forum/frown.gif

Mntsnow

[kongkong]

I came in cozof the subject "...mouse...mouse", and I am going to buy a mouse tomorrow... but it seems this post has little to do with either animal.mouse or computer.mouse http://www.sysopt.com/forum/wink.gif

[jad1097]

I was raised in the Miami,Fl. Had to get the hell away from them people so now I live in a small town Murfreesboro,Tennesse. 5 minutes from the country 20 minutes to Nashville. The only problem is this is one of the fasted growing city in Tennesse.

[2336]

I was raised as a military brat and lived all over. I attended 7 different elementary schools, 2 different jr highs, and 3 different high schools before I graduated in'77. I've seen my father, raised on a tobacco farm in NC, wash out my brother's mouth with soap for saying the "N" word and then seen grown servicemen calling each other the same - quite confusing when you're growing up. I think a lot has to do with the values and morals that our parents instill in us. I don't always act as well as I should (just ask SoCalGal!) but I try to remember what my Dad taught me - "Treat other people the way you would want to be treated.", "It takes a bigger man to walk away from a fight than to start one.", and the last resort - "If someone won't let you walk away from a fight and you're backed into a corner pick up the biggest stick you can grab and wale on him until he leaves you alone, then walk away!" I've only been forced to "wale" on someone once in my 40 years! I think the biggest problem we have today is that there are too many people out there that forget that their rights stop at the tip of their nose! Whoops! Better stop and get down from the soapbox or I'll be up here all night. Well, those are my views in a nutshell, plus some, sorry! Goodnight all!

[OuTpaTienT]

Army brat here too. And I think did me a lot of good. Exposed me to a wide range people from all walks of life and forced me to have to make new friends every 3 or 4 years.

Plus I've lived in citites that are 80+% minorities (I'm a whiteboy myself) like Oakland and Richmond, CA, and I've lived in cities where you couldn't find a minority if you life depended on it (Bellevue & Redmond, WA). And it all boils down to individuals. Treat people for who they are and not what they are. And you don't know who anyone is until you meet them as an individual.

[sidenote, my friends in Oakland/Richmond will testify to the fact I'm one of the few whiteboys that have earned the right to say "Nigga please". http://www.sysopt.com/forum/wink.gif]

[U-96]

Hehe I'm an Air Force brat (Royal, not U.S.) so I've been around a bit too, Germany, Singapore, UK etc. You learn to make friends real quick when you change school every six months.
I've nearly always lived in villages and small market towns (they don't like airbases in urban areas - wonder why?), except when I was at university, where I shared a flat with Portuguese and Vietnamese friends, which was in the middle of a city. I still work in that city, but I live about 15 miles out, on the edge of a small market town in the middle of beautiful English countryside.
Most of the childhood I'm aware of I spent in Norfolk, which is very rural. I used to go fishing and shooting, and when I learned to drive, I had to go 10 miles to find a roundabout (for our American readers, that's a cheap way of making a road junction without lights http://www.sysopt.com/forum/wink.gif ). Oh yeah, and drugs were what you got from the doctor when you were sick...

U-96

[jeana]

Hee hee! http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif Sorry, kongkong!

For the benefit of nonnative English speakers, "city mouse or country mouse" refers to a children's story about two mice, a country cousin and a city cousin, who are envious of one another's lives. After a visit to the farm and the big city, though, they come to the conclusions that they are happiest in their own homes.

Actually, though I was born and raised in the same town, never even changing houses, I _did_ spend six months when I was thirteen in a foreign school (Seoul, Korea) attended by a lot of "army brats". It was quite an experience! Even in that short time, I had friendships that began and ended as various kids were transferred in and transferred out of the base.

[daveleau]

Wow, I am fromt he states and didn't know that was a reference to a childrens book. http://www.sysopt.com/forum/redface.gif
I guess i was deprived as a child.

I grew up in a mid sized town. I can see how living in a bigger area (areas like those outside of my state of SC) would influence you and make you desire the newer and greater things just b/c you are exposed to them faster and with much higher frequency.
Dave