Why do you live where you live?

mikim · Dec 28, 2001

The secret I believe is in enjoying the work

The absolutely best times I can remember in my life are times when I've gotten together with neighbors/friends for a full day of hard work. There's just something about the feeling of accomplishment and fellowship that comes from it that beats anything else.
mike

Bird · Dec 28, 2001

best times I can remember in my life are times when I've gotten together with neighbors/friends for a full day of hard work

You sure got that right; nothing like getting a group of friends together to have fun while accomplishing a lot of work.

antiques · Dec 30, 2001

Well, MossRoad, when you're heading North on Cleveland Road and you come to Warren Woods Road, take two lefts (onto Holden Road) and the first house on the left on Holden is ours... #15583... drop in on the way by!

Tom_Trees · Dec 31, 2001

Well - because I like it here./w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

As GlenMoss and some of the others have pointed out, the cost of living in this area is quite low. The unemployment rate is also usually quite low. The last time the guys in Washington were fighting over the minimum wage the local fast-food outlets were advertising $8.00 an hour to get help.

I've learned I don't like big cities or crowds. I now live in Middlebury Township, Elkhart County, Indiana. This is the western fringe of the Amish territory; east of here you find lots of county roads with no power lines along the road. The county 4H fair is one of the best in the nation because of the mix of small and medium farms. (I forget if it was the 4H organization or an independant group that did the rating, as this was about 8 years ago, but Elkhart was in the top 5).

I've got 4.5 acres of woods, the center strip in a 15 acre woodland. I've got good neighbors with a mind-set that matches mine.

I'm a professional computer geek with 26 years at the same company in Elkhart (hint- I guarantee that you've all got our product somewhere in your plumbing/w3tcompact/icons/grin.gif) and I'm figuring on retiring right here. My sister has a house on the St. Joe river cross-town from me, and our mother lives roughly inbetween the two of us.

If I get the urge to vist a large town, to see what I'm missing, Chicago is 2 hours away; Detroit, Cleveland, or Indianapolis are about 5 hours away. On the other hand, Lake Michigan and the Indiana Dunes park is just over an hour away.

Why do I live where I live? I like it here!

Tom

crown · Jan 1, 2002

My wife and I put down roots in Winchester VA. My wife got her first job in the small town of Millwood and rented an apt. in Winchester after we were married we built our first house. The call of open spaces started calling me about 4 years ago and we bought 6 acres on the VA WVA line. Winchester is a great little place not to big not to small. My job takes me for the very rural Ciulpepper VA to the metro area of Tysons Corner VA, at the end of the day I look forward to coming down my dirt road to my little slice of heaven. My daughter can run around and we don't worry about cars and strangers, and the school system seems very good.

genelp · Jan 1, 2002

You also have some great places to eat near you. My wife and I like to head up to the Essen Haus occasionally and we also like the Blue Gate in Shippshewanna.

Gene

MossRoad · Jan 2, 2002

The first time I ate there was about a year after my mom passed away. When I ate the bread dressing, it tasted exactly like my mother's. I started getting tears in my eyes.

I love the amish tractors! A team of six draft horses walking down the road. They take up as much room as a big combine.

genelp · Jan 2, 2002

We have always had great service there, and the food is never dissapointing. Of course no visit is complete without a tour of the bakery! (does this sound like an advertisement?)

We like to drive the back roads sometimes to see the Amish farming like my Grandpa did. Occasionally I wonder what it would be like to live like that; but then hot August nights and airconditioning come to mind.

Gene

Tom_Trees · Jan 2, 2002

Occasionally I wonder what it
would be like to live like that; but then hot August nights and airconditioning come to mind.

There are a couple of families just west of Nappanee that run a 'family style' appointment-only supper hall (for lack of a better term). We've taken Mom there for her birthday twice, and both times our party was small enough that we were seated in the family dining room, not in the large room (seating for about 50!) There's something about sitting at a shaker-style table with a kerosene lamp overhead providing the light . . .

We were just across from the kitchen, comeplete with TWO lovely old cast-iron coal-burning stoves (you want to talk about lack of air-conditioning /w3tcompact/icons/grin.gif). The first time it was just us; the second time, they had a party of thitry in the back room and the two senior cooks were a whompin' away at about half a bushel of mashed potatoes in a large copper bowl. It was worth the pain of setting up the dates by letter and by phone to the nearby convenience store one of the men visited each day.

We've almost reached the point as a nation where the Amish life-style could be considered a national monument. They're preserving historic methods by using them every day.

Oh - this particular operation does have a phone - in the barn. If one of the kids get sick, they harness up the buggy and head for the doctor. If one of the animals gets sick -- they call the vet.

Tom

MossRoad · Jan 3, 2002

Anyone ever get up to Bonneyville Mill for the fall festival in Setptember?

RobS · Jan 3, 2002

We were at a festival of some sort there a few years back. There were a lot of vintage tractors and swarms of yellow jackets /w3tcompact/icons/shocked.gif

Seems like it was a lot of fun though /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

Bayrat · Jan 3, 2002

Well Danny, I guess my job at the local utility along with family connections is what has kept me in the same area all these years. I have always enjoyed living near the water and upstate NY has the best fresh water fishing and recreational boating around. I have been traveling to the 1000 Islands to fish since I was ten. Although some of my family has now spread out around the country (including my Marine Recruiter son), my parents and in-laws are quite old and in need of mine and the wife's help. About ten years ago, we purchased some acreage on top of a hill along with a twenty year old house. I have spent most of my free time improving upon it. I can see Lake Ontario from my kitchen window along with deer, turkey, fox, coyote and countless birds and other animals. I have traveled to other states and find something beautiful about all of them. I go to Nevada every year to visit the city of sin/w3tcompact/icons/love.gif, and at one time considered buying a condo out there for retirement. But after a week, I am so glad to be back at my homestead /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif, that idea fades away. Our weather is moderated somewhat by the lake, but that same lake can dump some pretty big snowfalls on us. I would have to say, New England is appealing to me as well, but the harsher winters are not. My only complaint about NY is the left sided politics and high taxes, which usually do go hand in hand.

genelp · Jan 3, 2002

My wife and I and several couples from our church went to a similar place near Nappanee several years ago (too long ago to remember exactly where, but I believe it was east just north of Hwy 6). If my memory serves me correctly we went in the winter time. I do remember everone sitting around one two table or tables, and the room being was lighted by oil lamps. Of course the food was fantastic (I love their pies).
Actually to be honest I'm curious about the Amish ways because my Grandfather on my dad's side was Amish, born and raised in the Nappanee area, but left the church when he was young. He was born in 1869 so when he left the church they weren't living any different than anyone else, and by the way I'm 48 so many people are amazed that I have a Grandfather that was born right after the Civil War.
I agree that they are a national treasure and I hope that the Federal and State governments leave them alone.
Now that I've wrote all of this I think I'll get something to eat! /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif /w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

Gene

Cornflake · Jan 4, 2002

"We're Americans! Do you know what that means?
It means that out forefathers were kicked out of every decent country in the world."
- Stripes

jdkid · Jan 4, 2002

Hi ya
like most people including forefathers we live where we can give our kin what they need ,if that means seting sail to new countrys we do it ,to say where i live is the best place in the world is true and fulse (?) to you it's the best but to someone else it's the pits .the old saying do a job ya love and ya never work a day in ya life, is true .Why i live where i live ??job,friends,lifestyle,things i enjoy best sum's it up
catch ya
JD Kid

MossRoad · Jan 4, 2002

Hey, I'm 41 and my grandmother was born in 1896 and granpa was born in 1888. The lived to 98 and 91 respectively. They had kids late and so did my parents and so did I.

gnawbone · Sep 21, 2003

Boondox,

I lost 2 of my buddies over the years, one was a golden mix and the other a pure bred golden. Those were a couple of the roughest days of my life.

Right now we have an English Springer Spaniel. Holy cow! What a nut. She is the silliest, most lovable dog I've ever had. I can't help but think about that day down the road where I'll have to say good-bye, again, to man's best friend. As I get older the thought of that day gets harder to bare. That is going to be a sad time. But for now, we have a riot and she is such a sweatheart!

Slamfire · Sep 23, 2003

I'm livin' here because my wife, a Georgia peach, wouldn't live any farther north. Traded the 8 acres in PA, I got from my granddad, for 32 acres, all wooded, here. I'm beginnin' to think I bit off more'n I can chew. One thing different here in East TN than LA County is there are more meth labs here. /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

rancar · Sep 23, 2003

Thanks Stan for reviving this thread....missed it completely since is was started before I joined TBN.

I live where I live because our place has been in my family since 1951 when my grandparents (immigrants from the Ukraine who came to this country shortly after WWI) retired from their jobs in New York City and wanted to buy an old farm similar to what they had known back in the Ukraine. They found it in Cambridge, New York. I can remember visiting the old farm since I was 3 or 4 years old. I have good and rich memories of my childhood when we visited the old farm as kids. I've seen the seasons of nature and life pass with time but many things of the old farm remain the same. When I had the chance to move to upstate New York in 1986, I leaped at this opportunity and moved back full time to the old farm.....which at the time remained unlived in for 5 years after both my grandparents and uncle passed on. Moving back in, I started to rekindle those good memories again. I married, started renovations on the old farmhouse and barn buildings, and I suppose I will die here as well. This is OK since it is ONLY these good memories generated in life that I can take with me when I pass from this earth. This, my friends, is the reason I live where I live.

...Bob