'Where I'm From' thread

[DRiccio21]

Where are you from? not necessarily where you live now or where you were born, but what town do you associate yourself has 'this is where i grew up'

what are some cool parts about the town? crazy parts about the town/city? population? demographics? etc

post some pictures of local landmarks, local legends etc.

its always fun to see where people came from

[DRiccio21]

i'll start

town Johnston, RI

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnston,_Rhode_Island

basically a mini sopranos in the middle of new england. everyone is italian, everyone is corrupt, everyone knows everyone. its also the home of:

here is a great clip to give you an idea of where i'm from... be sure to check out all the names of the politicians, lol

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8LvQ6sAm8M[/youtube]

[DRiccio21]

Shel and Nole: you're required to do this btw... i'm most interested in seeing yours

[autiger730]

Heflin, AL. Typical small southern town. One of the most boring towns on the face of the earth, the first bar ever there opened this year! And it is now legal to buy cold beer. Before you could only buy it hot. The best part about the town is its location, really. It sits on interstate 20 and its about an hour to either Birmingham or Atlanta, 2 hours to Chattanooga, 3 to Nashville, 4 to the Gulf of Mexico. It was also named the Sports Town in Alabama by SI a few years back because of the Parks and Rec Department ( http://cityofheflin.org/parks_rec/sportstown.htm ). Good place to raise your kids, bad place to be 20 something and single.


Some Local legends:

Tyrone Prothro



Todd Bates


Blake Bowman (on the left)

[Nole4real]

Mine's not that interesting

Born near Charleston, SC which is where my mom is from

Dad is from Williston, FL which is basically a small southern town closer in lifestyle to what you'd imagine from Georgia than Florida from an outsiders perspective.

Population is about 2500 but theres another 10,000 or so that live outside the limits that would call Williston home, then there are other small cities (and Gainesville) within 25 miles which u can get to all in less than 20 minutes which gives it a neighborhood feel similar to the difference of bing from Hollywood to Davie to Miramar or something.

Its 2 hours in eachs respective direction exactly from Tampa, Orlando and Jacksonville

It's typical southern except probably less race division than other places. Everyone has always gotten along for the most part. It's strong in sports before but especially after integration which prolly accounts for the harmony.

Even the assholes are good people at heart.

No real claim to fame except shitload of athletes to minor colleges, few to Majors, no one huge except maybe Earnie Mills (football - steelers/cowboys) and essex snead (baseball - mets)

It's not a big deal, just good people, good food (of course) and simple life.

...just dont play golf there in summer drinking beers....heat index gets up to 1 billionty degrees or so and can leave you a little dehydrated

[LetsGoPeay]

Switz City, Indiana

Tiny little town in southwest Indiana. The official population in the 2000 census was 311 people. Shel just got really excited. It's about 25 minutes from Bloomington.

This is the house I grew up in. It's actually about 5 miles northeast of town.



There's really nothing to do in town or out. I spent most of my free time either playing basketball, hanging out at home, fishing, hunting, or working for farmers in the summer. Businesses in town are a gun store, liquor store, pizza place, a bar (memorably named "The Ooodle Inn", official slogan: "Oodle in, waddle out"), furniture store, and lawn and tractor equipment place. The most memorable thing that I can remember was when a janitor at my school got his throat cut at the Oodle on a Saturday night. The woman that did it didn't do a very good job though. He showed up for work on Tuesday with staples in his neck. It was disgusting. He didn't last long at that job.
I lived out in the country about 5 miles southwest of town.

This is Main Street in Switz

[huskerskev84]

This is going to be boring. I grew up in a town of 200 people. Thinking back, the town got the most recognition for being the test site for Maytag's new energy efficient washers. Pretty awesome! (sarcasm)
Found this article.

After having spent 4 months doing 20,000 loads of laundry, an entire Kansas town earned a free trip to the nation’s capital. Bern, KS, U.S., was the testing ground for a new washing machine designed to save water and energy. Conducted five years ago by the U.S. Department of Energy and Maytag, the study required residents to weigh each load before and after it was washed. Maytag threw in the machines for free.

This week, Maytag flew Bern's 270 residents to Washington for a 2-day visit where they received special recognition by the U.S. Department of Energy and a small plaque commending the town for joining the study and for leading in water conservation efforts.
Water problems in the northeast Kansas town date to a drought in 1860, before Bern was settled. Officials in recent years have discouraged too much use by tripling water rates and imposing strict rules, such as requiring pond water for livestock.

Maytag provided scales and easy-to-read monitors. In the 103 households that joined the study, residents said the work amounted to a few extra seconds each time. The study demonstrated that the Maytag Neptune washer used 40 percent less water and 60 percent less energy, saving the town and surrounding area more than 300 million gal of water since the study began, company president Bill Beer said. (Associated Press

So needless to say, we were the test site for the all new "green america".

I tried to find something interesting about the town, failed miserably. The best part about the town....skinny white boys that can't jump can look like a good athlete!

[Quest4Gold]

I was born and have lived in Akron, Ohio my whole life. Was the rubber factory capital of the world, now we are big in polymers.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akron,_Ohio





the church I was married in.



Some famous people from Akron

Angie Everhart



Chrissie Hynde



Former 400 WR holder Butch Johnson



Ara Parseghian



And of course Benedict James

[beercop]

I'm from a small community outside of Anniston, AL called Saks.


Anniston is best known for one of the most toxic cities in America thanks to Monsanto Corp.It's not far from AUTIGER'S home of Heflin.


It is also known for the one of the largest chairs in the world

It also has a violent crime rate well above the state and national average.
Violent Crime Rate
Incidents per 100,000
Anniston 2422
AL 611
National 676

[beercop]

Heflin, AL. Typical small southern town. One of the most boring towns on the face of the earth, the first bar ever there opened this year! And it is now legal to buy cold beer. Before you could only buy it hot. The best part about the town is its location, really. It sits on interstate 20 and its about an hour to either Birmingham or Atlanta, 2 hours to Chattanooga, 3 to Nashville, 4 to the Gulf of Mexico. It was also named the Sports Town in Alabama by SI a few years back because of the Parks and Rec Department ( http://cityofheflin.org/parks_rec/sportstown.htm ). Good place to raise your kids, bad place to be 20 something and single.


Some Local legends:

Tyrone Prothro



Todd Bates


Blake Bowman (on the left)

Don't forget about this.

[Nole4real]

The best part about the town....skinny white boys that can't jump can look like a good athlete!

the town my mom is from in South Carolina is like this. I had fantasies as a kid that if I moved there I'd be god-like in comparison to the kids there

[texasfan4444]

I was born in Cartagena, Colombia. I moved to the states when I was six with just my mom, dad, and sister. The rest of our family lives in Colombia or Venezuela. A lot of the values and most of the fundamental upringing all happened while I was there so I consider it to be a big part of me even thought i have only been back 3 times since 1986.

It’s a coastal city in the Caribbean. I read an article about it recently and it had basically the key points that I would want to say to someone who asked this question. I am going to take the liberty to grab some of those thoughts and post with some pics. It’s truly a beautiful city with amazing food the likes of what you cant get here.

To give you guys a sense of what this place is like imagine a mix of New Orleans, Sicily, and Miami. We were a short walk from the some of the oldest plazas in Colombia, fascinating restaurants and bars, and the Caribbean Sea. Old town Cartagena is situated within 400 year old stone walls the Spanish built to protect the city from naval attacks, and you can actually walk along the top of them.

We also had the chance to take a speedboat tour out to the Rosario Islands and Baru Island off the coast of the city. Watching the sea change colors literally 5 or 6 times, feeling up a sea cucumber while snorkeling, admiring Pablo Escobar’s former private island and drinking cold beer on a white sand beach makes you just want to give up on civilized life.

Cartagena is a city for walking, and its historic walled district feels like a Moroccan medina, with 300-year-old Spanish colonial buildings huddled along brick streets. The palette is saturated with deep blue, dusty rose, burnt orange and ochre. Cool sea breezes and plenty of shade make the old city feel quite comfortable even in the 90-degree heat.

I hope many of you can someday visit Cartagena, and Colombia in general, as it is an ecological wonder full of some of the friendliest people on the planet, world-class restaurants and hotels, and a slew of some of the sexiest broads I’ve ever seen (no lie here gents, some of the most beautiful women in the world are from here).

Coming to Colombia, and exploring places such as Cartagena, Bogota, Medellin as well as smaller colonial gems such as Villa de Leyva and rural mountain cities like Silvania and Sasaima, gives you not only a more amplified world-view, but a renewed sense of humanity, and appreciation for the smile that graces the faces of so many people as they endure the immense struggle of supporting themselves and their families under the most extreme and often absurd situations. Open your mind, visit Colombia.

Old Catagena downtown


La Plaza


Cartagena at night


White sand beaches on part of the coast.


Streets downtown are anarrow and coblestone. Still has that old Barcelona feel to it.

[Cnasty]

...just dont play golf there in summer drinking beers....heat index gets up to 1 billionty degrees or so and can leave you a little dehydrated

TROOOOF!!!!

Born in Miami. Mom was 19, on the beach in Miami and went into labor.

Raised in Hollywood,FL (near Ft Lauderdale).

Awesome city to grow up in as Ft Lauderdale beach was 15 minutes away, Miami Beach only about 25, and the Keys only an hour or 2.

I grew up playing paddle ball almost every single day in high school skipping my last class as it was usually my baseball coach and I had to buy him a roll of Copenhagen for the week.

The courts opened up in 1927 and is a huge landmark in Hollywood that I grew up on from like 8 years old until I moved to Orlando. The guys would play and drink while the girls would tan. Man I miss those days.

1927 Courts


Courts and boardwalk today:

[Nole4real]

I was born in Cartagena, Colombia. The rest of our family lives in Colombia or Venezuela.

White sand beaches on part of the coast.

#1- You're driving to Vegas next year and you're bringing the "snow"

#2 - As I get older, few things I REALLY enjoy in life more than a really GOOD beach with clear water and powdery sand

[texasfan4444]

I was born in Cartagena, Colombia. The rest of our family lives in Colombia or Venezuela.

White sand beaches on part of the coast.

#1- You're driving to Vegas next year and you're bringing the "snow"

#2 - As I get older, few things I REALLY enjoy in life more than a really GOOD beach with clear water and powdery sand

Ill talk to my cousin Pablo Escobar Jr.

I'd take a beautiful white sandy beach over Vegas or any other location for that matter.

[autiger730]

Don't forget about this.

yes, cleburne county has a lot of meth heads.

we also make good 'shine.

[cdub21]

Bay City, MI

1:30 min north of detroit, right in the bottom of the curve between index and thumb (using hand as map)

Only thing we really known for is our fireworks, supposedly the biggest in the midwest, not sure on the credibility there.

Famous people would be Madonna(she hates us tho), Eric Devendorf (former Syracuse bball player), and my cousin Alex Izykowski who won bronze medal in 2006 Olympics(i went, fucking amazing)


my cousin is one with flag

basically we suck, but i like it there. travel is easy, go to detroit or ann arbor for sports or entertainment. north for some camping or cabin trips.

[priest19]

Canton, Ohio

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canton,_Ohio

Nothing really that excited about the city. It is going down the tubes because the basis on the city was the factories which are all closing up. Population is declining. McKinley v. Massillon is one of the most storied high school football rivalries.

Notable People:
William McKinley - 25th President Of the United States
Josh McDaniels - Denver Broncos Head Coach
Wayne Fontes - Lions former coach
Marilyn Manson - Rocker (my aunt was actually friends with him)
Thurman Munson - NY Yankees Catcher
Chris Spielman - NFL LB
Eric Snow - NBA PG
Dan Dierdorf - NFL, announcer (real asshole according to a couple family members that knew him)

Pro Football Hall of Fame (Funny thing is, I lived 10 minutes away for 18 years and never went)


McKinley Monument

[VeniVediV1ci]

Rumford, RI

The nicer part of East Providence, which is very portuguese/irish/italian.

Population: 48,688

Famous people:
Jamie Silva- BC grad, Colts S (on IR i bleev)
Meredith Viera- hosts Today show
Ron Wilson- Leafs coach aka the dude nick sucks off each night

Two solid golf courses here named after indians, Agawam Hunt & Wannamoisett

[trendon]

Home of the Brave!!!

Yonkers, New York
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yonkers,_New_York

Fourth largest city in New York w/ a population of about 200,000
World War Z - the Battle of Yonkers - begins right outside my house
It is better than where Riccio grew up. Tougher.