Fun facts about where you live! [Archive] - 4WomenTalk Forums Community for Women

View Full Version : Fun facts about where you live!

Lindsey

08-21-2008, 07:27 AM

So I've been thinking about starting this thread for awhile :) I know where most of you live, but I don't know much about them! So I thought it would be cool for us all to share some cool things about the places where we live! You don't have to say what town or city you're in if you're not comfortable with that, you can even just share some facts about your state or area in general. Try googling where you live and see what you can learn and share! :)

DianaB

08-21-2008, 08:59 AM

This will be an interesting thread. Thanks for thinking of it, Lindsey!

The community where I live has two mounds, one on south and one on the west sides of town. The west mound isn't anything special but on the south mound there's a playground and you can see wonderful views of the town. The community has raised money for a huge flag to be placed on the south mound that can be seen for miles. There's also a large display that was made in the depression era that has lights on it. At Easter you can see a cross and at Christmas you can see a star. The display turns and, again, can be seen for miles. I think that our south mound is something that everyone who comes here should see.

http://www.city-data.com/picfilesv/picv19446.php

Some other interesting things in my community--

http://www.fredoniachamber.com/page3.html

This is a house that I lived in when I was in high school. Glen and I had our wedding reception here. It was so beautiful on the inside and really wasn't as big as it looks.

http://www.neodygrads.com/images/historic/Fredonia/2004%20Fredonia%20FA%20Siler%20Residence.jpg

Lindsey

08-21-2008, 09:12 AM

That house is beautiful Diana! And I love the Victorian house picture on the Chamber of Commerce site.
The whole area looks so beautiful. I love places with a lot of history!

DianaB

08-21-2008, 12:25 PM

I was in that house years ago for a meeting. I remember that the ceilings were very high in it. A banker in town lives in it now and it is a very beautiful home! It's one of the few homes that we have on the National Register.

There's a home that's to the right of this house that's considered a haunted house. It has a sad story that goes with it of a man who fell in love with a woman and had the house built for her to live in after they were married but while on their honeymoon she didn't feel comfortable using the bathroom anywhere and she got very ill and died. The man never came back to the house to live. The people who live there now have done some extensive remodeling and they say that she roams the hallways of the house. She also turns the lights on and off among other things. I got to see that house on a house tour that we have once a year.

Lindsey

08-21-2008, 12:46 PM

That is so creepy! There are a few haunted houses here whose stories are published in a book I have. I've only seen one of them in person, it's on the riverbank and not far from where I live.

Tink

08-21-2008, 01:29 PM

My great grandparents were some of the early settlers in our little community just prior to 1900. They were Norwegian immigrants and farmers.
Coral City got it's name because while digging a dam on the north side of the creek, some odd-looking rock was found. One of the workers jokingly convinced the others that it was coral, and they thought it was funny enough that they decided to name the village after it.

Coral City has at most, 100 people living in it. Many of them, like myself, grew up here, left for a time and have moved back. Several occupy their old family homes and a few are carrying on the family businesses. I live within yelling distance of my childhood home, my grandpas retirement home and the 2-room country school I attended in my early years.

We are in farming country. We have a very strong Scandinavian influence, with German, Polish and Dutch well mixed in. We have a large Amish community surrounding us, and as a rule get along very well. We hold a lot of community events to raise money for the Amish schools, families who have had losses due to death or fire, etc... and when times get rough pull together for the benefit of all.

In our whole county, which consists of 29,000 people, we average one murder per year. Most often it is domestic violence or the result of a drunken brawl. The average home price here is less than $100,000 and median income is $43,000 per household so we are not a rich area by any stretch of the imagination.

Our most famous citizens have been Colonel Larson who was a national champion sharp shooter for many years and country singer Joe Diffy. Probably the most well known person who lives here is Ted Nuggent, who has an old farmstead and loves hunting our rolling hills.

Janet

08-21-2008, 01:38 PM

There is really nothing here in Frankfort. We have a railroad and a Roundhouse (where they turn the railroad cars around to head another direction...very very primative), we have a couple motels, town square, Wal Mart, nice schools, John Deere Implement and a couple other implement dealers..lol..we're a farming community. Nothing unusual to have combines or tractors driving through town or even being driven to the store. Couldn't find any really good pictures to link to. I'll keep trying though. Oh we do have a few festivals in our county, such as the Hotdog Festival, Kirk's Crossing in Kirklin, Summer's End Festival in Rossville (this weekend), and also this weekend is the first festival for this little burg of a place (sneeze and you miss it) called Jefferson.

DianaB

08-21-2008, 05:13 PM

gja1000

08-21-2008, 06:00 PM

I love Austin. I came here 23 years ago expecting to only stay 5-6 years, and here I am, 20+ years later.

Austin doesn't "feel" like Texas - yes, you may see some cowboy boots and hats, but Austin is much less "cowboy" than either Houston or Dallas.

Austin is a very laid back, funky, city with a small town attitude. A common bumper sticker that you will see around town says, "Keep Austin Weird". Another bumper sticker you might see is "Titty Bingo" - which is the name of a local band. :)

Many of the old hippies that didn't stay in California, came to Austin - some of them are my good friends. There is a wonderful feeling of acceptance here. My husband and I noticed immediately that we could go into a place of business, e.g., a restaurant, and someone would be dressed up in a suit and tie and next to them was someone in shorts and flip flops and it seems perfectly normal and no one thinks anyone else is over/under dressed.

Austin is considered by many as the "Live music capitol of the world". And indeed, you can find live music most anytime of the day or night in most any part of the city. We have large beautifully decorated guitars placed around the city to symbolize our love affair with music.

It is said that famous people who have homes here, e.g., Sandra Bullock, Lance Armstrong, Walter Cronkite, and Dennis Quaid, love it here because they can be out and about and no one bothers them. I heard Jesse James (Sandra Bullocks husband) in a TV interview, say that he loves Austin because he doesn't get stopped by the cops when they see all his tattoos.

Yes, Austin City Limits is filmed right here in the middle of town on the University of Texas campus. While it looks like the bands are playing outdoors, it is really just a pretty small room with a backdrop of the city lights. Yes, we have to regularly replace the green Austin City Limits highway signs on the roads into the city. The tickets are free and it really is a wonderful way to see some great acts up close and personal.

Austin is home to one of the worlds largest colonies of Mexican freetail bats (they come here from Mexico in the summer). They live under the bridge on Congress street over the Colorado river. When they fly out in the evening to feed, you will find hundreds of people down by the river banks watching the large black cloud of bats emerge. It takes them all about 15-20 minutes to fly out. It looks like a large wavey black cloud.

The restaurants in Austin are very very good - if not, the restaurant doesn't last long. Everyone loves to go out to eat and there is usually always a long wait at almost any restaurant in the evenings on the weekends. Many of them also have live music venues. Janis Joplin sang at Threadgill's restaurant back in the 60's before she was famous. Russell Crow and his band and Dennis Quaid and his band play at Stubb's BBQ joint.

I could blab on and on about Austin, I really do love this place.

Here's a website where you can learn more about my favorite city.

http://www.austintexas.org/

Lindsey

08-21-2008, 07:36 PM

Lindsey

08-21-2008, 07:38 PM

Gayle, that was a really good review of Austin :D It's great that you love it there. It's huge, isn't it? Probably huge to my standards :) How many people live there?

Lindsey

08-21-2008, 08:19 PM

I'm going to start out with just some facts about the province, since I've pretty much lived everywhere here ;)
Saskatchewan covers an area of 588,276.09 square kilometres (227,134.67 sq mi). It has over 100,000 lakes. Yeah, really :) Anywhere you live, there's a lake or two nearby. In the small town where I grew up, there were 2 lakes within 20 minutes, and another 2 within about 40 minutes of my parents' house. We had a cabin at one and we could just head out after work or school and spend the evening out there. Saskatchewan is named for the cree word kisiskāciwani-sīpiy which means "swift-flowing river" That refers to the Saskatchewan River, which spans across the whole province, and into Manitoba and Alberta. The north of the province is covered in boreal forest, and the rest of the province is pretty much flat farmland. It's a joke around here that in Saskatchewan you can watch your dog run away for days :) Temperatures here can go from -55 C in the winter to 40 C in the summer (-67 F to 104 F). We produce more than 54% of Canada's wheat for export. Wascana Park in Regina (our capital) is almost 4 times larger than Central Park in NYC.
There's a lot of history that my family was involved in here in the prairies but it's probably more interesting to me than to you guys ;) One of my ancestors was a land suveyor and surveyed one of the first settlements in the prairies, the Red River Settlement in Manitoba. Another of my ancestors was good friends with Louis Riel who was a huge player in Saskatchewan's history, for whom the Riel Rebellion was named for. During the rebellion, he was grazed on the head with an arrow, and after that always wore his hat cocked to one side to cover the scar :)
Now for my city, Saskatoon! It's the largest city in the province, with a population of over 233,000. It's known as Bridge City (with 7 bridges spanning the Saskatchewan river, which runs through the middle of the city), Toon Town, or The Paris of the Prairies. Saskatoon is named after the saskatoon berry, which is very prominent around here. Everywhere you go, there's saskatoon berry jam, saskatoon berry pie, saskatoon berry salad, anything you can make with them is made!
We are home to the University of Saskatchewan, where I attended for 2 years. There is a ton of great research that goes on at the university. We have the synchrotron (The Canadian Light Source) which I believe is the only of its kind in North America. It basically splits atoms. It was a $179 million project, but I hear it works great ;)
Queen Elizabeth got the key to the city after visiting last in 2005. Prince Charles was here in 2001 and I think that's it for recent royalty visits.
In 1982 this guy tried to buy the St Louis Blues (hockey) and bring them to Saskatoon, but the NHL prevented it, saying Saskatoon was too small. However, we can still lay claim to Gordie Howe, who is one of the best hockey players ever :) There are a whole bunch of Saskatonians who have and do play in the NHL. Hockey is pretty much a big deal out here :D We also have had a few Olympic gold medalists. John Deifenbaker, former Prime Minister, came from Saskatoon.
Here's some pictures!
Saskatoon at night:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/60/Saskatoon_Skyline_Night.jpg/744px-Saskatoon_Skyline_Night.jpg
The U of S.. all the buildings look like this. It's the most gorgeous campus I've ever seen. This building in particular... well I happened to pass out while working on a chem lab in the basement... 911 was called and there was an ambulance and everything! ;) just a little side story haha
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/5/59/Thorvaldson.JPG/800px-Thorvaldson.JPG
Here's the Bezz... fully known as the Delta Bessborough. Probably the classiest place to stay in the city. I know I could never afford it!
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/06/Hotel_Bessborough_rear_2.jpg/800px-Hotel_Bessborough_rear_2.jpg
Another cool night picture:
http://www.tourismsaskatoon.com/gallery/images/60.jpg
And here's a pretty winter picture:
http://www.tourismsaskatoon.com/gallery/images/74.jpg
Have I written enough of a novel yet? Okay I'm done now :)

Tiramisu

08-22-2008, 07:16 AM

I live just outside the Houston city limits, in Harris County, Texas, and my mailing address is Houston. There's a jillion fun things to do here. Of course, I do very few of them. We enjoyed the great zoo and Astro World while the kids were growing up. We are about 50 miles north of the Gulf of Mexico coast.

Do I live in he biggest city of the group? At heart, I'm a country girl from back piney woods Louisiana.

DianaB

08-22-2008, 08:27 AM

Wow!! These are all so interesting!!! Your city is very beautiful, Lindsey. I love the first night time picture!!!! I'm going to remember this as a place that I would like to go to!!!

Janet

08-22-2008, 09:33 AM

Ok Janet, this is for you.

This is her library. Isn't it a beautiful building? There's also some facts about her community.

http://www.epodunk.com/cgi-bin/genInfo.php?locIndex=5360

This is a school. It looks a lot like a school we have in my town.

http://www.historiclandmarks.org/SiteCollectionImages/News%20Photos/4-08-Kyger-School-Frankfort.jpg

This is her courthouse. It's very beautiful too!

http://www.indianalaw.to/clinton-county-courthouse-frankfort.jpg

Here's a neat fountain!

http://search.msn.com/images/results.aspx?q=frankfort+indiana+photos&mkt=en-us#focal=ea18ab63af5e7f18887d4367777f9fea&furl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wvec.k12.in.us%2Fcpes%2Fim_j onsonfountain.jpg

Here's the Roundhouse!

http://search.msn.com/images/results.aspx?q=frankfort+indiana+photos&mkt=en-us#focal=269ee3bbc0006a79b2ae3c3b31266af8&furl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.historiclandmarks.org%2FSite CollectionImages%2FRoundhouse-1.jpg

So......How'd I do?

The library hasn't looked like that for over 20 years...it's all been modernized, but I couldn't find any pictures.

That school will be tore down my October 1 .

The courthouse is beautiful and I grew up in our park and I've never ever seen that fountain. It must be an old picture, because I know every inch of that park. That is the roundhouse. The town is trying to find enough funds to turn it into a museum of sorts.

I think I have a very nice hometown. I just couldn't find any updated pictures of anything except the courthouse. I may go out this weekend and take a few pictures. I've been wanting to, but whether I have time is something else. I want to go shopping and I want to go to the festival too.

I'll just have to see what I can come with.

Thank Diana for doing this. It has got me to thinking...and that's a good thing..LOL.

DianaB

08-22-2008, 12:22 PM

I found another cool site with pictures. It shows the Christmas star and our downtown area. The Missouri-Pacific Depot is where Janet and Marilyn bought their purses from. It's been converted into a flower shop. The Cox motel was owned by my parents and they lived in it while they ran it.

http://www.thelope.com/2007/12/star-of-fredonia.html

Janet

08-22-2008, 05:57 PM

I am really liking all the pictures of everyone's town/city. So beautiful and interesting.

Lindsey

08-24-2008, 07:07 PM

Oh I just thought of another interesting fact :) I'm sitting here watching Gene Simmons Family Jewels and I remembered that his wife, Shannon Tweed, is also from here. She went to high school with Kyle's aunt. Gene and Shannon were both here for a visit last week, and they went to a radio station and dropped off a signed guitar that Gene used on tour, to be auctioned. It went for $2,000!

Janet

08-25-2008, 08:45 AM

I love watching his show. I watched it for a couple hours yesterday.

Dobie

08-25-2008, 03:04 PM

One fun thing about Rhode Island is that Mr. Potato Head is the tourism ambassador.

Lindsey

08-25-2008, 03:38 PM

One fun thing about Rhode Island is that Mr. Potato Head is the tourism ambassador.

lol! That's awesome!

gja1000

08-25-2008, 05:41 PM

Hi Lindsay,
I think you mentioned that Austin was too big and asked about the population. Yes, it is big, but it doesn't "feel" big - I know that sound silly, but true.

The population of Austin proper is only about 600,000 - but the metropolitian area, including all the suburbs is much bigger.

I think the reason it "feels" smaller is that it works hard to keep its small town "feel".

For example, we celebrate Eyeore's birthday - yep, once a year, we have a big festival in the park! We also have Spamarama - where everyone enters their "best" (ahem) spam recipe, complete with the finished product and judging for winners. Once a month, we have the Citywide Garage Sale downtown. It's really more like a big antique sale. All you have to do is say to someone, "Are you going to the Citywide?" and they know exactly what you mean. The first Thursday of each month - we have First Thursday (real unique name, I know) where a downtown street turns into a giant sidewalk sale/street festival. Thousands of people come down to shop, eat, mingle, listen to music and just have a great time. It's things like these that help Austin to keep its small town "feel"

The city revolves around the University of Texas whose campus is almost right downtown. The capitol (Austin is the capitol of Texas) is on 12th street and the campus starts on 15th street. The University has an enrollment of about 50,000 students per year. I think the U keeps the city "young".

teri88

08-26-2008, 06:14 AM

I'm going to talk about the town we lived in up until last November, because it is so dear to my heart (Where we are now is just temporary, we're still hoping to find a place to live back in our old town). Milltown is just over 100 years old. It's a one mile square town that we refer to as a bedroom community. No big industry, just homes and small businesses. There is a quaint main st. with family owned shops, a big community pool and an excellent school system. (I was on the board of education for 6 years....two of those as President). My husband and I bought our house there in 1991. There are many 3rd and 4th generations in the town, lots of young people buy grandma's house when she dies, that sort of thing. There is a big pond in the center of town where everyone loves to go fishing. It really is Mayberry RFD. It's a wonderful town to raise children in. Even though the house we are in now is much nicer than the little capecod we had there, we'd go back in a minute if we could!

Shada

08-26-2008, 03:05 PM

'Mr. Christmas' is from my hometown, also Tom Bodett of Motel6 (keep the light on). Went to school with Tom. A nice guy.
Verne Troyer grew up in neighboring town. Can't forget Colon which is 'The Magic Capital of the World', which is another neighboring town.

The only thing the hometown is known for now is that it is slowly dying due to losing jobs. The housing is declining due to people losing their jobs. Buyers market here. Tons of houses for sale. Tons of foreclosures in paper nightly.

Really sad.

2tiredmom

08-27-2008, 02:40 AM

Diana,
Thanks for making me homesick with those pics for Frankfort. LOL.
Anyway where I live in the very far north east corner of Indiana our county is known for it's 101 plus lakes. Its very pretty up here but watch out in the summer time. The lakers come to town.

DianaB

08-27-2008, 08:30 AM

One fun thing about Rhode Island is that Mr. Potato Head is the tourism ambassador.

Do you mind if I laugh about this? :sidesplit: :sidesplit:

Dobie

08-27-2008, 04:04 PM

Do you mind if I laugh about this? :sidesplit: :sidesplit:

There are statues of him all over the state!!

gja1000

08-27-2008, 04:09 PM

I just read in our paper today that Sandra Bullock was called for jury duty in Austin (where she lives, at least part time) last Monday. It said she showed up just like the rest of us schleps and sat in the room for jury questioning. However the prosecutor used a preemptive strike to exclude her from the jury panel. Guess he didn't want her "celebrity status" to overshadow the trial!!! :) The article said she didn't even ask to be excused. Now THAT is impressive - because I usually ask to be excused at least once when they call me - how do they know that the week they want me to serve is the BUSIEST week of my life!!! :rolleyes:

Dobie

08-27-2008, 04:13 PM

I've never been called for jury duty - I have friends who have been called 3 or 4 times - I always thought it might be interesting to serve on a jury.

gja1000

08-27-2008, 04:21 PM

I've never been called for jury duty - I have friends who have been called 3 or 4 times - I always thought it might be interesting to serve on a jury.

It is very interesting - I was on the jury for a murder case - the defendant had pled guilty of the murder, we just had to decide what kind of murder it was - plain murder or murder in the process of committing another crime. They had plea bargained to not give the death penalty - I'm glad for that - I'd hate to have to sentence someone to death.

Chandra Amaya

08-27-2008, 09:25 PM

Elizabethton is a city in and the county seat of Carter County, Tennessee, United States. It is also the site of the first independent American settlement west of both the Eastern Continental Divide and the original thirteen British colonies in America.

Jason Witten, Player for the Dallas Cowboys is from my town.

Filmed in the Philippines, Elizabethton, Tennessee, and other various Carter County, Tennessee locations such as Buck Mountain and the Bee Cliff.[1] The "Palace In The Sky" resort in Tagaytay was used as the setting for Ramon Cota's hideout. The interior set of Cota's hideout (and the sets from many other interior scenes) from Delta Force 2 were actually constructed within the warehouse of former shampoo manufacturer in Elizabethton, Tennessee. Shampoo labels with a Elvis-like caricature for "Love Me Tender Shampoo" were found still attached to columns within the warehouse stage.

http://www.elizabethtontennessee.com/

Happy2BMe

08-28-2008, 04:17 PM

Ball Ground is so small that if you blink you'll miss it. However, it is about to undergo a revitalization and will very pretty when thru. The town council wants it to be a "destination" for folks on their way to the mountains. The name for the city is from an old Cherokee indian ball game playing field.

pope1982

08-30-2008, 07:05 PM

This is my hometown *sigh*. http://www.ci.southbridge.ma.us/gallery.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southbridge,_Massachusetts

Now I live about 10-15 minute drive from down town Baltimore. It took several years for this simple small town girl to get used to fast pace city life...

I am going through it all over again since I just came back from a trip back there lol

Janet

08-31-2008, 05:35 AM

Here are some stats about Frankfort... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frankfort,_Indiana

When I get some pictures taken, I will post them.

DianaB

08-31-2008, 04:40 PM

I've never been called for jury duty - I have friends who have been called 3 or 4 times - I always thought it might be interesting to serve on a jury.

I've been called 2 or 3 times for jury duty. Twice it never went ahead and the third time I went in and the lawyers were choosing who to keep as jurors. After we had a lunch break we came back in and they excused everyone to go home because while we were in line to go in a woman was telling another woman all about what had happened and that was a big no-no. They ended up getting another jury but it never went to trial because a deal was made. It was a murder trial and I really wasn't looking forward to being a part of it anyway.

DianaB

08-31-2008, 04:58 PM

Wow! Everyone has some really cool pictures and facts about their hometown. Traci, the pictures that you had were absolutely beautiful!!

Janet

08-31-2008, 05:57 PM

I didn't even see the link...those are really beautiful pictures. I'm afraid you won't find anything like that here in Frankfort...lol