When is City Living Preferable to "Going Country"...and Vice Versa?
71Those of us who prefer a rural--even remote--homesite in the country to an apartment (or house) in the city comprise a relatively hardheaded bunch who'd rather swing a pick and shovel any day than meekly switch to life under the lights. That's a given.
But...how many of us are there? Really?
And...how many of our city-loving, country-hating counterparts are there? Really?
The Census could provide rough answers to questions like that, but how about putting a bit of a finer point on it? That is, what percentage of people would choose one location over the other...and under what circumstances?
You know where this is heading, right? Poll time!
And why not? It's impossible to turn on the TV these days without one talking head or another going on about this or that politcal poll. This poll shows President Obama losing to a Generic Republican in 2012 but that poll shows him doing much better if the Republican is actually given a name like Mitt Romney or Michelle Bachmann or Sarah Palin. For example.
Okay, so it's getting tiriesome already, and we've not even hit 2012 quite yet (this being July 24, 2011). Take a break! Kick back, kick off your shoes (or flip-flops, or combat boots, whatever), enjoy. This one's just for fun. Unless you're actually one of those folks trying to decide whether to move from city to country or vice versa; in that case, this one's just for you.
Poll #1: City to Country (for Urban Dwellers)
When would you seriously moving to a residence (or bare land) at least fifteen miles from the nearest grocery store?
See results without voting
Poll #2 : Country to City (for Them Folks out in Green Acres)
Under what conditions would you consider moving to a city apartment building in downtown Wherever, USA?
See results without votingOkay, just one more "poll set", to find out what people intend to do after they make the switch, should switching be what their little hearts desire. Even if you're not ever going to seriously consider changing environments so drastically, you might have thought what you'd do if....
Or perhaps not. I recall vividly the first time I realized just how ironclad our human perceptions can be. The year, though that's not important, was 1971. In Hartford, Connecticut, in an area of the city where law enforcement officers dreaded to see freshly srubbed out-of-towners even tread, I happened to become acquainted with a group of half a dozen young people who'd been born and raised right in the neighborhood. None of them, ranging from the age of 26 down to 8, had ever been outside of Hartford's city limits.
Not one of them could even begin to imagine anything outside of the city, either. I spoke with them about the Big Sky Country of Montana, my home stomping grounds, but might as well have speaking Swahili or Martian for all the difference it made. If it wasn't city, it wasn't real to them. Period.
Anyway, the polls....
For City Dwellers
If you ever did move to the country, what is the first thing you'd do?
See results without voting
For Country Folk
If you ever did move to the city, what is the first thing you'd do?
See results without votingThat's it. The poll results (city vs. country) should be interesting, at least for me.
Valuable, too. At least, no less valuable than the bumper crop of political polls out there in the Here and Now, which can be used as toilet paper if nothing else.
Remember in November 2012, no matter where you live.
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Nor would we!
Awesome new avatar, by the way.
OK, I really don't want to be that far from the grocery, but the sentiments still stand. I would like to be within 10 miles of the grocery but out of town.
I grew up in the country, and we hope to move back out into the middle of no where when our finances allow..
Becky: Understood on the 10-mile distance preference. I just had to pick a number, hopefully one that would let our basic city slicker readers understand what we were talking about, more or less. We have a small convenience/store gas store five miles away in one direction, but the nearest grocery (a most excellent Safeway) is, yep, fifteen miles from the house.
biblicaliving: We REALLY understand that.
This is great!
I would actually love to live in the country. I would if I was rich. Less crowded, more natural, almost no pollution. I am a nature lover.
Thanks for the laugh man. :)
Great hub, Ghost! I kind of move back and forth from the city to country so I get the best of both worlds! Voted up, up and away!
Daffy Duck: Any time I can make Daffy laugh--especially when he's wearing his lion avatar costume (Daffy Lion? NOW I'm confused!)--that has to be a good thing! (That lion does kind of look like he's laughing....)
Dex: Good for you. Hopefully, the city pad is an apartment or condo so you at least don't get stuck with mowing the yard. I hate that. Ah, the memories:
"GROW GRASS!"
"Why?"
"So out can CUT GRASS!"
"Why?"
"So you can GROW GRASS MORE!"
On and on, ad nauseum. Much prefer the country.
"SHOOT SNAKE!"
"Why?"
"So you can live long enough to STOMP SCORPION!"
Etc....
When you go on vacation to get away from it all, you sure don't go to the city.
I'm a country girl gone city. I prefer the country, but it is nice to be within close proximity to EVERYTHING my little heart desires. Cute hub, voted up and funny!
Will: Um-m-m...okay. Trying to remember...on one vacation (of the few I ever took), I recall going to a city first (Calgary). But then we did hit the countryside with a special jaunt to Lake Louise, so....
Another time, there were kids involved, and we ended up at Disney World. Not sure I counted that one as vacation for myself, though. Mickey's a pain.
SusieQ42: That's the clincher for those who like the lights, all right--everything in close proximity. Which has always puzzled me no end, as some of my country homes (over the years) were within a few miles of all I needed (grocery, gas, mail)...while you could spend half the day getting to the store and back in San Diego when I lived there.
Thanks for the votes.
True, but my family who still live in the country, don't get the benefits of having a mall within a short drive! Don't get me wrong, I do love the country. I find it very peaceful.
I live a 45 min. drive from 16 shopping malls. Any time I wish to go, I can. If I lived in Nashville, I don't know if I could get there any faster. Town traffic is the pits but mine is all Interstate.
OK, Ghost, I voted in all 4 of your polls. I like living in the city but country living is OK for short spells - like maybe 2 weeks.
SusieQ42: True, having to drive a bit to get to a mall could be frustrating for the hardcore mall-aholic. One of my sisters in Montana lives roughly 50 miles from the nearest mall. For the other, it's closer to 75 miles. So neither of them gets to the mall on anything like a daily basis; that's a given.
Becky: You nailed it. Town traffic is definitely the pits.
drbj: You're more flexible than I am--two weeks in the city is way too long for me, even though I once lived in San Diego for 4 years...6 months...27 days...13 hours, 9 minutes, and 18 seconds.
The most peaceful years of my life were spent on a Kentucky farm, down in a 'holler', with the nearest neighbors half a mile away, out of site around a bend in the road, and behind a wooded hill. The only television we got was a snowy PBS, so we entertained ourselves.
Understood, Will. Same here, more or less. On the ranch growing up, the buildins sat up above a bend in the Clark Fork River, with Rattler Hill to the east and a smaller, unnamed ridge to the west, no neighbors in view. U.S. 10 ran past the place, but the traffic was never heavy and usually whizzed right on by.
No PBS--in fact, no TV. The radio got one station well, KOPR in Butte.
Fun hub with lots of interaction. I have never lived in the country, but I think I would enjoy it. My idea of non-city living right now is walking to the things I need - grocery, drugstore, cleaners . . . Ok, so I admit maybe babysteps.
My second wife did babysteps. She was raised in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. We met in Spokane, Washington.
Eventually, following my ideas of where to move, we ended up in a small town in South Dakota...then a smaller one...then 15 miles OUTSIDE of town.
After we were divorced, she hooked up with her third husband...and ended up 25 miles outside of (again) Spokane.
Until THEY divorced, ummpteen years later, and she ended up taking care of her parents...right back in Sioux Falls....
Sounds like you could locate your idea of non-city living in a small town. Those are the only places I've seen where everything is (at least in some towns) within walking distance. Except for maybe a cleaners, which a really small town wouldn't have.
I have lived in the city and I loved it. I live in the suburbs and I love it too. Ideally, I would love to have a place of my own everywhere!
BPop, you're just so loveable your own fine self, you can't help loving your dwellings as well. My city and/or suburbia experiences were not always so...lovely. IDEA FOR HUB! THANKS!
Funny hub, your voting options were entertaining. I'm in a suburb of a large city and am quite content here, though I did say that if I won the lottery I would consider moving out to the country; this way I could keep my suburban home also.
Being content where you are is a good thing, Phil. Thanks for commenting.
dantisheeple 10 months ago
I live out in the sticks or "BFE" as some of my city friends so affectionately call it. I wouldn't change for nothin'!