Your Hometown

[Sean in New Orleans]

What is unique or interesting about your hometown and how about some pics? None of us can see everywhere in the United States and alot of us live "off the beaten path." This is a great chance to learn something new and see other places. I love hearing and seeing "stuff," from other places. I have a huge collection of postcards from all over the world, because I know I won't see all of these places--but, I have friends, family, and acquaintances that can share them with me!
I'm from New Orleans--most people know alot about New Orleans and it's unique culture and history. I guess one thing alot of people don't realize is that in New Orleans, we have our own dialect and phases that are unique to this place and different from the rest of The United States and the world, for that matter. Here are some terms New Orleanians use and what they mean...this is just a short list:

neutral ground - median strip
banquette - sidewalk

make groceries - go food shopping
solid quarter - a 25› piece

go by my mama’s - visit my mom
I passed a mop and passed a vacuum.

bobo - scratch or cut
suck the heads and squeeze the tips

remoulade - spicy sauce served with shrimp
gumbo - spicy seafood or chicken soup

panné meat - cutlet
andouille - sausage

jambalaya - Creole rice stew
boudin - sausage

king cake - a sweet roll baked to commemorate the day of the three Wise Men, and served during Mardi Gras
second line - the line created by neighborhood people who dance along with a street parade

krewe - an organization that prepares a parade float with a king, queen, and court
catch - bead ands doubloons thrown from Mardi Gras floats

maid - a member of a krewe court
I don't really know how to post pics on this forum, but, here is a link with some photos of my home, New Orleans.... http://www.emporis.com/en/il/pc/?id=101332&aid=3&sro=1

[wx247]

Well, my hometown isn't very big so we don't have as many claim to fames, but we do have some beautiful parks nearby... our city park is one of the largest in the nation, Roaring River State Park (home to the best trout fishing in Missouri thank you very much), and Jolly Mill.

A lively industrial base which causes this 7,500 people town to become a 20,000 people town during the day. We are home to some great Mexican restaraunts as well (from our Hispanic friends).

You can experience all 4 seasons here -- sometimes in just a matter of hours.

I love Monett (if you can't tell) and I hope to remain here for many years to come.

The chamber website with pictures looks to be down so pictures will come some other time.

[bfez1]

Same as you, Sean
I'm from New Orleans, too!

beignet---donut covered with powdered sugar, famous in the French Quarter

make groceries!

How's yours Mama!

[j]

Most interesting tidbit about my hometown (Born in Worcester, Mass --- moved to Holden, Mass at age 8 where I grew up) is hands down, the 1953 Tornado. Although I wasn't born yet, I feel as though I've lived through it. The tornado actually passed about 1/8 mile away from our house ripping the roof off and breaking every window in the house. The path of the twister took it directly over a greenhouse across the way, which left glass covering our yard from one end to the other. A house about 1000 feet away was lifter off its foundation and deposited in the middle of the street.

The intensity of the storm whose winds were estimated at 250 mph, can be viewed from its debris field which extended as far as 50 miles (80 km) away. In fact, when debris started raining on the Blue Hill Meteorological Observatory 35 miles east, staff notified the Boston Weather Bureau office which immediately issued a severe thunderstorm and tornado warning for the area west of Boston. Debris fell on Blue Hill for thirty minutes; first oak twigs with frayed leaves, then papers, rags, wood splinters, shingles, roofing paper, insulation, 6 ft (2.1m) clapboard planks, and ten-foot square (a square metre) pieces of roofing or walls. The director of the observatory Charles Brooks reportedly found a French music box, an aluminum trap door, a piece of roof, and a frozen couch cover on the grounds. Debris was also found in Massachusetts Bay near Weymouth and out in the Atlantic Ocean. Chunks of soggy, frozen mattress fell into Boston Harbor.

By the time the tornado dissipated, it had travelled 46 miles, killed 94, injured 1288, and left 10,000 homeless. By the Fujita damage-scale, the storm has since been rated as an F4, although some suggest it may have been an F5. The damage was estimated at $52 million ($349 million in 2002 dollars) and included 4,000 buildings and hundreds of cars.

Here is a picture taken in Holden, Mass:

[HurricaneGirl]

I'll be flying back home on Saturday and will take some pictures of my old stomping grounds up in Michigan. I'll post some pictures when I get back

[NWIASpotter]

Well my hometown is very small. I know you think that a couple thousand might be small, my town of Terril, IA. A WHOPPING 404 people. It's fairly fun though, you can always find something to do, and most of the people are nice. We have our one cop that is in town every once in awhile, usually on nights their are parties But, it's not to bad of a town.

[TexasStooge]

My hometown of Irving recently built a park near Delaware Creek. Too bad no one can swim in the water by order of law, however some people do anyway. There's also a Veterans of War Memorial Park that recently opened near the Central library

We also have the Millennium Fountain. To see it, click here. The image refreshes itself every 10 seconds. Kids have been known to swim in those too.

There are also 4th of July Parades held every year.

Just recently, Irving has celebrated its 100th Anniversary.

I'm sure I'm forgetting others.

Here's their website: http://www.ci.irving.tx.us/index.htm

[Lindaloo]

Pascagoula is home to the largest navy contractor, Northrop Grumman. We get to see Navy ships come and go. We get to see them on their final journey when they are decommissioned here. We also got to see the USS Cole come in "piggy back" after it was bombed in 2000. The Cole was repaired here and we got to see the ship head back to duty.

http://www.ss.northropgrumman.com/company/ingalls.cfm

[Cass]

I live in Ontario, Canada, nothing too thrilling about my city, other then it is located about an hours north of Toronto and all the cottage country commuters travel through here to get to their summer homes in northern Ontario. It can get very busy here in the summer. The population is 125,000
I love my city though, has a beautiful lake and a lot of park land. Tons of shopping too
Here is a webcam shot of my city, as you can see, its partly cloudy today...

[Skywatch_NC]

I live in Raleigh, NC but consider Cincinnati, OH my TRUE home city!!

http://www.cincinnatichamber.com/

Eric

[Miss Mary]

Eric - I was wondering if you were going to mention my hometown, Cincinnati, too!!!

What are we known for....

Chili!

Ice Cream (homemade Graeter's, Oprah's favorite!)

The Reds!

Not the Bengals! (oops sorry, one of these years they'll do us proud)

Pete Rose (ugh)

Being conservative

Good strong family values

The Ohio River at our feet, the focus of our city.

The Who Concert Tragedy (very sad, 1979)

Many celebs grew up here: Doris Day, Andy Williams, Sarah Jessica Parker, many others that I can't think of right now! Oh John Ritter's wife, used to be on Wings....

Mary

[OtherHD]

Gotta represent Houston...which is known worldwide for its


Pollution
Perpetually-choking MLB team
Suburban sprawl
Pollution
Space programs
Fatness
Barfalo Bayeww
Galleria
Multicultural diversity
The Lastros
Pollution
Humidity
Fatness
Proximity to the sludge pool, I mean beach
Oil, petrochemical, and energy industries
Pollution
Rivalry with Dallas

man I love it here in Florida As for the humidity, it's a small price to pay in exchange for not having snowstorms in the winter.

[breeze]

Well, Summertown is an unincorporated town
of a bit over 3,000 (counting the "outskirts"),
but, as of now, there's not even any pics to
post of anything really interesting! But, we
DO have a petition floating about, as we speak,
to incorporate Summertown. We need the
signatures of 1,284 registered voters before
it can be presented to the Lawrence County
legislature to be included on the referendum in
November. Fingers are crossed - we may just
make it, this election year!

[azskyman]

My original childhood hometown of Belvidere Illinois is primarily known for its 5,000 employee Daimler-Chrysler assembly plant that was built there when our town only had a population of 14,000, the tragic and deadly F4 tornado that took 24, mostly student, lives and injured more than 450 in 1967, our homegrown beauty Miss America 1969, Judi Ford, and more recently declared the "city of murals" in Illinois for a series of 9 huge murals painted over a three day period (I served on the committee then) in 1997.

http://www.letterhead.com/meets/walldogs97/belvidere.html

Scottsdale, Arizona, where I now reside is known for its numerous golf courses, its huge equestrian heritage, and its terrific winter weather.

[Brent]

My hometown is part of a tri-city area that equals about 20,000 people(about 9,000 in this one). Not much of interest. There are several old mills and quite a few plants and factories around here. We also have an interstate that runs through here(1 mile north of where I am sitting right now).

[David]

Topeka, KS, capital city of Kansas.

Not much to see here....

Wanamaker Road is usually the busiest in December... with Christmas shopping. Traffic jams galore. On Wanamaker you can find:

West Ridge Mall
Wal*mart anmd Sams club
K Mart
Steak and Shake
Wendy's (Avoid it..)
Mc'D
Best Buy

It's busy...

Other then that Topeka is boring, never come here.

[Guest]

I live in a growing metropolitan area, encompassing 8 counties. In the mid 90s, the city of Omaha PROPER had ~ 350,000 population. Now, it has 400,000 approximately.

The metro area of Omaha and COuncil Bluffs, IA, along with the surrounding suburbs in nearby counties, reach upwards to about 900,000 inhabitants.

Back in the late 80s, they began a freeway widening project on I-80 through the city. If they did not do this, traffic would be a nightmare. Now, our loop (I-680) is getting attention. Further spoke freeways on to the west and south are being built. Interstate 29 serves the Iowa side, and that, too, has some capacity improvement along the way.

Currently, the growth of Omaha is beginning to creep into areas towards Lincoln, our state's capitol city. I-80 is going to be six lanes in 10 years between the two cities.

Downtown Omaha has the tallest skyscraper between Chicago and Denver, the 40-Story Tower at First National Center, a recently refurbished riverfront along the Missouri River, complete with trails, a riverfront park, and a brand new convention center and arena complex. In the non-too-distant future, condo towers are going to be built along the riverfront (still proposed but likely a go).

Shopping galore from the surburban shopping malls and strip malls to the Old Market District downtown. Restuarants are in abundance.

Bellevue, a southern suburb, is home to Strategic Air Command/Offutt AIr Force Base. On 9/11/01, Offutt was one of the stops President Bush made during the emergency.

Basically, if you left the Omaha/Council Bluffs area in 1990 or earlier, and came back today, you would be amazed with the development and the traffic (a BIG growing pain I guess).

[stormie_skies]

My hometown is a little town with a big name .... Oshkosh, Wisconsin!

Well known for 3 things:

* Oshkosh B Gosh clothing and childrens accessories....which seem to be becoming more and more popular all the time. I used to go to their factory outlet store (an actual factory outlet store, lol) with my mom when I was a kid and buy the cute lil overalls They moved their production plants out of Oshkosh and overseas when I was in high school though, so Im not as much of a fan as I used to be.

* The EAA Fly-In. The Experimental Aircraft Association has its annual fly in and convention in Oshkosh every summer, bringing aircraft and tourists from all over the world. I loved going when I was a kid ....the Concorde was always my favorite featured plane, and I was really sad when they were all retired.

* Cheese!!!!!! I know its an AWFUL stereotype, but if you've never had fresh Wisconsin cheese then you just dont understand All my friends who have moved out of state still crave the stuff, and we all have our families send us some when we can... If you are ever in the area, pick up a bag of Union Star cheese curds. Then you will know what I mean!

And YES - I am a tried and true Green Bay Packers fan, and always will be (sorry Texans ). Wisconsinites bleed green and gold, yanno!

[nystate]

My current hometown is Watertown, NY. We are known for-

-Fort Drum (10th Mountain Division based here, another 10,000 people are set to move into the area shortly)
-Being in the snowiest region east of the rockies (about 20 miles to the south are the highest annual snowfalls, which often exceed 300 inches)
-Nearby is Montague, NY where the US 24 hour snowfall record was made and still stands aat 77 inches
-Cccoolldd
-World Kayak Federation Time Trials are being held here this year. 150 kayakers from around the world are competing here for a chance to represent the US in Perth, Australia next year
-Close to Syracuse, NY, which, once Destiny USA is built, will be one of the world's premier tourist attractions.
-Less than 30 miles from the Canadian border
-Hometown of movie star Viggo Mortenson, who played Aargorn (sp?) in Lord of the Rings
-The place where the pinetree air freshener was invented and is still made

[Sean in New Orleans]

Cool stuff---I love it!