I prefer the country, athough my veiws toward the city have become more accepting as of late... but I need open, grassy, ground (although I'd rathert live in a forest in the middle of nowhere... )

I feel you wolfloversk. I barely see green nature in the city which makes me more stressed when I am tired.

After spending a lot of time in the city this past fall (because of school), I've grown to like it better. Some of the parks are very beautiful, and there's a huge variety of people to meet. I still prefer a smaller city out west closer to a national park or something, but I've grown to appreciate the city more .

Country kid all da way. I live in a small town, population nine hundred and fifty five people. Give me a shotgun, some shells a knife and a tarp and plop me down in the woods. Leave me there all day and come back, I won't just have dinner ready, I'll have a table to eat it on, a fire to roast meat on a tent to sleep in afterwards.

I can survive very well in cities, however, they scare me more then a charging bear. A charging bear you can kill, a gigantic cement, wood and steel building... umm, not so much.

That being said, I've never been on a subway, never been on a boat larger then a canoe, never ever taken a ride on a gigantic flying hulk of steel of metal and have never, ever been on the top floor of a skyscraper. Ever. In fact, I've never been in a skyscraper's bottom floor.

I could ride an escalator up and down all day, simply because I don't get to ride them very often. While I may not have done something’s that many city slickers take for granted, I've done many things they have not ever dreamt of doing... Or in some cases... Wanted to do.

I've gutted a deer, I've shot a turkey, and I caught many different kinds’ fish on a dee steel hook. I've jumped off a hundred foot cliff, running my hand along a waterfall as I did, into a thirty foot deep pool of water.

I've repaired my dad's car in the parking lot outside the house. I can tell what is wrong with a vehicle just by driving it. I can change four tires in forty seconds. With an air wrench of course. Without it, well it takes a bit longer....

Anyways, my dream cabin- err house is a small, two room house, cabin in the middle of the woods somewhere in PA. About fifteen minute drive from a small town with a small store and restaurant. Yep that’s the life.

The reason I love my small town is the people, you get to know the people who you rub shoulders with. That old man who wanders around my home town? Nobody knows what his name is. So we refer to him as Mr. Bruce, rumor has it that he served in Vietnam and got a piece of shrapnel so close to his heart that the doctors wouldn’t remove it.

The barber? He’s been there since 1974. Same shop, same barber pole, same barber chair, same bear mount on the wall and the same jack a lope hanging on the wall, back when he first started he gave shaves and hair washes. Now? Mostly hair cuts.

The pizza shop across the road? Well that is a small town owner. The pizza is heavenly, The car dealer, next door? Well dat place sells American made pickups only, because Mazda’s and Sedans aren’t in big demand around here.

We got one gas station, it is family owned and operated. Cheapest gas for miles around, because he can. You walk next door and there is a sporting goods store, the walls are lined with guns and fishing rods. Yep. This is small town USA, and I love it.

“Cause everybody knows me and I know them and I believe that’s the way we were supposed to live, I wouldn’t trade one single day. Here in small town USA”

(Btw, I'm proud of being a country boy, if you didn't catch that )

(Has had a veeeerrrryyyy bad experience with escalators...* shivers*) My knee shall never be the same...

That was awesome nn

Frankly I'd much rather be face to face with a grizzly bear than a train...
Technology scares me sometimes

As for me, plop me in the forest, plop me in a cave, plop me in a swamp, plop me in a mountain, plop me in the middle of the ocean- if it's wild I'm happy (*wonders if she should become a hermit )

I grew up in a relatively small town, narnianerd, but moved to the city a few *coughsneezedecadescough* ago to find a job. I found your post very nostalgic. Nicely done!

I can appreciate the convenience of the big city: my younger brother moved from Seattle (where they often went to a Costco less than 5 minutes from their house) to rural northeast Minnesota, where it's 65 miles to anything bigger than a small corner grocery store - and that's in the summer. The winter can add half an hour to that trip. It was an adjustment for them.

Yet, as wolfloversk describes, the wild still has an attraction for me - not so much small town/rural even, but actual wilderness - really getting away from it all. But I digress.

One interesting point in this discussion is perspective. To someone raised in Manhattan or Tokyo or Mexico City, my metro area (population 3.5 million) would probably qualify as small. But it would be large to someone who hails from a small town. Likewise, I think of a town like Rochester, Minnesota (around 100,000) as a nice size, while someone raised on a farm would no doubt find it large and crowded.

I live across a used-to-be-farm and a large field, so I suppose that qualifies as rural. This is the place for me! If I get migraines in the country, after all, they are NOT going to be any better in a city. Though it would be nice to live close to the action.

The only down is the smell coming from the field during the summer. If you've ever stayed across a field being plowed at the time of the year, you'll know what I'm talking about. The odor stays with you forever.

So, yes... there are ups and downs to both. As far as my knowledge goes.

I can survive very well in cities, however, they scare me more then a charging bear. A charging bear you can kill, a gigantic cement, wood and steel building... umm, not so much.

Wow, this gets your point across, but I'm assuming it's not literally speaking? Haha, a building can't eat you like a bear, and a gun doesn't always work..

Anyway, it's funny, a lot of people say they like really small towns because most everyone knows each other. But I don't think I'd like that very much, I like my privacy Lol.
Also it's kind of interesting, a lot of the 'country' is not really natural at all.. with all the corn fields and everything, it's very industrial.

Country. No doubt. i couldnt live in a skyscraper...XD i hate living in such a big town, even though im only in one of the small little suburbs, everything happens like 30 minutes away

Well...technically...a steel & wood building could kill you... and it has happened before, but I shalln't go into those details

Look here, just live out in the open with no form of shelter and die of sun-stroke or frost-bite. Okay?

I'm not saying don't live in a building, just don't think it's 100% foolproof---there are lots of dangers wth buildings!!!

And there's always caves and campfires

If only. We could live as cavemen and cavewomen. Bring that lifestyle back to the popularity it never had....

Well, you've got to take your chances or tackle the notion of houses as Warrior 4 Jesus put it. On the other hand, I sort of agree, mainly because I've always been afraid of heights.

Right now I live on 3 acres and love it- but it's bordered by a highway and housing developments on three sides

My dream is to live for enough out in the country so that I can let my dogs run free without fear of them getting hit on the highway. I would have enough land to possibly keep some horses, chickens, or goats (or maybe all three), but have a town with in a half hour drive that had at least one clothing shop, maybe a bookstore, and a up-to=date (if small) movie theater
*closes eyes* ahhhhhhhhh

Wow Brisa! But too bad you are bordered by a highway. That's still good then!