The Place Where We Live

The Place Where We Live

by scirish

I'm not sure where that phrase comes from, It's not grammatically correct, but I'm sure I have heard it before. Maybe a book or movie?

Anyway…I spend way too much time thinking about obscure things…and I was thinking about if where we lived makes us who we are…did I mention obscure?

I've lived all over the place; Dad was a test engineer for Boeing. We moved a lot. The places I remember were MA, CT, FL, UT, PA, CA, DE. When I got married, I lived in DE, MD, VA, TX and Germany. During these travels I got to see a lot of the US and parts of Europe. I would like to see more of both.

It wasn't always that way. When I was a kid, it didn't really bother me to move that much. Until I became a "tween". Then I was an odd man out. Everyone else had grown up with each other. I was a perpetual new kid.

In my late teens, early 20's I lived in DE and MD. People say that isn't in the south, but don't say that to the people that live there. Because of all the moving, I have no accent, but that just means I sound odd anywhere that people do have one.

In MD and DE I sound northern. In MA (after a drink or two) I sound southern. Who knows when I sound German J What I like to think I took away from all the moving is the best of all places. I could list the good and bad parts of the south and the north, but they are just generalizations, and those, although they exist, are bad.

When I went back to college here in the north, I had a class in which we were talking about stereotypes and this women who was my age apologized for thinking all people from the south were stupid because they talked and moved slower that people in the north. I was rather shocked, my then husband had been telling me what a hard time he was having at his job at Sikorski (building aircraft, no less) because of his accent and I just could not picture that happening.

When I lived in the south, the question you got when meeting someone for the first time was: "Who's your family?"You were judged on the past performance of family members.That was intimidating enough, but, if you moved down there in the last 20 or so years, you were an outsider.

I know nothing about how Midwesterners or West coasters (or beyond…turtle?) interact with each other or outsiders. Are there any preconceptions you have faced based on where you live/lived? East Coasters, Northerners? Canadians? Do you have preconceived notions about people from other areas? (it's ok, many people do, until they go there) Commence lively discussion please….I would really like hear about the place where everyone lives.