Has anyone gone back to their hometown to live and found it as grand as ever?

Yes, albeit for only a summer. I was 28 and had lived in three metropolitan areas since college. When Dad suddenly died, I moved back in with Mom in a sleepy little town in Virginia.

It was breaking open a time capsule, for the most part. The church congregation was pretty much the same group, and their open arms while we dealt with our loss was like a balm. A group of high school friends lever left and were still hanging out at the local bars. When asked what I had been up to, some of them acted as if I had traveled to another planet…they just couldn’t fathom picking up and moving halfway across the country where I knew no one and live in a ‘big city’.

Probably the most noticeable change was when running into children I used to babysit. They had turned into young adults, were now driving and a few were starting to think about colleges.

Interesting. I hadn’t thought about how it would feel to see all your old friends forty years older!!

I am moved back . Fargo never changes.I have never considered it grand. It’s boring. Flat , full of farms and bars.

After going on a vacation for two weeks to an entirely different location on the planet, we can return home and everything seems to be so small.

Like the saying goes, “you can never go back home”. maybe this saying is correct.

For those of us born in large cities & for those of us who moved around a lot as we were growing-up, there is no “home town” to which to return. I have often thought that it might be great to have grown-up in a smaller town & gone to school with the same bunch of kids, & to be able to return to the town in which you grew-up to see how everyone still is – but I have never been able to do so.

That’s how I grew up. I did go back, twice, for a weekend. It was extremely exciting to see the house I grew up in. The owner, who bought the house in 1960, stood on the top step with his arms crossed over his chest like, “don’t even think for a second you’ll be invited in here.” The second time, I went for a walk around the block with my best friend. The best part about that was the tree.
In front of her house is a huge tree. Knowing it was there when we were little kids then when we would ride our bikes past it a hundred times when we were ten made me want to hug it. But I didn’t; I just put my hand on it. Then we drove downtown but didn’t get to go inside any of the stores. Someday I’m going back to do more exploring. And LOTS of picture-taking.