How hick is your town?

[hobielover]

After following a tractor for several miles down a main road, I decided to ask how hick everybody's town is. :D We have cows, horses, farms, and (of course) John Deeres in my area. Do you live in a big city, small suburbs, or a just plain rural area?

[chineseguyjl]

hahah my hometown, Hemet California was full hick but now its only on the outside.

now its full of AARP residents. old folks in the suburbs. go over a little mountain its farms and hills for miles. your neighbors are like 3 miles away. kinda cool sometimes, like when u wanna your horsey in the nudie. haha, a friend actually did that when i was driving up the driveway.

[hobielover]

I didn't know that there were parts of California like that. It's not quite that hick where I live, since there are shopping centers and housing developments popping up everywhere. There are Wal-Marts everywhere, and it's the same with Harris Teeter. Last summer, though, I went to visit my great-grandma in Florida, and you have to drive to another time zone just to get to a Wal-Mart. The only thing in EST is a Piggly Wiggly, and you have to pass through a military base to get to the central time zone. The military base is very dark, filled with forests of palm trees growing wild, and kind of scary. There are danger signs everywhere, and it's not a good place for your car to break down. That's just outside of Panama City, Florida, though. There isn't a whole lot in Port St. Joe--the infamous Piggly Wiggly, which never has fresh fruit or vegetables, the shrimper who lives two houses down from Great-Grandma's house, the beach, and "The Great Wall" Chinese restaurant. If you go in the other direction, Appalachicola has a good Mexican place with the best churros in the U.S., another "Great Wall," a historical landmark, and a lot of places to just walk around and shop, but almost everything closes on Sundays.

[browneyes]

After following a tractor for several miles down a main road, I decided to ask how hick everybody's town is. :D We have cows, horses, farms, and (of course) John Deeres in my area. Do you live in a big city, small suburbs, or a just plain rural area?

Wow cows and farms eh? Where are you from?

I live in Denver and it's a pretty big city, but I never really see any big Jay fans here on the forum from Denver. And I know there are Chinese people here in Denver, so where are you all at? But you don't even have to be chinese, cuz I'm not....

[username558]

Wow cows and farms eh? Where are you from?
I live in Denver and it's a pretty big city, but I never really see any big Jay fans here on the forum from Denver. And I know there are Chinese people here in Denver, so where are you all at? But you don't even have to be chinese, cuz I'm not....

her location says NC (North Carolina).

anyway, i was in Charlotte, NC right after Jay Chou's LA concert and it wasnt really as "hick" as i thought it would be. Though their sense of style may somewhat be questionable..lol. I stayed around South Park Mall..don't know if you (hobielover) know where that's at..

[hobielover]

I know where that mall is at. I go by it on Tuesdays for my Mandarin classes. I live outside of Charlotte, in the next county to the East--Union County. It's a lot more rural here, especially in Mineral Springs. There are farms, silos, and fields all over Mineral Springs. You have to be careful not to hit any chickens driving through.

South Park is one of those places where you have to dress pretty well to fit in. I stopped there to get a set of flash cards once, but I only went in Borders, and it was raining. There was a tornado nearby and the wind was howling outside. I wanted to get off the road for a bit before continuing on my way.

I'm not Chinese--not even Asian. I'm Caucasian, and I used to have a Southern accent. All my teachers were from up North, though, so I lost my accent growing up. My dad lost his, too. He used to use the word "howdy" all of the time.

How is the sense of style here "questionable"? You don't like Birkenstocks?

[username558]

nah, i don't wear that. do you?

i noticed that people who shop at south park, as you mentioned, generally dress nicer or more elegant as opposed to everywhere else i went. As far as the whole "sense of style" goes, i guess it's all subjective.

btw, Forum was really fun..lol

[hobielover]

I wear the Birkenstocks. I have one real pair and one knock-off pair. The real pair is imported from Germany, and they are the most comfortable sandals I've ever worn. The knock-offs are clogs, which are very popular with the teenagers. Slip-on shoes are really good when your playing "headhunter," though. We play this game in the woods when it's dark. Everyone wears all black, and you split into two teams. It's like extreme hide-and-go-seek. Last time I played, I didn't realize we were going to play, so I had slip-on shoes with sequins, and they kept falling off in the mud. I would have won the game for my team if I had worn different shoes. Everything else was black--black slacks, black shirt, black leather jacket, and black gloves. I almost fell into a creek playing, though, in those shoes!

[Cricket]

I live in a small suburb... which happens to be the largest city in my state ahaha really depressing. But it's ok though, you get used to it :] Cows and deer here too!

[applemac]

I live in NYC...big city huh...its fun and cool because you can chill out with your friends BUT it is kinda noisy sometimes with the sirens, I even heard a shot gun, so much activity going on and... I HATE WALKING on rush hours! I live on campus PRETTY closed to 34th st and Penn station, where is the biggest train station and it is also located the big Macys that occupies a whole block... and a couple more blocks is Time Square..goshhhhh I hate walking there...I feel like ppl are going to jump on me XD!

There is always constructions around and due to the high buildings, there is no 'great' view from your window unless u live in the top floor ^_^....
Its crazy!

Summer break is coming so im coming back home :D soo Ill be able to catch some fresh air ^^...

ah oh....the night life is crazy...I usually go the movies at midnight so I get out of it around 2am and theres still cars and lot of ppl outside... specially college students w/ high heels around my town... I wonder where are they from huh? *whistles*

[hobielover]

I can't imagine living in a building with a bunch of other people. Don't the people in the other apartments bother you when you're trying to go to bed? I live in a two-story house with woods around it. We don't have sirens that keep me awake as often as cicadas, which are these big fly-like things that make a similar sound. If you've seen "Secret," that sound in the background you can hear in the scenes that take place at night is the sound of cicadas. They're so loud in the Summer! They look very ugly, too, if you've never seen them. They look like houseflies, but they're like 2 or 3 inches long.

I make an hour-long drive into the city each Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. It's a very sudden change to go by all of the fields and horses, then shopping centers, and finally skyscrapers.

[applemac]

I can't imagine living in a building with a bunch of other people. Don't the people in the other apartments bother you when you're trying to go to bed? I live in a two-story house with woods around it. We don't have sirens that keep me awake as often as cicadas, which are these big fly-like things that make a similar sound. If you've seen "Secret," that sound in the background you can hear in the scenes that take place at night is the sound of cicadas. They're so loud in the Summer! They look very ugly, too, if you've never seen them. They look like houseflies, but they're like 2 or 3 inches long.

I make an hour-long drive into the city each Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. It's a very sudden change to go by all of the fields and horses, then shopping centers, and finally skyscrapers.

Not at all..( I live in dorms) so quiet hours are between 10pm-6am so we are not allowed to make noise. Otherwise, the R.A. (which is in charge of the floor) will shut us. The only annoying thing for me are the sirens...

And btw...the cicadas thing...holy cow...I am insectophobic!!! I definitely won't like that >.<! :( huh, back home in Peru, there are mosquitos in summertime...i HATE THOSE! you cannot sleep and they make this noise...you even feel them next to your ears! soo annoying...and they say I have sweet blood cuz they always bite me...once when I was in China, I stayed there in a room with my sister and two cousins the first night. The morning I woke up, I had mosquito bites EVERYWHERE, as opposed to my cousins that didnt even get ONE!!!!

[JALYN:D]

I basically live in Singapore, in the east.

There's nothing much here anyway.I live near a park, a mall, roads, a MRT station. It's quite bustling here in the afternoon. Well, there's nothing much in the east of Singapore. I believe everything interesting is in the west of Singapore, oh well! But I do enjoy staying in the east as it's more peaceful and cooling around here. 'Cuz the roads in the west are usually really busy for 24/7. While in the east, it's never busy at all. Thus, I never got disturbed by the horning of cars always. I also like to go jogging in the park, and do w/e with my life. Basically, the mall's just 1-2 bus stop away. There's also a mall just a stone throw away from my house. I live in a terrace house, haha. I enjoy life in Singapore, although Singapore's "well-known" for the humid weather... To make it more specific, I live in Pasir Ris, Elias. :)

[hobielover]

Not at all..( I live in dorms) so quiet hours are between 10pm-6am so we are not allowed to make noise. Otherwise, the R.A. (which is in charge of the floor) will shut us. The only annoying thing for me are the sirens...
And btw...the cicadas thing...holy cow...I am insectophobic!!! I definitely won't like that >.<! :( huh, back home in Peru, there are mosquitos in summertime...i HATE THOSE! you cannot sleep and they make this noise...you even feel them next to your ears! soo annoying...and they say I have sweet blood cuz they always bite me...once when I was in China, I stayed there in a room with my sister and two cousins the first night. The morning I woke up, I had mosquito bites EVERYWHERE, as opposed to my cousins that didnt even get ONE!!!!
We get plenty of mosquitoes in North Carolina, but we don't let them in the house. We have good weather-stripping, which keeps the air in and keeps bugs out. The cicadas never get in--they just stay outside, and you hardly ever see one. When people who have been here for a while actually see one, they're like, "OMG, what is that thing?!" The bugs generally stay outside, especially the cicadas. If you have 2- or 3-inch-long bugs coming in your house, you probably have mice and any number of other problems as well. Lizards are a problem in Florida, though. My great-grandma was telling my mom to hit one with a flyswatter! I came in at some point and picked one up and carried it out. I'm not really afraid of some little lizard like those. I got a skink in my room once, though, and my parents and little brother taped a toy lizard that looked like it to the toilet seat, and when I opened it I completely freaked out! I have this odd fear of things coming out of the toilet/sink.

[chiru]

I live in a suburban area. But it is one of those hooty-snooty suburban places with rich white people and Asian business people. And then there are the "others." Ahaha. But we do have a lot of horses. They walk around on the sides of the streets. We have a lot of peacocks, too.......

By the way, who is John Deeres? O_O

[PinkDagger]

John Deere is a company that produces many pieces of machinery used in farming. :)

I live in a small city, but I wouldn't call any of it really that hick. We're a huge tourist attraction and apparently quite a honeymoon central (Niagara Falls, Canadian side) and obviously tourism and the need for money supersedes nature, I suppose. I live on the north end which is mostly upper-middle class so along the way north to nearby cities, you do pass a couple of farms with cows and horses. One house has a penned area with alpacas! They had babies this past spring and are super, super cute.

I actually wish we had more farmland around here because my entire neighbourhood about 15 years ago used to be entirely forest. The roads around us weren't all that busy because there used to be nothing here, but now we have a major highway and some minor highways leading onto major roads, so it wouldn't be a great thing for any of the animals or plant life. :\

[yukiko]

Hi, I come from Indonesia, it's far away from your place
I read all your post and I'm interested

I must say you guys are lucky
It's a dream of mine to live in a place like that with enough facilities like clean water, electricity, phone, internet and all..
The suburbs in my country are SO HICK
i mean, if you live in suburb, you are limited
there's some places here still have NO ELECTRICITY
you don't even thinking to be able to browsing internet, there's no way you could.

last but not least, I want PICTURES... ^^
Happy living

[fuzz]

i used to goto school at a obscure location, and every drove trucks and talked with a country accent. that was as hick as it gets. =[

[alisadorsey@yahoo.co]

Shockingly, I live in Houston, TX. Yes, Texas is known for its cowboy origin and horseback riding. However, in Houston, it is more city life here than rural. I do see police officers downtown riding on horses, and yes we have the Houston Livestock and Rodeo every year, and etc.. Houston still has its city flavor. I guess like other cities, many people bring the country to the city. Meaning, you may live in a subdivision with regular houses, but your neighbor may have chickens or something in the back yard. I donot believe that this is allowed, but noone has said anything about it publicly, so people just do it. It does not bother me too much, but one time when I lived in a garage apartment, I was awaken by a rooster that managed to get in tree that was by my window. Now if you call that hick, then I guess that is the closest that I have been to it.

[hobielover]

^ I think it's allowed, since a lot of subdivisions are built on farmland. It's not like they weren't there in the first place, it's really the developer's fault for building the subdivisions right next to them. I recently heard on the news that one farmer in Charlotte is getting complaints because he uses compost and there's a fancy housing development adjacent to his property. There's also a little area in Charlotte called Ballantyne that's really close to the water treatment center, and in the summer it stinks like crazy! This is also a place for rich people, mostly white, not a lot of immigrants, but there are also groups of Chinese there. They tend to group together. I guess all groups used to do that. Actually, busing got started in Charlotte.

In middle school, I went to a mostly black school for a while, but I think people thought I was racist, weirdos. There were a bunch of trashy neighborhoods in that area, kind of scary, and I was just shy around people in general, so moving for a short time was hard on me, I had trouble getting along with other students, and I didn't really like living so close to town. I think now that I'm closer to where I've started from, though, there are more shops and things. I just realized that there's a whole group of new little restaurants, and some are actually pretty good. There's even a new set of traffic lights for the Harris Teeter. It's odd how everything springs up like this!

In my little neighborhood, people plant Bradford pear trees, a type of ornamental tree that doesn't actually bear fruit. It's not like there aren't already trees, since it's in the woods, but these trees bloom. The problem is that they smell awful when they bloom! It smells like rotting meat! I tried to get my dad to get Chinese wisteria instead, but he followed the trend, so every spring we have stinky blossoms.

[alisadorsey@yahoo.co]

Well actually SAM The subdivisions here are not farmland, because it is in the city limits of Harris county. Just like fireworks are outlawed in Houston, unless you live out of the city limits. If you live in the outter Harris county city limits, then everything is allowed. They are really trying to keep Houston as a city, and try to steer it away from country like, until the Houston rodeo comes along. Then everyone dresses up like every day in cowbow/girl garb. It is kind of fun though. However, I just guess people are going to do what they want to do. But to me as long as they don't bother anyone with their livestock, then people and myself are very tolerant of it.

Don't worry too much about what those kids thought about you at that school. You are a unique and talented individual. Misconceptions always arise even within ourselves and until we get to know people better. We all really need to we stop putting everyone in the same batch, and thinking we can speak up for our whole race. I think that is a big problem with people and misconceptions about other cultures. We are all different individuals regardless if we are the same ethnically.

Sorry about the stinky blossoms though!

But since I cannot confirm that the land is farmland or not, it is just really educational to see so much of it in your own backyard.

I think that I told you once that one of my older brothers and his wife live in Carolina. They live by the beach. But I am not sure how hick it is there though.

[hobielover]

I haven't really been to the beach in North Carolina, as it's actually easier to go to Myrtle Beach in South Carolina. I guess the route is straighter coming from Charlotte.

How can they not allow farming, though? That doesn't really make sense to me. Sometimes I have to stop for chickens while driving, and I'm constantly getting caught behind tractors. I live in the town limits, but there's farmland within those limits. I doubt that everything within the town of Houston started off as subdivisions, though, and there had to be either farmland or woods to build on at some point in the past, so I don't see why people who used to own that land wouldn't be allowed to use what they have left as farmland. It could be inherited, so even if you don't see it as a great piece of farmland, it could have been that not too long ago. As the city of Charlotte tries to expand into Union County, I see more and more farmland turning into Starbucks, Lowe's, Wal-Marts, and hundreds of houses only feet apart.

[alisadorsey@yahoo.co]

Originally I am from Florida, so I am not quite sure of the farmland. But I have been here in Houston since college, and yes, they are very strict here about alot of things. We have to go out a bit to find horseback riding and any country like settings. But we do have alot of Starbucks, and probably on every corner. So here it is very commercial. Plus the diversity is great. You will see someone here who is Asian in the cowboy garb. It is just the norm. But I like it, because people are very down home and easy-going, and not uptight like some who live in South Florida where I am from. My brother lives in South Carolina and his son lives in North Carolina, where his son is active in the Air force, but works as an engineer for one of the civilian firms there in NC. My brother is a police officer and retired from the Airforce, in SC.

[hobielover]

Florida actually has farms in some places. Last time I went to see my great grandma, I saw lots of really rural places. We used a website for the directions, and for some reason, it gave us some really roundabout route that lead us through cities and nowheresvilles on the way through the panhandle. I'm pretty sure I drove around Apalachicola National Forest, which was basically a big forest with palm tree underbrush. I also recall seeing some sign about either a reservation (for Native Americans) or something like that, I can't recall, but it was very backwater. There were lots of farms around that area, so I guess it depends on where you go. I was going to a town near Apalachicola in the panhandle.

[alisadorsey@yahoo.co]

You will find in Florida from my experience of living and being born there that in the Northern part more than the Southern part is more farmland. Also, you will see mostly on the west coast of Florida more farmland as well, and also marsy swamp like everglades. Southern Florida is more city though, with the beaches, and shopping areas. I lived in Tallahassee, Florida growing up a bit and it has many farmlands. But in West Palm Beach, FL where I grew up, you would hardly see that if ever. There maybe some that live outside the city limits who have the country like living in WPB though. But you would mostly find the marsh or have a gator in your backyard as a pet, whether you live in the city or the rural area. Being born in Miami, FL, I have yet to see a cowboy. If so now you woudl see one, he may be from the northern part of Florida or from somewhere else. But for the most part, country life is more serence to me. City life can be hectic and fast. But as you get older you learn to live and enjoy both.