Do you defend your home town?

I was doing the Breakfast shift at work this morning,i'm usually a little ratty on a breakfast shift, i've lost valuable hrs of sleep and had to get up at an unreasonable hr plus its always fucking busy and your on your own so its usually a shafting up the arse.

Anyway , i got into a constructive disccusion this morning about my home town with a guy i work with. With me already in a pissed of state not needing much winding up i bit, even though i knew he'd never set foot in my beloved home town, or England for that matter!

with me working in Scotland and being English sometimes its not a good combination cause all i get is crap about English bastards this Yorkshire bastards that, and i like a mug always defend everything yorkshire (although not South yorkshire that IS a dump)and England.

So i was wondering does anyone else fiercely defend where they come from or are you not that bothered?

Sometimes it hurts.

My hometown was a little one when I was born. In the nineties, I lived in the capital city, abroad and then went back to where I belong in 2001. The town is three times wider. So that means that two thirds of its inhabitants come from elsewhere. To take an example, I am the only native of Montpellier in my street. Some neighbours do not know this fact and complain quite oftenly about people like me "the fuckin'lazy bastards" who were here long before them and use some kind of idiomatic sentances they do not understand as well as their accent.

I gently listen to them, but someday I may shout "get orf moi laaand" as Farmer Palmer would say !!!

For me, home town is a bit nebulous because I've lived in many different places in my life, from childhood on. My actual birthplace is a crap little town that I would never go out of my way to defend.

I find myself having a greater attachment to places I've 'adopted' over the years, Manchester being the latest. So while I'd never pass for a local I do tend to get pissed whenever I hear someone slagging Manc (or my other homes) off.

i defend my mama and thats about it. My hometown is buffalo, ny which catches a lot of flack and sometimes rightfully so. However, i equate it with my family so i must defend it.

We're all a bit Tribal ar'nt we?Looking after your own.Its only natural we do.

my hometown is Los Angeles, which i will trash-talk to no end. but at the same time, will defend when anyone says something snide. i feel that you can't say anything bad about LA unless you were once an angelino (someone from Los Angeles). now san diego, i will defend regardless. i've got a lot of love for this town, even though the tourists get on my tits. (it also bugs me that half the population of the beach communites are midwestern hicks that wanted to come live the california dream. f*ckin' date rapists...) but i still love it here.

San Diego - "Semper Vigilans!"

You can call CHORLEY all that you want and i wouldn't mind.But the countryside around this area is beautiful for walking my dog.Therefore if someone was to say it is a DUMP i would be a bit perplexed but maybe try to explain about how lovely it is on the outskirts of town. GO WILD IN THE COUNTRY WHERE ROCKET MICK ROAMS. But please stay AWAY cos i like it QUIET!:D

i saw chorley on a map the other day. i thought to myself "i know there is a madman there by the name of mick. prolly rockin' out to some PSB right about now..."

I don't have any problem with being from Newcastle but don't really feel any need to defend it. The football team's a different matter though, i'm constantly having to defend them

Rocket Mick once told me he was going to the seaside so I asked: How long will you be staying there? He said: I'm only going for a walk, you prick! I still have no idea where Chorley is except that it's up north somewhere.

NObabe wrote: Rocket Mick once told me he was going to the seaside so I asked: How long will you be staying there? He said: I'm only going for a walk, you prick! I still have no idea where Chorley is except that it's up north somewhere.

i love rocket mick. if he is half as colorful in person as he is on the internet, i thought it would be fun to drag him out to california and watch him "interact" with the locals.

periwinkle wrote:

NObabe wrote: Rocket Mick once told me he was going to the seaside so I asked: How long will you be staying there? He said: I'm only going for a walk, you prick! I still have no idea where Chorley is except that it's up north somewhere.

i love rocket mick. if he is half as colorful in person as he is on the internet, i thought it would be fun to drag him out to california and watch him "interact" with the locals.

Cheers but do you mean the LOCAL JAIL?

I only get it when I travel to a cosmopolitan setting, like Greenville or Clemson. By the way, I'm being sarcastic about "cosmopolitan" back there :p

I look at it this way, my hometown's a great place to grow up, I just wouldn't want to live here all my life. So if anyone wants to take me in...

My hometown sucks. If you go to college you are likely not to return to live there. I did have my wedding there and the friends that I invite who never been there were impressed. But the city once of 30K has been steadily dieing since 1972.

as the sports teacher said to the scouse lad in the old milk advert "if you dont drink your milk you'll only be good enough to play for accrington stanley" the lad replied "accrington stanley,who are they?".teacher repied "exactly"

twist wrote: My hometown sucks. If you go to college you are likely not to return to live there. I did have my wedding there and the friends that I invite who never been there were impressed. But the city once of 30K has been steadily dieing since 1972.

my hometown, buffalo, had pop. of 600,000 in the 60's. Now its just under 300,000. Just another dying industrial city. Thankfully, buffalo has no chance of getting whipped by hurricane. Incomptent elected officals and segregated city would doom the city.

From my point of view that story sucks big time, can you hear me bansheemaaaan?? Cause however you look I am the fookin Accrington Stanley. Bloody foreigners, they always mistake Belgrade with Belgium or Serbia with Siberia, haha! Err I've never really felt the need to defend my hometown, I've been a fookin tourist here for 27 years!

NObabe wrote: From my point of view that story sucks big time, can you hear me bansheemaaaan?? Cause however you look I am the fookin Accrington Stanley. Bloody foreigners, they always mistake Belgrade with Belgium or Serbia with Siberia, haha! Err I've never really felt the need to defend my hometown, I've been a fookin tourist here for 27 years!

Hi Babe, call me if you should mistake Belgrade with Belgium. I'd like to show you Mannekenpis.

Being a Canberran this is something I have to do all the time. All the bad decisions come from Canberra, and Canberra gets all the money. Canberra has the best road in Oz etc.

My reply is you voted for these dickheads, its your government. Its your capital city be proud of it.

Its musch easier defending Bremen. Nobody ever attacks it except for the football/soccer.

Rocket Mick wrote:

periwinkle wrote:

NObabe wrote: Rocket Mick once told me he was going to the seaside so I asked: How long will you be staying there? He said: I'm only going for a walk, you prick! I still have no idea where Chorley is except that it's up north somewhere.

i love rocket mick. if he is half as colorful in person as he is on the internet, i thought it would be fun to drag him out to california and watch him "interact" with the locals.

Cheers but do you mean the LOCAL JAIL?

either way, i'd catch it all on video. "a rocket in the golden state." though, if you happen to pick up any honeys, i promise to turn the cameras off. don't wanna ruin an old mans performance by adding any preasure... :D

Bit of a tricky question for me. I was born in St. Louis, but only spent my first 6 months there, so I don't consider that my hometown.

Otherwise, everybody in my family was born in San Francisco, so I consider THAT city to be my hometown, even though I only lived there until I was 4. I did go to college there, but commuted from San Jose, 'cause it was cheaper than San Francisco rents.

From the time I was 4, my family lived in San Jose. I NEVER liked San Jose, and don't consider it my hometown, even though I lived there for 40 years, so if anybody weer to slag off San Jose, I'd join in. No I wouldn't, I'd start it off.

In 2000, I moved to Portland. I have a love/hate relationship with this city. It's a lovely place if you have a job, but with the second-highest unemployment rate in the country, it's shite. So I would be hard-pressed to defend Portland.

I just flew home for a few days this past weekend. Spent time in San Jose, the Santa Cruz mountains, and San Francisco. San Jose is still shite, no matter how they dress it up. It's like that saying-- No matter how much lipstick you put on a pig, it's still just a pig. That's San Jose. San Francisco was still beautiful. Always was, always will be.

yeah, SJ is your hometown... and i hate it too.

i was born in central penna, but i grew up in LA (from ages 1-17). I don't remember crap about pennsylvania, so it never was a "home."

Breakdown of my last three towns I've resided in

Hometown is Syracuse, NY, a lot of pride there, and actually a LOT to do for the cheap (Carousel Center, SU football/basketball, shopping at Armory Square (bought Low Life and later Electronic's first CD there ) - WOULD DEFEND AND RECOMMEND IT

Currently live in Auburn, small city (28,000), charming little place, not much to do, but cost of living is cheap! - TAKE IT OR LEAVE IT, NOT FOR EVERYONE

Rochester, where I spent 4 miserable years in college...fucking awful Highest murder rate in NY state (that DOES include Buffalo, Albany, NYC (!) ), sprawling ghettos, expensive as shite for some reason, takes fucking forever to drive anywhere....glad I left! - AWFUL! AVOID IT LIKE REPUBLICANS!

I was born and raised in Philly and like most Philadelphians, I slag it off all the time. But, when I'm at school or in the suburbs - the suburbs of Philly aren't part of the city - I stick up for my hometown, despite the sordid state, the violence, the awful "education" system, and the expressway.

My father was from NYC. His family purchased 50 acres in upstate NY, near a pissant village called Afton. I really miss it. Sold after my grandmother died since my grandfather was too much of a dickhead to learn to live on his own without abusing others. Most of the family has left the NYC area.

my family almost ended up in buffalo, new york. my dad moved there when he first imigrated because he knew someone there he could stay with but left for chicago because he heard that it had a large muslim population and good jobs for what he went to school for. i love chicago more than any other place in the world, and yes, i will talk shit about it, but it's my home and i really do love a lot about it. i don't get annoyed when ppl talk shit about the city but i will correct them if they say something thats wrong or a misconception about the city. al capone is not a hero, neither is al bundy, not everyone is a beer drinking, bratwurst eating, deep dish pizza eating, south side bears fan made famous by the super fans on SNL. and we only have ONE baseball team ;)

bansheeman wrote: as the sports teacher said to the scouse lad in the old milk advert "if you dont drink your milk you'll only be good enough to play for accrington stanley" the lad replied "accrington stanley,who are they?".teacher repied "exactly"

It was his mate wasn't it?

no need to. my towns the best, and everyone knows it.

it's L-I-V...E-R-P. double O L

Liverpool fc

i will always defend estes park, fort collins or denver, colorado, whenever someone else puts them down. i've been guilty of dissing them myself, but no one else may do so.

I grew up in Peterborough, a chavhole just an hour north of London. It was alright but it's hardly where you want to live for the rest of your life.. I don't like people saying incorrect things about Peterborough when slagging it off, but I'm more or less like that with most things..

I live in London now. Lovely place.

Hank Wiseass© wrote:

bansheeman wrote: as the sports teacher said to the scouse lad in the old milk advert "if you dont drink your milk you'll only be good enough to play for accrington stanley" the lad replied "accrington stanley,who are they?".teacher repied "exactly"

It was his mate wasn't it?

you know i think your right you have a very good memory do you drink a lot of milk?

Jonathan wrote: i defend my mama and thats about it. My hometown is buffalo, ny which catches a lot of flack and sometimes rightfully so. However, i equate it with my family so i must defend it.

Dallas > Buffalo

Two (out of five) Super Bowl victories and a Stanley Cup says so! :D :D :D

Jonathan wrote:

twist wrote: My hometown sucks. If you go to college you are likely not to return to live there. I did have my wedding there and the friends that I invite who never been there were impressed. But the city once of 30K has been steadily dieing since 1972.

my hometown, buffalo, had pop. of 600,000 in the 60's. Now its just under 300,000. Just another dying industrial city. Thankfully, buffalo has no chance of getting whipped by hurricane. Incomptent elected officals and segregated city would doom the city.

perhaps buffalo is hurricane safe, but one day the sky will open up and all the snow ever created by the earth's atmosphere will dump on the city like a massive turd.

the sky will then set its sites on cleveland.

AgentWood wrote:

Jonathan wrote:

twist wrote: My hometown sucks. If you go to college you are likely not to return to live there. I did have my wedding there and the friends that I invite who never been there were impressed. But the city once of 30K has been steadily dieing since 1972.

my hometown, buffalo, had pop. of 600,000 in the 60's. Now its just under 300,000. Just another dying industrial city. Thankfully, buffalo has no chance of getting whipped by hurricane. Incomptent elected officals and segregated city would doom the city.

perhaps buffalo is hurricane safe, but one day the sky will open up and all the snow ever created by the earth's atmosphere will dump on the city like a massive turd.

the sky will then set its sites on cleveland.

i do hope your not slagging off someone elses Hometown!!

AgentWood wrote: i will always defend estes park, fort collins or denver, colorado, whenever someone else puts them down. i've been guilty of dissing them myself, but no one else may do so.

Well, I do believe that I may join my female cousin in dissing Fort Collins ( she told me she wouldn't go back there, but that may have a lot to do with her dickhead ex-husband ); so she moved to Colorado Springs to be closer to her parents, my uncle retired a couple of years ago from the Air Force.

My town's got a decent central location in the Willamette Valley; an hour to Portland, an hour to the coast, an hour to Eugene, an hour for snow skiing, an hour to get to part of the desert country on the east side. Only problem is the odor of the paper companies, which is why on a bad day people drive by on I-5 with their windows rolled up. Many of those plants are located in Millersburg though, which doesn't really matter to the general public it seems.

I think I love my hometown (London) mostly because it changes so rapidly (2 million foreign born immigrants and God knows how many incomers from the UK, native born Londoners must be a minority). Even the buildings don't seem to last very long - my grandparents houses all gone, my old school, gone, my old 6th form college, turned into an industrial storage unit.
Getting a bit irritated with excessive gentrification though - the places I grew up in are unrecognisable, overrun with rich City-worker types. And the cost of housing is ludicrous.

Hmm, out of curiosity looked up the stats, and London has about the same proportion of foreign-born residents as NYC, which puts it second to LA (with an amazing 38% in 1990), but is ahead of both of them in terms of current inflow.

This blue-eyed boy that wants to be wrote: I was born and raised in Philly and like most Philadelphians, I slag it off all the time. But, when I'm at school or in the suburbs - the suburbs of Philly aren't part of the city - I stick up for my hometown, despite the sordid state, the violence, the awful "education" system, and the expressway.

Isn't it also home to the fattest population of any city in the US? Did I not read recently that the Mayor had gone on a diet to set an example?

patrick stewart appreciation society wrote:

AgentWood wrote:

Jonathan wrote:

twist wrote: My hometown sucks. If you go to college you are likely not to return to live there. I did have my wedding there and the friends that I invite who never been there were impressed. But the city once of 30K has been steadily dieing since 1972.

my hometown, buffalo, had pop. of 600,000 in the 60's. Now its just under 300,000. Just another dying industrial city. Thankfully, buffalo has no chance of getting whipped by hurricane. Incomptent elected officals and segregated city would doom the city.

perhaps buffalo is hurricane safe, but one day the sky will open up and all the snow ever created by the earth's atmosphere will dump on the city like a massive turd.

the sky will then set its sites on cleveland.

i do hope your not slagging off someone elses Hometown!!

i sure am. ever been to buffalo or cleveland?

sorry, jonathan.

I know what your saying Christy, but given a choice i would chose to live in buffalo over florida. Sure florida has its finer points but whenever i go i want to leave. I cant put my finger on. If your in buffalo for an extended period of time you would discover its charms.Of course, I wouldt suggest the winter. Buffalo is very prepared for a snowstorm because the public gets very involved. It is close knit in that kind of way.

Jonathan wrote: I know what your saying Christy, but given a choice i would chose to live in buffalo over florida. Sure florida has its finer points but whenever i go i want to leave. I cant put my finger on. If your in buffalo for an extended period of time you would discover its charms.Of course, I wouldt suggest the winter. Buffalo is very prepared for a snowstorm because the public gets very involved. It is close knit in that kind of way.

believe me, i'm in florida by necessity not by choice!

404 error wrote:

This blue-eyed boy that wants to be wrote: I was born and raised in Philly and like most Philadelphians, I slag it off all the time. But, when I'm at school or in the suburbs - the suburbs of Philly aren't part of the city - I stick up for my hometown, despite the sordid state, the violence, the awful "education" system, and the expressway.

Isn't it also home to the fattest population of any city in the US? Did I not read recently that the Mayor had gone on a diet to set an example?

It was the fattest city in the US about 3 years ago, but I think Detroit or San Antonio holds that now. However, with cheesesteaks, hoagies, scrapple, Tastykakes, and soft pretzels, I'm not surprised. A cheese steak: Scrapple: Tell your kids never to eat a piece of meat that looks like a shingle on your house.

A box of Tasty Kakes: They taste good but have about 20g of fat per serving, so don't eat them often.

And a hoagie:

Now, if these are foods that you can buy at every convience store and and pizza place in the city, no wonder Philly was the fattest city.

my dad, being a native philadelphian, grew up on the crap they call scrapple.

AgentWood wrote: my dad, being a native philadelphian, grew up on the crap they call scrapple.

I never ate the crap. I remember seeing it at a diner when I was a kid and it reminded me of the shingles that were falling off the sides and roof of my mother's house. Although I ate cheese steaks a lot when I wasn't a vegetarian. My mother used to go to the local deli and get some "chipped steak" and made cheese steaks, but they're the worst thing you can put in your body. I still eat cheese hoagies (you don't put mayo on them, but oil) and Tasty kakes, but I'm not fat, yet.

R U Kidding? Defend? Technically I don't live in Brum now - and if you'd been here you would know why. Dump.

This blue-eyed boy that wants to be wrote:

AgentWood wrote: my dad, being a native philadelphian, grew up on the crap they call scrapple.

I never ate the crap. I remember seeing it at a diner when I was a kid and it reminded me of the shingles that were falling off the sides and roof of my mother's house. Although I ate cheese steaks a lot when I wasn't a vegetarian. My mother used to go to the local deli and get some "chipped steak" and made cheese steaks, but they're the worst thing you can put in your body. I still eat cheese hoagies (you don't put mayo on them, but oil) and Tasty kakes, but I'm not fat, yet.

Give it time. :D

bLuE oRdEr wrote:

This blue-eyed boy that wants to be wrote:

AgentWood wrote: my dad, being a native philadelphian, grew up on the crap they call scrapple.

I never ate the crap. I remember seeing it at a diner when I was a kid and it reminded me of the shingles that were falling off the sides and roof of my mother's house. Although I ate cheese steaks a lot when I wasn't a vegetarian. My mother used to go to the local deli and get some "chipped steak" and made cheese steaks, but they're the worst thing you can put in your body. I still eat cheese hoagies (you don't put mayo on them, but oil) and Tasty kakes, but I'm not fat, yet.

Give it time. :D

I realize that my summer diets of Chinese food and ice cream will eventually catch up with me, but then again, I see my peers in college ordering Domino's at 11:30pm and I figure they'll be worse off.

It's easier to keep it off now than it is to take it off later.

A word of advice from the skinny guy who used to order three breakfasts at Denny's after the clubs closed.

The town I live in is a complete chavhole. Its also full of racists & bigots. Roman Catholic homes, migrant workers homes, chapels, churches & schools have been attacked with petrol, pipe & paint bombs. Its also the drug capital of Northern Ireland. My town has no decent pubs or nightclubs to go to on weekends and our football team are shite too

Snoopy wrote: The town I live in is a complete chavhole. Its also full of racists & bigots. Roman Catholic homes, migrant workers homes, chapels, churches & schools have been attacked with petrol, pipe & paint bombs. Its also the drug capital of Northern Ireland. My town has no decent pubs or nightclubs to go to on weekends and our football team are shite too

I take it you dont work for the Ballymena tourist board then :D

I gave up defending my home town years back, after all it's just roads & buildings, there are thousands of 'Manchesters' all over the world, and people tend not to change much wherever you go.

The most embarrassing thing about my town is the council. In the early 90's ELO were going to play a gig in our town but some of the local councillors kicked up a fuss because ELO's music was evil and odd. The gig didn't go ahead. I not a fan of ELO but fss, how embarrassing.

Barney Army wrote:

I gave up defending my home town years back, after all it's just roads & buildings, there are thousands of 'Manchesters' all over the world, and people tend not to change much wherever you go.

very true, there are bad things and good things about everywhere. i like Manchester better than I used to, but that's probably because I went to live in Leeds for a bit,and you don't appreciate what you've got... The good thing about living in an average sized city is that bands come to play there, you don't have to wait months for something decent to come on at the cinema and foreign food isn't restricted to chinese and curry (although those are both well catered for in Manchester), there is also actual access to art, museums and an interesting history. Unfortunately there is still a slight air of parochialism compared to London, and the people aren't as good-looking. But then the beer is cheaper, so that's that sorted.

Actually, I'm quite proud of San Jose for one thing: We ran Richard Nixon out of town.

sugarcane wrote:

Barney Army wrote:

I gave up defending my home town years back, after all it's just roads & buildings, there are thousands of 'Manchesters' all over the world, and people tend not to change much wherever you go.

very true, there are bad things and good things about everywhere. i like Manchester better than I used to, but that's probably because I went to live in Leeds for a bit,and you don't appreciate what you've got... The good thing about living in an average sized city is that bands come to play there, you don't have to wait months for something decent to come on at the cinema and foreign food isn't restricted to chinese and curry (although those are both well catered for in Manchester), there is also actual access to art, museums and an interesting history. Unfortunately there is still a slight air of parochialism compared to London, and the people aren't as good-looking. But then the beer is cheaper, so that's that sorted.

WHATS WRONG WITH LEEDS!!!!!?

I don't consider the place I was born as my home town, seeing as we left there when I was four months old. Worcester is where I was brought up, and as much as I hated the place a lot of the time when I lived there, I can now see its good points (mind you, even Chatham has good points when compared to fucking Gillingham!). Believe it or not, I miss living in London now, even though I work there 5 days a week. It's little things like having to leave gigs early to get the last train home (fuck knows what I am gonna do tomorrow night!!)

even though the tourists get on my tits.

Was down there this weekend for the Monday Night football game. Lifelong Steelers fan. Good drinks at The Green Flash and nice weather the entire time. Not my place to live, though.

AgentWood wrote: my dad, being a native philadelphian, grew up on the crap they call scrapple.

that shit is awesome. you don't know what you are missing. it is like all the greatness of sausage, and then some.

i wish we had in out west...

and Green, do you remember a record shop in Corvalis named "Uncle Hungry's?" turns out my roommate is friends with old paul (the owner)... he lives down here now, and pops by from time to time.

periwinkle wrote:

AgentWood wrote: my dad, being a native philadelphian, grew up on the crap they call scrapple.

that shit is awesome. you don't know what you are missing. it is like all the greatness of sausage, and then some.

i wish we had in out west...

and Green, do you remember a record shop in Corvalis named "Uncle Hungry's?" turns out my roommate is friends with old paul (the owner)... he lives down here now, and pops by from time to time.

I've never tasted it, but have you ever read the ingredients label for scrapple? It lives up to its name well.

i don't care whats in it. it tastes good.