My home town, state or country

[Shar]

I haven't had time to go to the newspaper to post happenings in my home town so decided to give some background on where it is. I live in Dalton, Georgia, USA. It is called the carpet capitol of the world I don't believe this is an overstatement as even though carpet is produced in other areas, the most is shipped from here. My husband brings carpet from Holland and distributes to various mills and also to individual customers. Also he distributes for local mills. Ours is a specialized company that handles sisal floor covering and cork tile products along with other carpet, such as wool, man made, etc.. In order to not have such a long post, I will post again giving some background on Dalton, GA and why it is still called Peacock Alley .
Our population is approximately 50,000 ppl and is 90 miles north of Atlanta GA and 35 miles south of Chatanooga Tennessee and on the interstate. A small town atmosphere with the amenities of a large town, and, a beautiful location filled with trees, mountains and hills. In fact, our driveway is straight up ..or it seems that way when you carry the trash to the street. *G*

[norman]

My hometown. I claim Las Vegas now as my home town only because it is the one we currently live in. To move here was a conscious choice. The part of town we live in has all
the qualities of a small town with the attractions of a resort area within 10 minutes in any direction. Tree lined streets, kids playing basketball, roller skating, a garden in my back yard, quiet at night. The only difference I can really distinguish between here and some of the smaller places we’ve lived, is the diversity of cultures. The blend of people makes for some interesting conversations.

We tried living in a retirement community. That sounds like a great way to live, for us it was like living in God’s waiting room. Similar to an old fashioned doctors office where you sat around waiting for your turn to go ----- in to see the doc. Moving to a place where life is fast moving 24/7 and yet be able to sit in a hot tub in complete privacy on our patio after hiking just made more sense to us.

I don’t know about living here and having to work here, but for our retirement years it meets what we wanted. Warmth,low cost of living relative to other places, food, dentist, hospital, church, & a community park all within walking distance of our home. Other recreation like hiking, boating, skiing or road travel to National Parks, are all within a few hours of here. Even long distance travel is reasonable because planes going back to wherever like to have a full load so prices are usually decent for air travel out of state. No mosquitos and only an occasional fly when eating on our patio is a major plus for me.

Having lived in the Penna., Bronx NY, New Jersey, Florida, Texas, Arizona, California, Kansas, & Puerto Rico, we know each place has its good points. I feel fortunate at having been able to experience the variety and at being able to make our final move to a place that meets what we want to do.

[Spirit]

Home towns! Well, I live in the country so I will tell you a bit about that. The part of Nova Scotia that I call home is beside the beautiful Minas Basin. A nursery to many marine animals. Here the people live a slow life enjoying the resources around them. Hunting, fishing, beaches, campgrounds, etc. etc. etc.
There have been many little books written about this area. History books of life along the shore. Mysterious happenings of the shore. Murder on the shore. Many stories of the North Shore of Nova Scotia.
The people here are very friendly, helping each other when the need arises. I do love Nova Scotia but I think I'm getting to old to contend with the snow..........
Spring is just around the corner.Horray!

[Joyous]

Flat Rock, Michigan. It is home now, but I grew up in the country in South Carolina. When we moved here 18 years ago this was small town America. How fast things change. Housing construction all around. The farmer's field across the creek has become another manufactured home community. The lightly traveled road has become a literal traffic jam. That said, I love our "Tin can" mobile home and the small park it resides in. We have a garden across the road by the creek. So many birds we can enjoy their song all day long in summer.



Shar, Norman, I like the sound of your home towns, but I gotta tell ya, Spirit has it hands down. I love the city, small towns, but the country is where my heart belongs. I have always longed to visit Nova Scotia. Maybe someday? And Spirit, you make it sould ideal.

I just came from the park where we have a figure 8 track. It was snow covered, but easy to walk. Part of the track is uphill which makes me feel I am doing more exercize. The river flows past the park and ducks and geese swim lazily along as the fishermen cast their bait to the waiting fish. All in all, a lovely place to get the heart rate up.

[Shar]

Somehow we seem to have two "My Home Town" on the board. Could staff consolidate them into one?

I went in and posted on the other one also because sweetheart had posted and her description of her part of New Zealand was so interesting......but, until I become familar with this board, I sometimes lose a forum...If I come in everyday and mark each one ...subscribe to this thread...it keeps it on the top of my board so I am okay there, but some of the others I lose.

[SunshineLady56]

My home town is very quiet I live in the country and surrounded by mountains and lots of trees. It's great nearest town is 8 miles which is okay by my book. I can have my garden and my animals.
People love their towns to so do I have a great day Ruthann

[Joyous]

Sunshine! What a nice screen name. I imagine your home is where I would enjoy living. How near are the neighbors?

I live in a mobile home park, but we still have a big garden. Admittedly I would prefer country living, but I am happy here. I have tomatoes in the oven now, drying. They're supposed to be sun-dried tomatoes, but I'm cheating by using the oven. My man canned 6 quarts of tomatoes this morning and I made a quart of mixed sweet n sour pickles.

Sunshinelady, tell us more about your life.

[SunshineLady56]

Well Joyous;
My neighbors are 1/4 of a mile. away from me. They don't bother us and we don't bother them. like go out of the way to complain. we are very good friends and we enjoy each others company for cook outs and such. we have cats that like the cat nip. I grow herbs and I bring in the fresh catnip so they can enjoy to their hearts content. I also grow tomatoes and my mom cans them up along with other veggies to save on food bills at the grocery store. Save so much money that way.We save on eggs We also know other neighbors who have cows. there is a farmer up the road a piece that has goats and sheep if we want that kind of meat. My sisters' boys go out hunting so we get Deer meat,rabbits,grouse,pheasants so we manage . I love to fish and I have some in the freezer . Your hubby must do alot of canning too. I have also canned up blue berry and grape jelly.
Sunshine

[Joyous]

Sunshine, that sounds like my kind of living. Alas, I live in a mobile home park. I am not unhappy here. We have good neighbors, a great garden, my children live within driving distance. Life can be good where ever we live.

As a child, I lived in the southern country. My daddy and brother hunted animals for food. We raised pigs, kept chickens, always had a cow. Life was good then too.

[saes]

I just noticed that I may have posted in the wrong Home Town thread-don't know what to do about it though.

Saes

[Shar]

LOL, hey saes, I posted in another forum similar to this. Seems when it is hard to find one we just start another. Sure leaves us scattered doesn't it?
When I saw your post, I decided to activate this one..*G*
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How about a few bazaar happenings in the news today? Nothing much happening in our town so I decided to read a few newspapers on line
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BIRD DROPPINGS PROMPT ORLANDO WARING SIGNS (from Orlando Fl.)
Signs warning of bird droppings were posted along a stretch in downtown Orlando this week after cars, benches, sidewalks, plants and even people are hit and covered by the white bird waste, according to a Local 6 News report.The problem began when city workers removed cypress trees on "bird island" at Lake Eola in Orlando.The trees had to be removed because the bird droppings were polluting the water, according to the report.
Now, the birds have moved into the city and are covering anything and anyone between Lake Eola and Central Avenue with droppings
http://www.local6.com/news/8182571/detail.html

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SCHOOLS TOLD TO PREPARE FOR BIRD FLU
http://www.breitbart.com/news/2006/03/22/D8GGKFE00.html
Not quite as bad as it sounds since this seems to be similar for school preparing for flu epidemics and having drills for fires.
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Now, this one I found interesting. Is this what I heard before or is it a "tad" different?



BUSH RULES OUT AMNESTY for UNDOCUMENTED WORKERS
http://www.breitbart.com/news/2006/03/22/060322081757.e1blb1k1.html

"President George W. Bush said he was opposed to amnesty or automatic citizenship for the some 12 million undocumented immigrants in the United States.

Amid an intense debate over the issue among US lawmakers, Bush on Tuesday ruled out amnesty for illegal immigrants but said he favored a "guest worker" program that would provide legal status for workers for a limited time period.
In my judgment, amnesty would be the wrong course of action," Bush told a news conference.

He said "a whole industry" of exploitation had emerged with workers being smuggled across the US border in dangerous conditions.

"The best way to do something about it is to say that if an American won't do a job and you can find somebody who will do the job, they ought to be allowed to do it legally on a temporary basis," Bush said.

Asked about those undocumented workers who have lived in the US for more than a decade, Bush said: "One of the issues is going to be to deal with somebody whose family has been here for a while, raised a family, and that'll be an interesting debate.

"My answer is: That person shouldn't get automatic citizenship."
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IMO, the Mexican government may have pushed this response, not necessarily the opinion of any of us or Congress. They would love for their citizens to flood the US, work, have all benefits (so they would stay) and then send money back to Mexico to help their familes, which the Mexican government does not do. Why don't we all just send checks to Mexico City and they might change their program of assisting illegals to get across the border? Course, don't know where that will leave the terrorist. I guess they are doing well enough on their own with our porous borders anyway. The statue in the harbor in New York may say give me your tired, poor, huddled masses, etc but no way do I think it means to up the welfare rolls. Anyone ever heard of NO RULES, SOON NO COUNTRY?
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RATS, can't we trust any manufacturer anymore? Why didn't someone from Walmart sit in these darned things before they ordered so many??? I was on my way to the store to buy a couple..No, wait, I think it was Cracker Barrel. Guess I am safe there.

Wal-Mart STORES RECALLING ROCKING CHAIRS
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060322/ap_on_re_us/rocker_recall

WASHINGTON - Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is recalling about 643,000 Mainstays love seat and porch rocking chairs because poor construction and over-curvature of the chairs' runners can cause instability, imbalance, fracturing of the wood and tip-over during use, posing a falling hazard to consumers.

The Bentonville, Ark., company has received 45 reports of injuries, including a cut in the leg requiring 16 stitches, a shoulder joint tear and one incident in which a pregnant woman began having contractions after the chair in which she was sitting flipped over backward.
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Okay, enough of that..I found plenty for you all today. I have to go shopping for a rocking chair.!
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Oh wait, one more thing. I knew I loved to read WALTER WILLIAMS. Part of his column 3/14/06.


Like a few others who have defended Jay Bennish, Dr. Moses talked about academic freedom and First Amendment guarantees. Others have criticized and even threatened Sean Allen for recording and making the teacher's comments public. The issue is neither academic freedom and free speech nor public exposure of the teacher's comments.

It's academic and intellectual dishonesty when a teacher, who is supposed to be teaching geography, uses his classroom to indoctrinate relatively uninformed teenagers. Recording the teacher's comments broke neither school policy nor Colorado law. But more importantly, I believe that what teachers say in class should be subject to parental and public scrutiny.

I've taught economics for 37 years. I encourage students to record my lectures. Moreover, I tell them that the class deals with positive economics and if they hear me make a statement appearing to be an opinion, without saying so, they are to raise their hands and say, "Professor Williams, we didn't take this class to be indoctrinated with your personal opinions passed off as economic theory; that's academic dishonesty." I also tell them that if I ever preface a comment with, "In my opinion," they can stop taking notes because my opinion is irrelevant to economic theory."
**read the rest, it is great...as I said, IMO

http://www.townhall.com/opinion/columns/walterwilliams/2006/03/15/189666.html

[Joyous]

Walter Williams is a decent, intelligent man and I admire him.

[Shar]

Joyous, he is GREAT! I betcha he sits in one of those Cracker Barrel rocking chairs when he is writing..;)

[banjodad1]

I remember hearing about Dalton as the carpet capital when I was growing up in the 70s, from the TV ads. Of course it was sell, sell, sell... have you hugged your carpet today?