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My hometown is Paris, Texas, the crepe myrtle city - yes that one from that movie and a recent soap opera but really those don’t mean a lot as far as hometown pride goes.

Small town - around 25,000.

Some people hate their home town and can’t wait to get away from it. I love my home town and would love to retire there. For the most part the people there are friendly. They have fairly decent schools in the area. For a small town there’s quite a bit of culture - art galleries, theater groups, community band. Paris is home of Paris Junior College whose Texas Institute of Jewelry Technology is known internationally and is one of the top jewelry schools in the country. The jewelry school also houses one of the only horology schools in the country.

Growing up there was like American Graffiti and Saturday Night Lights. Football was big, after all it’s Texas. Went to every home game from the age of 13/14 thru high school. I lived not too far from the stadium and a group of us would walk to the games. Afterwards we would stop off at Pizza Villa for a after game pizza.

It was a good time - you could sleep with your doors unlocked and windows open without fear. You looked forward to the county fair, the carnival and summer baseball and trips to the lake.

Once you had your drivers license and access to a car fun time was cruising the drag - from Piggly Wiggly lot (aka hog lot) down through the Sonic (yes we circled thru the Sonic drive in) and back out. Every now and then you’d go out Main Street and cruise thru the bowling alley and maybe stop and shoot pool, play pinball or bowl. Sometimes you felt the need for country rides. We had 2 lakes, a spooky cemetery called Door of Death (a dear friend of mine is now buried there ), Jackrabbit Hill, Blossom Bottoms. Some did a lot of riding around in the country at night, thinking they could find Satan worshipers (there was a large satanic cult in the area ), a Sasquatch creature named The Blossom Critter, or for UFO’s as there was a rash of sightings by reliable witnesses during that time. If one wanted to take a longer trip you could go towards Clarksville and visit the haunted abandoned boarding school, or out near Taylortown, hometown of Oakridge Boy Duane Allen, to visit the haunted abandoned sanitarium.

For those that didn’t want to travel there were always things to do in town. There is a huge fountain in the center of the town square that routinely had boxes of Mr Bubble tossed into it. A drive thru the cemetery was not uncommon as there was a haunted Mausoleum and a grave marker that had this huge ornate life sized statue of Jesus carrying a cross wearing cowboy boots and the eternal flames turned upside down.

Agriculture was big - so the ag classes and 4H had high membership. The rodeo was always a good time as well as the county fair. Riding in Grand Entry at the rodeo was freaking awesome for a kid. The county fair was a big draw as well as any carnival that came through town.

It’s a small Southern town so there’s quite a number of different churches with the majority having some sort of youth groups. They usually have gatherings such as dances, hay rides, parties and stuff like that.

Every year there’s a huge art fair and in the summer the municipal band plays a weekly evening concert in Bywaters Park. You can attend plays and musicals concerts from the Junior College, High Schools and Community theaters. There's several movie theaters in town. There used to be 2 drive ins that were a blast - they've long been abandoned.

Since I moved away other activities have been added to the community calendar such as chili cook offs, different festivals and a fishing tournament. Another attraction added was the Eiffel Tower with a big red cowboy hat on it, which has become a city symbol.

Famous people who can call Paris Texas home
Gene Stallings - college and pro football coach
Raymond Berry - former pro football player and college coach he wasn’t born there but grew up there and his father was the high school coach for years
Jerry Bywaters - artist and the namesake of Bywaters Park
Sam Bell Maxey - confederate general and later Texas Senator
John Chisohm, the trail dude
Cas Haley - America’s Got Talent
Gene Rader - you’ve seen him probably, you just don’t know it. Pretty cool/funny/weird man. My dad used to hunt, fish and play dominos with him. He’s on IMDb.
Dan Blocker is burried about 60 miles away in DeKalb
as stated earlier Duane Allen is from nearby Taylortown

I feel like I’ve forgotten someone - maybe Rhum Chum will come by and add to it.

here we go

Bainbridge Island, WA

size-24,000(growing fast though)

Bainbridge Island is located directly to the west of seattle, if anybody has ever been there on the waterfront, the ferries go from the waterfront right to bainbridge. its a nice island, about 15 miles long, 6 across. growing up it was nice a quiet, driving into town i would see at least 5 people i know, now im lucky if i see one. great schools, great community, great food. unfortunately its become a very very rich community...full of ritzy people driving fast with SUV's. anyway i only get back there in the summer, maybe once or twice in the other 9 months, but not that much. if anybody has been around seattle in the summer, they will tell you its breathtaking. Bainbridge is beautiful in the summertime, surrounded by water, lowlands with lush green trees, and the majestic mountain ranges of the olympics and cascades to the east and wet. not to mention Mt.Rainier...anyway its changed a ton, seems like even more every time i go home. famous residents include-

Jay Inslee, WA state representative
Chris Kataan-Saturday Night Live actor, comedian
Ed Viesturs-World famous mountanier.
The proffessor from Gilligans Island
David Guterson-Author, Snow Falling on Cedars(my nieghbor)
1st place in USA in WW2 to evacuate japanese to internment camps
Blakely harbour-at one time the largest lumber mill in the world
along with countless millionares...
if your dying for more go to wikipedia and search bainbridge island

anyway if anyone has the oppurtunity to go there, i would highly recommend it and would give great suggestions on activities, like i have said, its changing fast, but it doesnt seem to matter much when im out on a boat or dock sipping a cold beer with nothing but blue sky and mountians around me

[quote="thebeachbumm33"]I grew up in the quaint little seaside resort of Margate, NJ. The estimated population, in 2003, was 8,328, I lived there til 1990. Margate is located on Absecon Island, same island as Atlantic City.




I must have missed those years you were living on LBI going to High School???? It was the 80's right?

I am still living where I grew up. Long Beach Island, NJ. 18 miles of the most beautiful beaches on the Jersey Shore. Home to the famous " Old Barney " lighthouse.
Dave Matthews band used to play every Tues. night at Joe Pop's for years....go figure, wish I knew then they'd be this famous...I only thought they were a bar band .

Famous icons to have lived/vacationed here ( that I have seen personally), I'm sure there are a ton more !!

Billy Joel
Ray Ramano
Jon Bon Jovi
Richard Nixon
Sammy Hagar
Robyn ( Howard Stern Show)
Martin Truex Jr.
Joe Piscopo

West Milford New Jersey. Great place to grow up but I haven't been back there in 30 years. From what I hear it's bigger now but still has the small town feel that I grew up with.

FROM THE TOWN WEBSITE

West Milford, an 80-plus square mile municipality located in Passaic County, NJ, sits in the "Heart of the Highlands." Its beautiful mountainous terrain, dotted with nearly forty tranquil lakes, is crisscrossed by narrow roads that run along its scenic valleys and ridges.

Most of its 10,000 homes surround its lakes. Many of these homes, once summer resort bungalows, have over the years been enlarged and converted into year-round residences. And over the past twenty years, many newer, larger homes on one- to four-acre lots, as well as two major condominium developments, have been built.

A major state highway, Route 23, that winds along its southern boundary, more or less paralleling the Pequannock River, provides its main transportation links to the outside world.

A community widely recognized for its commitment to youth activities, West Milford boasts perhaps the most popular teen center coffee house in New Jersey. But recreation programs are available for people of all ages. All family members, not just the younger set, can enjoy a wide variety of recreational, fun, and educational programs, sponsored not only by the Township's Recreation Department, but also its schools, the Police Athletic League, and local churches and civic groups.

Recreational sports, hiking, boating, and fishing, attract some hardy tourists, but West Milford's main attraction for local residents is its vast extent of largely undeveloped and state protected forests, nearly 2/3 of the entire municipality.

Despite its enormous size, West Milford is blessed with a small-town atmosphere, the product of not only volunteer and civic group activism and pride, but also a participatory citizenry whose debates fill the local presses and enliven locally televised council meetings.

Ok I'll play!!

China Lake, California. You should be able to find it on a map of California, 100 miles (or so) East of Bakersfield and about 100 to 150 miles Norht of Los Angeles..... Back in the 80's was the first time I ever found it on a map....mostly because it is the Navy's air weapons test and developement center. My dad was a physist and I grew up spending my saturdays alternatly, on the test range blowing stuff up and crawling around in the stuff that was gonna get blown up (B-29's, B-47's, 155mm Self propelled howitzers, Tanks, F-86's...etc). The area is famous for it's desert inhabitants; Sidewinder snakes, Mojave Green snakes, road runners, Wild burros, coyotes, tarantulas, desert tortises, scorpions, etc.... It is also famous for boasting a 10 year weather average of being able to fly 365 days a year as well as summer temperatures in the mid to high 120's .....If you are a missle geek the navy's aresenal of Air to air and air to ground weapons systems were all developed there, many of which are now the backbone of the US and NATO systems.

As far as anybody famous......Hmmm... I heard of somebody going on "Let's Make a Deal" when I was a kid..... I think they took Door Number 3 and got Zonked.....

were i lived the 1st 25 years!!!!


Town of Harwinton
Eastern Gateway to Litchfield County
Welcome to Harwinton, Connecticut

The Town of Harwinton, located in Litchfield County, was incorporated in 1737 from land controlled by the towns of Hartford and Windsor. The name is a combination of those towns, HARtford and WINdsor TOwN. Harwinton, Connecticut is the only town with that name.


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Town Profile
Located in Litchfield County, Harwinton has an area of 31.1 square miles and a population of approximately 5,300. There are 2 voting districts. Principal industries are agriculture, retail services, landscaping, construction and tool and die manufacturing.

Famous People
Collis Potter Huntington financier, Harwinton
Tim Hutton

Belle Mead, NJ

Belle Mead is part of Montgomery Township, 9 miles north of Princeton. Montgomery is only 32 square miles and Belle Mead is about 15 of them.

The Actress Julie Christy lived here for a while and George Washington slept here but Belle Mead is best known for The Carrier Clinic.

Before Betty Ford got on her sober horse and opened her joint in LA, Everyone who was Anyone came to Belle Mead to detox.

It was a great place to grow up. Every home had to be on at least an acre of land. You had to walk or ride your bike to your friends house. You could get unpasturized milk at the dairy on the corner or you could drive to the closest store 5 miles away.

The schools were great. Class sizes were small but that's not hard when your high school (7th - 12th grade) had less than 700 students. We didn't have a football team because there weren't enough guys to field one. Our homecoming dance was in March for our basketball team.

My Dad used to say that he loved Belle Mead because he knew when we (the kids) left the back door, we were safe ~ because nothing bad ever happened there. (come to think of it, nothing ever happened in Belle Mead.)

Midland Michigan

Around 40,000 people live here. We are famous for being the headquarters of The Dow Chemical Company and Dow Corning.
We have a Tridge (3 legged bridge) over "the crossings" an area where native americans used to live near the Chippewa, Pine and Tittabawassee Rivers.

Famous Midlanders

Alden B. Dow, architect
Herbert H. Dow, founder of Dow Chemical
Robert Jarvik, inventor of the Jarvik-7 artificial heart
Nancy LaMott, 1951-1995, cabaret singer.
Cheryl Studer, opera singer
Cathy Guisewite, cartoonist
Earl Warwick, inventor of Silly Putty.
Brandon Link, Famous sports handicapper and subject of the feature film, Two for the Money, under the name Brandon Lang.
Howard Mudd, former National Football League All-Pro, and offensive line coach of the 2007 Super Bowl Champion Indianapolis Colts
Terry Collins, former Major League Baseball manager, and current Los Angeles Dodgers Director of Player Development
Jon Erickson, Computer Securities guru and author
Steve Shelley, drummer of Sonic Youth
Denny Moore, anthropological linguist specialized on Amazonian languages and MacArthur Fellow (1999).
Jim Kern, former 3 time All-Star baseball pitcher with Cleveland Indians
Jim Scholten & Bobby Randall of the country band Sawyer Brown
Scott Winchester, pitcher for the Cincinnati Reds


Cathy Guisewite graduated from my high school a couple of years before I did. She writes the "Cathy" cartoon in the newspaper.

Placerville, CA

One of California's oldest Gold Rush towns, has the oldest and longest operating hardware store west of the Mississippi and the oldest newspaper in the west, The Mountain Democrat.



History
Prior to the discovery of gold in nearby Coloma, California by James W. Marshall in 1848[2] sparking the California Gold Rush, the small town now known as Placerville was known as Dry Diggins after the manner in which the miners moved cartloads of dry soil to running water to separate the gold from the soil. Later in 1849, the town earned its most common historical name, "hangtown" , due to the numerous hangings that had taken place there[3]. By 1850, the temperance league and a few local churches had begun to request that a more friendly name be bestowed upon the town. The name was not changed until 1854 when the City of Placerville was incorporated. At its incorporation Placerville was the third largest town in California. In 1857 the county seat was then moved from Coloma to Placerville, where it remains today.

Placerville was a central hub for the Mother Lode region's mining operations[4]. The town had many services, including transportation (of people and goods), lodging, banking, and had a market and general store. The history of hard-rock mining is evidenced by an open and accessible Gold Bug Park & Mine, now a museum with tours and books.[5]

The Southern Pacific Railroad once had a branch line that extended from Sacramento to Placerville. The track was abandoned in the 1980s. The Camino, Placerville and Lake Tahoe Railroad (now abandoned) also operated an 8-mile shortline that operated between Camino, California and Placerville until June 17, 1986. As of March 29, 2007, 52 miles of the right-of-way have been purchased by the city of Folsom, and eighteen miles of track have been restored. Plans are under consideration for a tourist excursion train along the route.[6]


Culture
Placerville is nicknamed "Old Hangtown" (due to the fact that many people were hanged in the late 1800s)[7], this can be seen on the street markers in town. A belltower, once used as a warning bell for fire, is located on main street which is a landmark in the area. Placerville is home to the Mountain Democrat newspaper and Marshall Medical Center.

Placerville is a historic community from the gold-rush days, and accordingly there are many old buildings from this period.[8]. A walk down Main Street also reveals many historical markers, signifying spots of certain events or persons of importance during this period. Placerville was also on the line of the Pony Express, a short-lived mail carrier service that connected California to the Midwest and East (basically from Sacramento to St. Louis). The Pony Express eventually gave way to the efficiencies of railroad transportation.[9]

The branch line was actually never allowed to be abandoned and was purchased from the Union Pacific in 1996 for $14 million by the Joint Powers Authority consisting of Sacramento County, Folsom, and El Dorado County. Currently there is a group that is restoring the line to run historic excursion trains from Folsom to Placerville a total of 35 miles of track that is still in place to this day. There is also a mountain bike trail and equestrian trails.


Notable Residents
Over the years many notable and influential people had shops in Placerville, mostly along the now historic Main Street.[10]

Historical persons:

Edwin Markham - American poet
John Studebaker - auto maker
Levi Strauss - clothing maker
Mark Hopkins - railroad financier (and eventual hotel owner)
Philip Armour - meat packer
Snowshoe Thompson - mail carrier
Modern notable people:

Thomas Kinkade - American painter
Toby Hall - American baseball player

Studebaker started out as a wheel barrow manufacturer during the gold rush.

Today we're one of California's BEST up and coming wine regions:

http://www.eldoradowines.org/

Sharon, MA -- town next to Foxborough, MA. Population roughly 15,000 or so. It is situated in Norfolk County. Most prominent feature in the town is Lake Massapoag and also, part home of the Borderland State Park, which is shared with the town of Easton. Home of the Whaling Museum. Roughly the halfway point between Boston, MA and Providence, RI. Great Woods is in the next town over in Mansfield.

Edison, NJ -- about 30 miles southeast of NYC. Now could be known as little India with the amount of Indians there.

I drifted through my old hometown tonight (one of my tattoo artist friends works there, and I got some new ink done.) and it is blatantly not the town I grew up in. Lots of expansion and commercialization but very little in the employment world, so it is even much more of a bedroom community, and as such it is losing it's character as the small New England town it once was.

Fremont, Ohio

Famous people from here:
Rutherford B. Hayes -19th President of the United States
Charles Woodson - NFL defensive back, Oakland Raiders, Green Bay Packers - Heisman winner.
Bob Brudzinski - NFL Linebacker Los Angeles Rams, Miami Dolphins
Rob Lytle - NFL running back, Denver Broncos
Shawn McCarthy - NFL Punter New England Patriots, National Punt Pass & Kick Champion
Mark Coleman - Olympic Wrestler, UFC Champion
Tex Neuer - New York Yankees - 1907
Russ Kerns - Detroit Tigers - 1945
Doug Gallagher - Detroit Tigers - 1962
Larry Arndt - Oakland Athletics – 1989
Lisa Hart Carroll - Actress, Terms of Endearment, Moving Violations
Mike Komorowski - MTV VJ
Robert Knepper- Actor
Kurt Frederick Ludwig - Spy
James Purdy - Novelist (b. 1923)
Tony Little - Fitness personality/Businessman
Karl Bury - Actor, The Majestic; The Brotherhood
Dr. James Hotz - Doctor who was the model for physician in the movie Doc Hollywood
Cindy Jackson- the lady who had all of the plastic surgeries so she would look like Barbie


We have about 17,500 people. The Rutherford B. Hayes Museum and Home are there (and so is he- next to his horse and wife). The Heinz plant there makes more ketchup than anywhere else in the world. The Battle of Fort Stephenson (the last western battle fought in US Territory) was fought there in 1812 (a victory for the Americans). Next to the "Welcome to Fremont" sign, there used to be a home made sign that said "the Crack Capital of the World", but I believe the police removed that after a while. Oh, and I almost forgot- we host the County Fair!

aeroparrot wrote:Sharon, MA -- town next to Foxborough, MA. Population roughly 15,000 or so. Home of the Whaling Museum. Roughly the halfway point between Boston, MA and Providence, RI.

Edison, NJ -- about 30 miles southeast of NYC. Now could be known as little India with the amount of Indians there.

Sharon, eh?

There is a restaurant in the center there; The Correandor . . . I believe is how it is spelled.

Great food!

Just an observation . . .

lots of New Jersey folk.

Riverdale, Utah......

We got nothin'

drunkpirate66 wrote:Just an observation . . .

lots of New Jersey folk.

all from different exits....

Parker, Kansas, a really small town. The 2000 cenus said 281 people. The only famous person from Parker is former Presidential candidate Sam Brownback.

When I was kid there wasn't much more than there is now, but it was a a really nice town, now it's just a bunch of homes with people that don't have the common decency to pick it up.

Now there's just a library and a convience store/gas station/restaurant

November 12, 1888, the city of Parker was laid out in an apple orchard and named for J. W. Parker who owned the vast orchard. Many flourishing businesses came to Parker as the community was one of the best agricultural townships that the state could boast of. The Missouri-Kansas-Texas railroad ran its first train through on January 1, 1889. In 1906 there were eight trains daily with two passenger trains going through each way. In 1975 the passenger trains no longer run the rails and generally two long freights go through during the day. The old depot has been moved away and now houses antiques.

In the early 1890s Parker had two hardwares, four general merchandise stores, one furniture and undertaking business, two excellent banks, two milliners, two restaurants, a jewelry store, a meat market, a barbershop, two livery barns, two blacksmiths, a harness shop, a newspaper, two physicians, a meal and feed grinder, an elevator, and a dentist. The Presbyterian Church and many of the above businesses were destroyed in the 1893 tornado that struck Parker April 12. The miracle of the devastating storm was that no one was killed.

YAWN!!!


Romeoville, Illinois is a village in Will County, Illinois, United States. The population was 21,153 at the 2000 census. As of 2005 the population has grown to 35,020.

Interesting Facts
Romeoville was nicknamed "Stone City" because of its stone quarries.
Romeoville limestone was used to build the Illinois State Capitol
U.S. Route 66 ran through Romeoville.
Home of the endangered species Hine's Emerald Dragonfly
Home of the Chicago National Weather Service Forecast Office and its Doppler radar covering the Upper Midwest

Education
Romeoville residents attend school in the following districts

Plainfield Community Consolidated School District 202
[http://www.vvsd.org// Valley View School District
Richland School District 88A
Lockport Township High School
Romeoville is home to two private grade schools.
Bible Baptist Christian Academy
St Andrew School
Romeoville is also home to Lewis University, a private Catholic Lasallian university with an enrollment of 5,200.
Joliet Junior College, a Community college in Joliet has a branch campus in Romeoville

Notable residents
Rena Rago, artist
Gerald Coleman, Anaheim Ducks goalie

I left in 1976 and the population was around 15,000..

Moved here:


The City of Littleton, Colorado is a Home Rule Municipality located in Arapahoe County, Jefferson County, and Douglas County of the State of Colorado in the United States. Littleton is the county seat of Arapahoe CountyGR6 and the 17th most populous city in the State of Colorado. Population - Total 208,569

Littleton became widely known in 1999 when the Columbine High School massacre occurred at nearby Columbine High School, which some in the news media reported as being located in the city. The school is actually in unincorporated Jefferson County, yet in a ZIP code associated primarily with Littleton. The school is one of the schools of the Jefferson County school system and not one of the Littleton Public Schools.

The Colorado Center for the Blind, a skills training program for blind teenagers and adults operated by the National Federation of the Blind, is located in Littleton. The Denver Theological Seminary is also in Littleton.

Intelligent Vehicle Safety Technologies' "Desert Tortoise," a competitor in the DARPA Grand Challenge, is based in Littleton.

The city is also the site of the grave of Alferd Packer, one of the only three people ever imprisoned in the United States for cannibalism.

Newcastle, Australia.

While it is not a "small town" ... pop 500K, it still has that real small town feel and I can still go there and walk down the main street and run in to people I know all the time - same at the malls.

We are the largest coal exporter in the world. We are home to some great wineries in the Pokolbin area - Penfolds, Wyndham Estate, Lindemans - to name a few.

We got GREAT beaches - our downtown area is right on the beach.

We export the sand on the beaches in Hawaii over there - so needless to say - we got good sand

Famous people? Mark Richards - former world surfing champion.
Olivia Newton John spent a lot of her childhood here
Yahoo Serious - film maker

We got a lot more famous people - but not famous that USA people would know - except for Jenny Creek