I have entered the twilight zone of the Bloggesphere

Well I have finally gone and done it. I have made it possible for all of you unfortunate people to see and read about the real me. Below is a link to the Blogger website on Google that I have chosen for the unenviable place to post the musings and otherwise useless utterances of myself. Enter at your own risk. I will now don the armor plated anti flame suit and await your comments.

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John

Reply to
John
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What an interesting life you and your wife have. California and Ohio are certainly different from each other. Are you anywhere close to Minford, Ohio? We have some friends who moved from California to Minford a few years ago. She is bored with small town life, and is working some in Arizona.

Sherry Starr

Reply to
Sherry Starr

Hey there John, I just read your first entry. Some of the info I knew from your postings and other info was new but all of it pretty interesting. You folks are pretty adventurous. I confess I didn't know what the fixed gear was. I'd probably kill myself on one of those bikes! You got out of CA at a good time. I have lived most all my life here and we are trying to figure out where to head now that dh has retired. We may just be here forever. Most of my family is within

100 miles or so and DH has little family left. I guess we should follow your lead and get out and see the country. I d> Well I have finally gone and done it. I have made it possible for all
Reply to
Taria

In message , John writes

A very interesting account John. It used to be one of my dreams to go off in a camper van for a summer but we never got around to it.

Your wife's interest in Genealogy caught my eye, I have just signed up to do my second course at the Adult Education Centre ACE to research our family. Some of my DH's ancestors went to USA in the late 1800's but came back after about 12 years when the husband died. I wished I had have got into the family history 8 years ago. I could have checked it up at Ellis Island when I was taken there by my email pal when I visited her. I have got back to 1605 in one branch of the family.

Shirley

Reply to
Shirley Shone

Ah the life on the road.......you either love it or hate it.....fortunately both DH and I like it but we've never sold up completely and hit the road. The longest we've been away is 6 months. Planning a trip next year down to Adelaide, up to Alice Springs, Darwin then back down to NSW via Townsville (kids living there). Eldest born at Alice in 1971, haven't been back since.

The dry town really got my attention. I had heard about it in the States but thought that it had sort of faded into history. Are you able to go to Mt V and buy it and have it at home without getting pulled in for questioning . I can just imagine a dry town in Australia, there'd be riots! Although some Koori settlements in the Northern Territory have been dry.

You gave a very interesting account of yourself and DW who shares my other interest in Genealogy. Wendy in Nsw

Reply to
Lotsoflavender

The dry town only applies to sales and drinking in public places such as parks and public meetings. If you buy it elsewhere and bring it into your home, you will not be in violation of the law. In an interesting aside, the town of Westerville which is the next county over is the birthplace of the Anti Saloon League of days gone by in Americas "Noble experiment" of prohibition era. For years it remaind dry until recently when the city council voted to let resturants sell beer and wine with food. You would have thought that the end of times was near for all the consternation in the mossback community who fought the change tooth and nail. But in the end, economics won out,as most resturants get about 40% of their income from liquor sales. They were dragged kicking and screaming into the 21st century and fire and brimstone did not in fact reign down upon all concerned. I was relieved to say the least as I was led to believe that it was imminent.

John

Reply to
John

have made it possible for all

I kid my wifes friends in that community that she has traced her ancestry back to the Garden of Eden. That is the good news. The bad news is that she has traced me back there also but I am related to the snake.

John

Reply to
John

Interesting account, John. My father lives in Walnut Creek at a senior community right off the interstate, my sister lived in that city for a number of years but now lives in Danville. Too much traffic, too many people, too much huslte and bustle for my tastes.

Welcome to the blogging world!

Ginger in CA

Reply to
Ginger in CA

I am unfamiliar with Minford. One of the things we learned about transitioning to small town life is that the locals do not need to know you. You have the need to get to know them. If you are not someobdy who is a joiner, you will have a lonely and difficult time adjusting to the change. It took my wife a couple of years to get into the "scene" here and she is still concidered an "outsider" because she did not grow up here. There is an old guard element that thinks of itself as "entitled" and you must realise that you will never be granted into that elevated status due to your place of birth. That is much different from the melting pot of the big city where your merit gains you entry into the society. That is one of the primary negatives that I see in coming into small town life from outside. It didn't affect me as I have opperated as a loner all my life. Being self employed, one man opperation, has that effect on you, as you don't have a ready made group of people that you associate with at work. Or as Groucho Marks once said, "I wouldn't join any group that would have me".

John

Reply to
John

We lived just down the road from Rossmore which is that retirement community, I believe. My father lived there for a few years until he died. Yes, that is why we left. to much traffic and people.

John

Reply to
John

John, I've just finished reading your first blog entry, and how interesting it was! It was also good to put a face to your name. :) Much of what you wrote we've been able to gather from posts here, but much was new and good to read. What an interesting life you lead -- and I'll second Taria's suggestion of wine instead of chocolate for visitors to bring you. ;)

Reply to
Sandy

Interesting site and blog! The "girly" (NOT) group of genealogy (in Ohio) caught my eye! I've also had early Ohio relatives.... before they moved to Oregon! Your adventures sounded great (and exhausting at the same time!). Keep us posted via your new blog. ME-Judy

Reply to
ME-Judy

Howdy!

"Upstart-newby-city-slicker-whippersnapper!"

Hey, you can quilt anywhere.

R/Sandy -- we found Calif. to be "a nice place to visit" ...only lived there twice..or 3 times.. ;-P

Reply to
Sandy Ellison

John. They say everyone has a twin someplace. I think yours live next door to us. When I opened your blog, I did a double take--you look so much like him. Interesting reading. Gen

Reply to
Gen

Too bad more folks don't agree Sandy! Bumper sticker seen in San Diego when we lived there said "welcome to San Diego now go home".

If you saw what has happened in the last few years you would be shocked. We are starting to see a slow down for the first time in years though. Not a stop though.

Come visit any time. TAria

Sandy Ellis> Howdy!

Reply to
Taria

Hey Wendy - I lived next to a dry "suburb" for many years down here in Melbourne. Box Hill was dry . . . . and I think (?) only recently changed to allow liquor in restraurants (I am sure someone here will know)

My mother always swore it was why Dad did not buy a house they looked at in Box Hill way back after the war rofl

I haven't checked out the blog yet John, but I will. Love reading your posts.

Reply to
CATS

John, I too moved from a city to a very small town. As my house was going up my builder constantly asked me if I was sure I REALLY wanted to move to a small town because he was worried I would find it cliquish and isolated. He was from a family that had been in the area for generations. And many in town since then have told me that I will never be a "local" because my grandparents, parents and I were not born here. rofl (this is always said with a big smile)

But having been posted all over the country with the Air Force I have found that you either make the effort and fit in wherever you are, or you adjust to being selfsufficient. I seem to have hovered between the two. When I arrived here I immediately put a quilt in the local show. It was not a particularly outstanding quilt, but it got me an introduction to a circle of women with at least something in common with me. I also ran ONE ad for quiltmaking classes. Six years later I teach five days or more a week and get howled down when I say I want to ease back on classes. Until then quilting was an important but not major part of my life. It still amuses me that people here know me only for my quilting, and they think that is all I am interested in. When I was "in town" and more mobile I had many widely varied interests. But my quilting has brought me friends and contacts throughout my new home town and I have no real regrets about the other interests that are no longer available to me.

My biggest adjustment related to the move was not city to small town. It was adjusting from a very male-dominated society (Air Force) to an almost exclusively female circle of contacts. This is probably the first time in my life I have experienced a predominantly female social/work environment. And I find many activities (eg. fund raising) are still heavily divided by gender. It's not discriminatory, it's just the way things are.

From my observations (admittedly not wide), while you often hear about women becoming very isolated after a big move/change, it can sometimes be even harder for men. This can be especially so if they are retired and they do not have an immediate work group to relate to.

Reply to
CATS

Goodness, I didn't know that Cheryl, wonder how many other towns were dry? I guess a lot a getting somewhere back to that with banned alcohol in public places....not such a bad idea in most cases.

Wendy in Nsw

Reply to
Lotsoflavender

Howdy!

My favorite postcard is similar to this, Taria. It shows a Shoot-Out at High Noon, bodies scattered on the dusty street, gunslingers cooling their trigger fingers, w/ the caption: Welcome to Ft.Worth: now go home.

Arlington, Tx. population 375,000, the 49th largest city in the U.S., soon to have a second public charity funded ballpark for another losing ball team, has just seen the opening of a 2nd quilt shop. We've had 2 quilt shops before, at opposite ends of town; this new one is close to the other (been open for 15 yrs). We'll see if they can both survive, without a showdown. "Howdy, Pawd-nuhs! Check your rotary cutters at the door!"

R/Sandy--- happy to live in a place that welcomes all kinds of slickers, city or otherwise ;-D

p.s. you must have a car to get to either quilt shop; this is the only city of this size w/ NO public transit system

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Reply to
Sandy Ellison

Nice, John! And interesting. I would have left a comment but apparently one must be a Google member in order to do so. Since Google did a nice job of messing up my internet connections, I declined. But I'll be sure to visit the site regularly to see all your updates.

Reply to
Carolyn McCarty

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