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What do you consider a hometown?

What's a hometown?

  • Where you were born

    Votes: 18 4.1%

  • Where you grew up

    Votes: 387 88.6%

  • Last place you lived before your current place

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Where you live now

    Votes: 12 2.7%

  • Your favorite place you've lived

    Votes: 9 2.1%

  • Place you spent the most time living

    Votes: 11 2.5%
  • Total voters
    437
Caeda

Caeda

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,933
Danbury, CT
I always call the town I lived in ages 7-18 my hometown, but it's not my favorite place I've ever lived, nor is it where I was born, or anywhere close for that matter. Everyone seems to have different definitions of hometown though, so it can be pretty confusing at times.
 
Keio

Keio

Member
Nov 5, 2017
943
For me it's where I grew up in my teenage and early adult years, "the formative place" I would define it.

Spiritual home is what I've heard being used about a fave place someone lived in.

And I'd say my current city is "where I feel at home".
 
Helix

Helix

Mayor of Clown Town
Banned
Jun 8, 2019
24,101
usually the place I grew up in and have fond memories of.
 
StarStorm

StarStorm

"This guy are sick"
Avenger
Oct 25, 2017
7,640
Its the place where I grew up. I'm 2,000+ miles from where I was born lol.
 

Deleted member 25606

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 29, 2017
8,973
Where I grew up. And no I don't live there anymore and probably never would again unless it was my only option.
 
echoshifting

echoshifting

very salt heavy
The Fallen
Oct 25, 2017
15,055
The Negative Zone
I've lived in this area since 2000 and it's my hometown. My family made too many big moves between very different places while I was growing up, I've never thought of any of those places that way. I never knew any of them as intimately, had as much history or as many connections as I do to this place.
 
SlickVic

SlickVic

Member
Oct 27, 2017
5,010
USA
I consider the typical definition of it to be where you grew up, but if you moved around while growing up, I think it can be hard to choose one place as a 'hometown'. Especially if you've spent a comparable amount of time in different places. To me I just consider my favorite of the places I grew up as my hometown, but I suppose there's nothing against considering multiple places as hometowns (especially if they're far away from each other in distance).
 
Dan Thunder

Dan Thunder

Member
Nov 2, 2017
14,203
To me it's where you grew up. I was born and raised in the same town so it's easy for me to say that. My brother was born in London, but moved to what I would call our hometown after a couple of years. I know he'd classify that as his hometown and not London as that's where he grew up until he went to uni.
 
Fleck0

Fleck0

Member
Oct 25, 2017
2,455
I was born in SoCal and moved to NorCal when I was 4, I moved back down south for college in my 20s and then back up north for my 30s.

I definitely identify with the northern area more because I spent my entire childhood here. But I miss Del Taco so much. (Though I was back down there around new years and I went hard.)
 
OP
OP
Caeda

Caeda

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,933
Danbury, CT
SlickVic said:
I consider the typical definition of it to be where you grew up, but if you moved around while growing up, I think it can be hard to choose one place as a 'hometown'. Especially if you've spent a comparable amount of time in different places. To me I just consider my favorite of the places I grew up as my hometown, but I suppose there's nothing against considering multiple places as hometowns (especially if they're far away from each other in distance).
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That's why I have the struggle with the definition, where I lived from 7-18 was the 5th state I had lived in, and god knows what # town it was. Most folks I grew up around were born and raised in the same place, and people will ask "oh where are you from" and it's like man I don't know!!! Where the fuck am I from!! Do you want the town I was born in or where I spent the most time so far or where I moved here from or what!! Why can't it just be easy to answer 😭
 
TheMadTitan

TheMadTitan

Member
Oct 27, 2017
27,426
Where you grew up. You could be born and have no intimate attachments to a place because you were there as an infant. Or you could've been there prior to first grade and spent the rest of your formative years somewhere else.
 
Dr. Mario

Dr. Mario

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
14,042
Netherlands
I think multiple places can be your hometown. I basically grew up in two cities. There was the place where my house was, and the place where my school and friends were, 30km away. I couldn't call either more hometown. And then there's the place I chose to live myself because I was infatuated with it much more than either two previous ones, and I've now lived for almost as long as my parents' town. All three are my hometown.
 
Azraes

Azraes

Member
Oct 28, 2017
997
London
I had my formative years and grew up in a few different cities and countries - can barely call any of those places my hometown since I've spent more actual time in other places as adult. The concept of hometown doesn't exist for someone like me for better or for worse. Everything feels like a fleeting experience that collects in the nebulous well of memories.

Every decade of my life often has a city/country of prominence where I spend the most time.

Also you can call multiple places a hometown given more people are mobile today than before. Especially with third culture kids.
 
Vonocourt

Vonocourt

Member
Oct 25, 2017
10,658
I think of where you grow up, since I moved up and down the east coast throughout my childhood, I don't have one.
 
CreepingFear

CreepingFear

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
16,766
I guess, I consider it where I grew up. I just don't consider where I currently live as "my hometown". The truth is, I've always been miserable or felt like I didn't belong wherever I live. I thought moving to California would solve all my issues. It did not.
 
Mukrab

Mukrab

Banned
Apr 19, 2020
7,712
Neither? I consider home the place from where im from. I wasnt born there since there is no hospital. Also i never lived there. My parents are immigrants. I just went there on vacation. Its where my extended family lives.
 
Solomon Grundy

Solomon Grundy

Banned
May 31, 2021
698
They place I grew up. 3-18 for me.

I have lived in my current town for about 10 years, which is the longest I have lived anywhere since leaving home at 18. It is conceivable that I will live here longer than my "hometown". I don't think I will ever feel like I am from this new town though, and I don't have any seems of regional "pride" for the town. This town is my kids hometown though, even though they were born in London.
 
Thorrgal

Thorrgal

Member
Oct 26, 2017
12,556
Were I was born, were I grew up, were I live now, my favorite place and the place I spent the most time living is the same so easy for me...it's also one of the best places to live in the world due to weather, food, wine culture, the chill vibe, the beach etc so I lucked out :P
 
Ravelle

Ravelle

Member
Oct 31, 2017
17,972
The city I spent the most time in growing up, no the city I was born in and spent 5 years until I moved because I barely have any recollection of it.
 
tsakiki

tsakiki

Member
Oct 27, 2017
719
I don't really think of any place as my "hometown", but where I live is "home", so I put that. Living in 6 or 7 different towns before 18 didn't really let me feel too attached to any of them.

People at work would ask if I was going "home" for <insert holiday here>, and my response would be "I go home every night after work"... Neither of my parents lived anywhere that I had lived with them while growing up, so their houses certainly weren't ever home to me.
 
J_ToSaveTheDay

J_ToSaveTheDay

"This guy are sick" and Corrupted by Vengeance
Avenger
Oct 25, 2017
18,990
USA
I was born a military brat but my dad retired from the military when I was 5 and we settled in the place that I consider my hometown from then on. Still grew up very close to military bases and surrounded by other military families there, so still remained a big part of my upbringing. My parents shopped almost entirely on base for groceries weekly (commissary often cheaper and no sales tax) and my healthcare was through the military until I turned 26 so tons of time spent on bases.

But yeah, stayed there until I left for college. Feels like a hometown to me.
 
Red

Red

Member
Oct 26, 2017
11,835
For me it's the place I spent my childhood. My family moved around a lot when I was a kid, and I left the place completely when I was around 7. But despite being over 30 now, when I think of "home," I still think of the small apartment in which I spent the first few years of my life.
 
Banshee

Banshee

Member
Oct 27, 2017
489
Missouri
Where I was born is a town nearby that I have little feelings for beyond "its the place with the big Wal-Mart we get groceries at", so for me its definitely where I grew up. Which is the same place I've been my entire life, so.

Fun side note, the hospital I was born in is shut down now, too.
 
Finale Fireworker

Finale Fireworker

Love each other or die trying.
Member
Oct 25, 2017
14,724
United States
I lived in one place until I was 13-14, then we moved somewhere else. Despite spending all of my earliest years in Place #1, I recognize Place #2 as my hometown because it feels like that's where all my most important development happened and where all my oldest relationships stem from.
 
Boy

Boy

Member
Apr 24, 2018
4,622
Wherever I currently reside at I guess. I moved around a lot as a kid and although I've had fond memories of the places where I've lived, I don't feel any kind of connection to them whenever I visit. It's more about the people that passed through my life rather than the place for me.
 
thewienke

thewienke

Member
Oct 25, 2017
16,155
Lived in Milwaukee until I was 12 and then graduated high school in Arkansas.

This question continues to give me fits as a grown ass adult because I was raised/socialized in Milwaukee and raised by two Wisconsin natives.

But I spent my formative years in Arkansas and all of my lifelong friends are from there.

So I usually just say both.
 
Planx

Planx

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,756
It's the neighborhood I lived in from 3-18. You drive through the town it's in, get to the very edge of town, crest a hill, and nestled right in a valley between 3 large, round hills is where I grew up. A river cuts through the valley, a small goat farm sits on the road to the river, and I can picture it all so clearly it hurts
 
Kamek

Kamek

Member
Oct 27, 2017
3,985
Where your spend your formative years. I can accept people living in New York as new yorkers even if they're from out of town if they've lived here a while, work here, etc. But your hometown isn't new York.

Hometown is where you spend your formative years and grow up. I think it also depends on the attractiveness of the hometown city. I know a lot of people who grew up in long island but where born in a city hospital claim they are from the city lol.
 
Herne

Herne

Member
Dec 10, 2017
5,352
How could it be anything but the place you grew up?

I was born in a hospital in the nearest city, but that doesn't mean the city is my hometown.
 
Hecht

Hecht

Pushin’ me down, pushin’ me down, pushin’ me down
Administrator
Oct 24, 2017
9,746
No idea. I moved 16 times before I turned 18. Army brat. Though I did claim Seoul as my hometown in college just to confuse people.
 
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