Fun facts about where you live!

[DianaB]

I found another cool site with pictures. It shows the Christmas star and our downtown area. The Missouri-Pacific Depot is where Janet and Marilyn bought their purses from. It's been converted into a flower shop. The Cox motel was owned by my parents and they lived in it while they ran it.

http://www.thelope.com/2007/12/star-of-fredonia.html

[Janet]

I am really liking all the pictures of everyone's town/city. So beautiful and interesting.

[Lindsey]

Oh I just thought of another interesting fact I'm sitting here watching Gene Simmons Family Jewels and I remembered that his wife, Shannon Tweed, is also from here. She went to high school with Kyle's aunt. Gene and Shannon were both here for a visit last week, and they went to a radio station and dropped off a signed guitar that Gene used on tour, to be auctioned. It went for $2,000!

[Janet]

I love watching his show. I watched it for a couple hours yesterday.

[Dobie]

One fun thing about Rhode Island is that Mr. Potato Head is the tourism ambassador.

[Lindsey]

Originally Posted by Dobie

One fun thing about Rhode Island is that Mr. Potato Head is the tourism ambassador.

lol! That's awesome!

[gja1000]

Hi Lindsay,
I think you mentioned that Austin was too big and asked about the population. Yes, it is big, but it doesn't "feel" big - I know that sound silly, but true.

The population of Austin proper is only about 600,000 - but the metropolitian area, including all the suburbs is much bigger.

I think the reason it "feels" smaller is that it works hard to keep its small town "feel".

For example, we celebrate Eyeore's birthday - yep, once a year, we have a big festival in the park! We also have Spamarama - where everyone enters their "best" (ahem) spam recipe, complete with the finished product and judging for winners. Once a month, we have the Citywide Garage Sale downtown. It's really more like a big antique sale. All you have to do is say to someone, "Are you going to the Citywide?" and they know exactly what you mean. The first Thursday of each month - we have First Thursday (real unique name, I know) where a downtown street turns into a giant sidewalk sale/street festival. Thousands of people come down to shop, eat, mingle, listen to music and just have a great time. It's things like these that help Austin to keep its small town "feel"

The city revolves around the University of Texas whose campus is almost right downtown. The capitol (Austin is the capitol of Texas) is on 12th street and the campus starts on 15th street. The University has an enrollment of about 50,000 students per year. I think the U keeps the city "young".

[teri88]

I'm going to talk about the town we lived in up until last November, because it is so dear to my heart (Where we are now is just temporary, we're still hoping to find a place to live back in our old town). Milltown is just over 100 years old. It's a one mile square town that we refer to as a bedroom community. No big industry, just homes and small businesses. There is a quaint main st. with family owned shops, a big community pool and an excellent school system. (I was on the board of education for 6 years....two of those as President). My husband and I bought our house there in 1991. There are many 3rd and 4th generations in the town, lots of young people buy grandma's house when she dies, that sort of thing. There is a big pond in the center of town where everyone loves to go fishing. It really is Mayberry RFD. It's a wonderful town to raise children in. Even though the house we are in now is much nicer than the little capecod we had there, we'd go back in a minute if we could!

[Shada]

'Mr. Christmas' is from my hometown, also Tom Bodett of Motel6 (keep the light on). Went to school with Tom. A nice guy.
Verne Troyer grew up in neighboring town. Can't forget Colon which is 'The Magic Capital of the World', which is another neighboring town.

The only thing the hometown is known for now is that it is slowly dying due to losing jobs. The housing is declining due to people losing their jobs. Buyers market here. Tons of houses for sale. Tons of foreclosures in paper nightly.

Really sad.

[2tiredmom]

Diana,
Thanks for making me homesick with those pics for Frankfort. LOL.
Anyway where I live in the very far north east corner of Indiana our county is known for it's 101 plus lakes. Its very pretty up here but watch out in the summer time. The lakers come to town.

[DianaB]

Originally Posted by Dobie

One fun thing about Rhode Island is that Mr. Potato Head is the tourism ambassador.

Do you mind if I laugh about this?

[Dobie]

Originally Posted by DianaB

Do you mind if I laugh about this?

There are statues of him all over the state!!

[gja1000]

I just read in our paper today that Sandra Bullock was called for jury duty in Austin (where she lives, at least part time) last Monday. It said she showed up just like the rest of us schleps and sat in the room for jury questioning. However the prosecutor used a preemptive strike to exclude her from the jury panel. Guess he didn't want her "celebrity status" to overshadow the trial!!! The article said she didn't even ask to be excused. Now THAT is impressive - because I usually ask to be excused at least once when they call me - how do they know that the week they want me to serve is the BUSIEST week of my life!!!

[Dobie]

I've never been called for jury duty - I have friends who have been called 3 or 4 times - I always thought it might be interesting to serve on a jury.

[gja1000]

Originally Posted by Dobie

I've never been called for jury duty - I have friends who have been called 3 or 4 times - I always thought it might be interesting to serve on a jury.

It is very interesting - I was on the jury for a murder case - the defendant had pled guilty of the murder, we just had to decide what kind of murder it was - plain murder or murder in the process of committing another crime. They had plea bargained to not give the death penalty - I'm glad for that - I'd hate to have to sentence someone to death.