My Town...

[RICHARD]

Manhattan, NY

Need I list? LOL

Claudia

We know, but what do YOU find interesting about it?

This is more a 'civic pride' / little known facts thread.

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I was watching TV and the program mentioned the state of Ohio-

The narrator said that it was known for the men associated with aerospace and fliight.

Orville and Wilbur Wright came from Ohio, as did John Glenn and Neal Armstrong! So It got me wondering about where people are from and what they are proud about!

[Freedom]

The first part has to do with the town you were born in-name

Methuen, Massachusetts, USA.

-- ONLY one in this country; named after a British Lord. We had the then current Lord Methuen come visit during the Bicentennial Celebrations in 1976, which was 275 years for us!

-- home of Edward Searles, city benefactor. Interesting story, with him marrying a woman 22 years his senior, the widow of one of the five great railroad magnates (Hopkins). He was accused of marrying his wife for money, then killing her, although there were never any charges brought. She left him enormous real estate holdings and $21 million!

-- Home of Searlo Organ Hall, built by Edward Searles (see above). Built to house "The Great Organ," a pipe organ, built for the Boston Music Hall. It is still used today with many wonderful organists from around the world coming in to celebrate and play it in concerts. I do go back now and then to hear it!

-- home to Tenney Castle aka Grey Court Castle, and to Searles Castle

-- when I grew up there, it was The Town of Methuen. After I moved away, because of population growth, they became a city and changed to city government. And became: The City Known as The Town of Methuen! Kept that name officially for several years, before renaming to City of Methuen.

-- growing up, my friends and I often went to the cheapest entertainment in town (it was free): the town meetings! The antics were unbelievable to us, as these were grownups! One would get the water pitcher, walk over and dump it on the person speaking, if he disagreed with what was being said. Another one pulled the chair out from behind a speaker who then completed her talk, went to sit and landed on the floor. Papers were shredded, water was splashed from glasses, it was amazing! But hey, it introduced us to local government.

[Cinder & Smoke]

... the cheapest entertainment in town (it was free): the town meetings!

The antics were unbelievable to us, as these were grownups!
One would get the water pitcher, walk over and dump it on the person speaking,
if he disagreed with what was being said.

Another one pulled the chair out from behind a speaker who then completed her talk,
went to sit and landed on the floor.

Papers were shredded, water was splashed from glasses, it was amazing!

Not much has changed in National Politics, eh?

[mugsy]

I'm boring...I've lived the same place all 46 3/4 years of my life!

Fort Wayne, IN

1. TV was invented here (or at least the inventor lived here...cool house too)
2. We are at the confluence of the St Joe, St Marys, and Maumee River...only place east of the Mississippi where the rivers don't run to the Mississippi or a tributary there of. The Maumee (formed by the St Joe and St Marys) flows northeast to Lake Erie
3. Named for the original fort (built at the confluence) which was named for "Mad" Anthony Wayne the "hero" (for the whites at least) of the Battle of Fallen Timbers (fought by Amy's current home in Toledo)
4. The Three Rivers Festival (hard to believe THAT is a tourist attraction,but, I'm told it is)
5. Home town of Little Turtle and Chief Richardsville and Dick York (Darin #1 in Bewitched) and the character Frank Burns in M*A*S*H and Shelly Long and Carole Lombard...
6. Pawster Park (dog park)
7. Largest county (in area) in the state of Indiana (the county is 2/3 the size of the state of Rhode Island)
8. 2nd largest city in the state
9. Professional baseball started here
10. Zollner Pistons (later moved to Detroit)
11. on the top 10 targets for nuclear attacks because of all the classified government work done here...ITT, Ratheon, etc...
12. we have the 2nd largest shopping mall in the Midwest (which I avoid like the plague)
13. Coney Island Hot Dog Stand (in the same place since 1913)
14. A Tony Hawk designed skateboard park
15. The River Greenway (walking and biking path along the 3 rivers all though town)
16. Tony Dungy suggesting the Bears and Colts play the Super Bowl here

Ok, I'm done. I also don't follow directions very well...I had more than 4!

[Fuzzybuns]

My husband (David) and I both grew up in the same town we live in now. We met in
2nd grade and both graduated in '87. I married, had my son and divorced while David went to college. We got back together (we dated all through school, lol), married and had our daughter. Three years ago, we moved back here because we wanted our daughter to go to middleschool and highschool here.

Allen is a "wed-n-bed" community. It used to be run by the Baptist church and they even ran Wal-Mart out of town when the store wanted to go 24 hours. The Baptists also set the "No Play Sunday" rule...we weren't "allowed" to publicly play arcade games or shoot pool...that has since changed.

Allen, Texas
pop: 77,465 (2007), judging by the new students at my daughter's middleschool at the beginning of last school year, we're growing by leaps and bounds! Something like 32,000 in 7 years...

The Allen Eagle Escadrille (highschool marching band) is the largest in the world at over 650 members consisting of the band, drill team, and color guard. If you watched the 2006 Tournament of Roses Parade, we were the band that took forever to go by, lol.

First successful Texas train robbery on February 22, 1878 by Sam Bass and gang.

Some past and present residents:
Burton Gilliam, actor
Matt Barr, actor
Carly Patterson, gymnast, 2004 Olympic All-Around Champion and musician
Tony Dorsett, Dallas Cowboys player
Julie McCullough, Playboy Playmate
Alex Reyes, Texas Tech University punter, Minnesota Vikings punter
Amanda Dunbar, 2006 inductee into Texas Women's Hall of Fame[4]
Kathleen Baskin-Ball, clergy, nationally known preacher

There's also several artists and authors living amongst us.

Allen's first recorded tornado occurred on April 10, 2008-Not bad for being in Tornado Alley!

It's more info than you asked for but I love my hometown!

[RedHedd]

Well I was born in San Francisco and still live here. We're famous for a lot of things:

Golden Gate Bridge
Coit Tower
Fisherman's Wharf
Golden Gate Park
Cable Cars
Ocean Beach
The Cliff House
Bill Graham!, Janis Joplin, the Grateful Dead
Restaurants!
Our hills
Our Chinatown
Did I mention the food?
Parking - oh wait, we don't have that