Let us talk about our homes! Or not, if you don't want a bunch of strangers knowing where you live. That's cool too. Mostly I just wanted an excuse to post all of these awesome pictures I found of my own city:
So far I have not driven on it when the lights are changing colors, but this is probably a good thing because I would totally end up killing myself like "ooooh pretty liiiights".
My hometown is famous for being named for its suprising number of Mechanics, for birthing Juliard dropout and Pop C-lister Jason Mraz, and for being the site of the infamous Tractor Supply Store Emo Kid Ax Assault of '08. Oh, and several incredibly bloody Civil War battles.
Mechanicsville VA, that backwards little town with bad roads and militant traffic cops where you stop for gas on your roadtrip to Washington DC.
...But seriously, my hometown celebrates easter with the Good Friday Mudbog, and every year at Christmas, Santa makes his rounds on a firetruck through the suburbs. Okay, the latter is pretty effing awesome.
My hometown is so insignificant that some of my friends were listed on Wikipedia as "notable residents" for completely random reasons for a few months before anyone decided that it was important enough to fix. The only real point of interest in the town was the Bat Signal that was once painted on the water tower, but that was done away with several years ago.
The old iron bridge that was replaced in 1998. My friend wrote a short essay about why it should be preserved, but it's still lying in someone's field as far as I know.
The other bridge that allows you to get to town from the highway or interstate. Many 18-wheelers ignore the sign stating that this is a short bridge and end up jack-knifing. Oops!
The local museum and landmark, a.k.a. where everyone gets their graduation and prom pictures taken. It's called Potts Inn and served as a stagecoach stop back in the Old Days.
In front of Potts Inn is this brick sign. It's not significant in and of itself, but rather because in 1997 during the town's centennial, a time capsule was buried there. I'm just waiting for May 2047 because I have no idea who put the time capsule together or even what went into it. I was just there when it was buried.
This is not exactly my hometown, but I was born in this city, and they're practically connected anyway. In the 1970s, they built two nuclear reactors. One of which has this gorgeous landscape-defining cooling tower, the other cooling via lake water. They built the lake to service the nuclear plant, incidentally. Several neighborhoods were submerged according to my dad, and in places you can find roads leading under water. If I ever learn to scuba dive and have access to gear, I'd like to go exploring down there.
In order to build a lake, they had to get water from somewhere. The obvious source was the Arkansas River. So they built a dam and a series of locks for boats to be able to traverse the water way. I spent a lot of time as a kid at the Lock and Dam watching a little boat go into this great concrete locker. If they were going upstream, you wouldn't be able to see them as the water level was so low. Gradually the water level would rise and they could go on their way, but I dont' ever remember being patient enough to watch the whole process.
Here's a map detailing just what happens when you dam a river. Just know that every blue area is at the same height or lower, contiguously. The green areas at the mid-bottom are the parks. My town is to the east, another town is to the west. The lake is named after that town >:[ jerks
My hometown once was a great place to live. Once the 80's hit and manufacturing slowed down in the US in went down hill. Goodyear left and left many people without jobs and hope. t became a drug and criminal haven and still for the most part is. Most of my friends have spent time in prison for various drug/violent acts and there is still little hope for anything other than a gas station/ grocery store job. Sad for a place that was once the Capitol of the state and the birthplace of the state.
this is what most people of my area know Windsor for:
the largest housing project in Northern New England.