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Given the same constraints, I'd take Brenham, Kerrville, Mineral Wells, Nacogdoches (never been but it's got a college), or Big Spring (hometown) in no particular order. I was tempted by Fredericksburg but I think it's been ruined.

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3 minutes ago, chainsaw said:

I would not count any of the border towns.  Census can't get at the populations on the other side.

Then don't pick one. I'm not the one who came up with the list of Texas micro areas or their parameters.

Already did and love it.  Moved to a smallish (< 10K residents) town in Missouri a few years back.  It's the perfect situation.  70 miles outside of the city, so it's there if I want to go, but far enough out that it's not a suburb.  Traffic is nothing.  Got more house and property that I could have ever hoped for in Austin.  Kids are also in a much smaller school.  As someone else said, the lack of restaurants kind of sucks, but we manage. 

All the rich yankees in New England have houses in Fla to go to when its cold.  No way i'd live up there with those winters.  I'll stay here in Charleston and if i want smaller i'll move up to Pawley's  Island, SC.

20 minutes ago, bolverk said:

Given the same constraints, I'd take Brenham, Kerrville, Mineral Wells, Nacogdoches (never been but it's got a college), or Big Spring (hometown) in no particular order. I was tempted by Fredericksburg but I think it's been ruined.

I would have to do something Central or South Texas if I did this. West Texas does nothing for me. Family decided on Abilene and Munday when they came from Mexico and I can't stand those places or anywhere near it. 

I can't imagine the person who arrives in Abilene and says, "this will do," when there's a whole rest of the nation they could have picked

3 minutes ago, chainsaw said:

I can't imagine the person who arrives in Abilene and says, "this will do," when there's a whole rest of the nation they could have picked

Came in 1934 and picked cotton till moving to Dallas.

7 minutes ago, chainsaw said:

I can't imagine the person who arrives in Abilene and says, "this will do," when there's a whole rest of the nation they could have picked

Wagon must have lost a wheel or they lacked ambition one.

I could do small town if I had one good Texmex restaurant and fast internet. 

I rarely leave my house as it is and shop almost exclusively on amazon. 

49 minutes ago, bolverk said:

Given the same constraints, I'd take Brenham, Kerrville, Mineral Wells, Nacogdoches (never been but it's got a college), or Big Spring (hometown) in no particular order. I was tempted by Fredericksburg but I think it's been ruined.

my BIL just sold his house in Fburg. He made some pretty crazy money. Housing there is fucking expensive.

1 hour ago, deadshank said:

Given my same pay (or more) as now I’ll take Brownwood, El Campo, F’burg, Stephenville or Uvalde. 

Fredricksburg?

giphy.gif&f=1

Not sure I could handle the winter but something around Deadwood, the Black Hills, or Yellowstone would be worth a try.  If winter is the impediment that I fear it will be then I could go back to Nacogdoches or any number of college towns.  I don't cook much.  That's my main issue but I've thought about leaving Arlington for sure.  

 

1 hour ago, TxEx99 said:

Not sure I could handle the winter but something around Deadwood, the Black Hills, or Yellowstone would be worth a try.  If winter is the impediment that I fear it will be then I could go back to Nacogdoches or any number of college towns.  I don't cook much.  That's my main issue but I've thought about leaving Arlington for sure.  

That’s a no for me dog. I pretty much hate East Texas and think we should give it to Louisiana. 

One place I've considered moving to is Marble Falls. My kids are against it but the wife has shown interest.

21 minutes ago, Johnny Sack said:

 

That’s a no for me dog. I pretty much hate East Texas and think we should give it to Louisiana. 

I can't give up trees so West Texas is out for me.  

I do.
Town of ~35,000 people.  30 minutes from Huntsville, one hour north of Birmingham, and one hour south of Nashville.
I grew up in a big city and I love that I've known my kids' friends since they were born.
Everybody knows all your business which can be a pain in the ass but I'm pretty boring so no one is dining out on gossip about me and mine.


Cullman? Are you on Smith Lake?

I’ve been planning my escape from Atlanta for 15 years. Built a small place on Logan Martin Lake in Alabama to make sure my wife could manage lake living. She was good with it, and I’m finishing up the retirement house now and will be there full time in 3-4 years. The town is 15,000, lake influence dampens the small town meth vibe and it’s 45 min to Birmingham and what it has. I’m on the lake and there is decent hiking nearby, and awesome fishing and hunting.


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I could probably live in Alpine.
They probably wouldn't let you.

Nope. Been there done that.

Our daughter and her family live in a small town. He wanted to move back to his hometown after graduating college. Would love to move closer to be with our grandkids, but not until they move to a better location. 

yes, if it meets the following parameters-

25K or more, sorry not doing one stop light, one bar, and one restaurant

If under 25K I would need to be within a 30 minute drive of a city with 50-100K or more

 

6 hours ago, Hawndoh said:

I could do small town if I had one good Texmex restaurant and fast internet. 

I rarely leave my house as it is and shop almost exclusively on amazon. 

Sounds like a fascinating existence.

Three years later, SurlyHorns would wonder how you got to 100,000 posts.

Depends on the small town. No way in hell I'd move back to where I grew up. Those people sucked.

5 hours ago, It Takes Eleven said:

Cullman? Are you on Smith Lake?

We are a bit further north than Cullman.

We do, however, have a place at Smith Lake; on the Winston County side, just outside of Arley.  I think we're about to put it on the market though.  With kids in college, we just don''t get down there like we used to and I could NOT live that far out in the boonies full time.

 

On 4/9/2018 at 2:15 PM, PhillyD said:

I grew up in a small town and pledged never to go back to one.  

However,  I would consider it now because things have changed a lot.  With the internet and being able to get things you need want online, it's a lot different than it used to be.  As long as I had reliable internet, I could do it.

Yes, I said after being raised in a small town I would never go back to one either. However, I did in 2003 when I move to Nacogdoches. Granted it took some getting used to and it feels strange having to drive 12 miles to get to the store but after getting used to the peace and quiet and relative calm there's no way in the world I would ever want to move back to the large city again. Or maybe it's just the old in me nowadays.

In Europe, for sure.  Latin America too.  I prefer small towns to cities in both.  In America, hell no. Fuck driving over to the highway exit to choose from McDs and Walmart. The only thing American small towns have going for them is gas station tamales. 

Hell yes i could move to small town. Thats the dream.... just dont pay.

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A little of topic, but I just saw where some dbag survey deemed Austin as the best place to live in America. Cali infiltrators are definitely going to reverse that trend in the future. We’ll probably eventually cash out before that happens and move somewhere else just to get away from the trash heap that will be Austin.

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16 hours ago, bolverk said:

I decided to look up a list of the micropolitan statistical areas of Texas. There are 43 of them. The requirements for qualification is to 1) form an urban cluster of at least 10,000 and 2) NOT be a suburb of a major city as measured by commuting patterns (this is a legit Census Bureau designation).

KsthdpPm_t.jpg

I hope this image isn't too small. I'm still trying to figure out the imgbox thing.Edit: There are several from this list I've never been to. Sell us on your top five. 

Places I've never been: Andrews, Athens, Big Spring, Borger, Brownwood, Gainesville, Lamesa, Levelland, Mineral Wells, Pampa, Pecos, Plainview, RGC, Snyder, Stephenville, Sulphur Springs, Sweetwater, Zapata

Places I have been, and no fucking way I'd ever, ever move there: Alice, Bay City, Beeville, Dumas, Eagle Pass (the only town on the border where the Mexican side is a vast improvement), El Campo, Hereford, Huntsville, Jacksonville, Lufkin, Marshall, Mt. Pleasant (I have way too many insane relatives in the area), Paris (see Mt. Pleasant, also town still has a nasty Old South racial vibe), Vernon.

Need to study further: Del Rio, Kingsville, Nac, Raymondville. I doubt I'd find much to like about Del Rio, but I do love South Texas. Nac transcends the usual ETX bullshit via history and being a college town. Knee-jerk reaction is it's preferable to Huntsville. 

Hot take: Fuck Fredericksburg. It's too late. You should have moved there 30 years ago. It's the Austin of small Texas towns, and it's been ruined. It's now attracting assholes who want to change everything about the place while living there maybe 20 days a year. 

Which leaves me with: Brenham, Corsicana, Kerrville, Palestine, and Uvalde. 

I confuse Corsicana and Palestine, but I do know that they are both trying to make their downtowns interesting and fun. Brenham also falls in that category, and I think the environs of Brenham are a little bit prettier than Corsicana and Palestine. (I lump Paris in with this group, but there is just something really fucked up about Paris that you can't measure with statistics. Proximity to Oklahoma, probably.) I'd probably give Brenham the edge 'cause it feels a little less Babtis' than Palescana / Corsistine. 

Kerrville blows away all the ETX places in natural beauty and "cool factor." People would come visit you there. Probably not if you lived in Uvalde, and the immediate area is nothing special, but you are about 20 miles south of Concan and the rest of the western Hill Country, so there's that. Also lots of cheap and great Mexican food and the Liquor / Guns one-stop, and you're close to the border and SA. 

Narrowing down: Kerrville, Brenham, Uvalde

1 hour ago, MaybeACoordinator said:

Places I've never been: Andrews, Athens, Big Spring, Borger, Brownwood, Gainesville, Lamesa, Levelland, Mineral Wells, Pampa, Pecos, Plainview, RGC, Snyder, Stephenville, Sulphur Springs, Sweetwater, Zapata

Places I have been, and no fucking way I'd ever, ever move there: Alice, Bay City, Beeville, Dumas, Eagle Pass (the only town on the border where the Mexican side is a vast improvement), El Campo, Hereford, Huntsville, Jacksonville, Lufkin, Marshall, Mt. Pleasant (I have way too many insane relatives in the area), Paris (see Mt. Pleasant, also town still has a nasty Old South racial vibe), Vernon.

Need to study further: Del Rio, Kingsville, Nac, Raymondville. I doubt I'd find much to like about Del Rio, but I do love South Texas. Nac transcends the usual ETX bullshit via history and being a college town. Knee-jerk reaction is it's preferable to Huntsville. 

Hot take: Fuck Fredericksburg. It's too late. You should have moved there 30 years ago. It's the Austin of small Texas towns, and it's been ruined. It's now attracting assholes who want to change everything about the place while living there maybe 20 days a year. 

Which leaves me with: Brenham, Corsicana, Kerrville, Palestine, and Uvalde. 

I confuse Corsicana and Palestine, but I do know that they are both trying to make their downtowns interesting and fun. Brenham also falls in that category, and I think the environs of Brenham are a little bit prettier than Corsicana and Palestine. (I lump Paris in with this group, but there is just something really fucked up about Paris that you can't measure with statistics. Proximity to Oklahoma, probably.) I'd probably give Brenham the edge 'cause it feels a little less Babtis' than Palescana / Corsistine. 

Kerrville blows away all the ETX places in natural beauty and "cool factor." People would come visit you there. Probably not if you lived in Uvalde, and the immediate area is nothing special, but you are about 20 miles south of Concan and the rest of the western Hill Country, so there's that. Also lots of cheap and great Mexican food and the Liquor / Guns one-stop, and you're close to the border and SA. 

Narrowing down: Kerrville, Brenham, Uvalde

Kingsville is pretty close to Corpus suburbs.  Take that for what it's worth.

6 hours ago, FondrenRoad said:

In Europe, for sure.  Latin America too.  I prefer small towns to cities in both.  In America, hell no. Fuck driving over to the highway exit to choose from McDs and Walmart. The only thing American small towns have going for them is gas station tamales. 

Small towns in America are all the same if you think about.  You get 30 miles outside of a big city and the only thing different are the accents.

Always thought if moving back to Texas, San Marcos would be an option but Marble Falls looks intriguing to me.  Of course, it all depends when and where Jr. and his soon to be bride start popping out any grandkids. 

1 hour ago, Aqua Buddha said:

Small towns in America are all the same if you think about.  You get 30 miles outside of a big city and the only thing different are the accents.

Yeah they are.  Most of the ones Ive been in destroyed their small town feel by centering commerce around the nearest highway exit. You don't see that in Europe. A 1000 person town in France will have a bar, bakery, and butcher you can walk to. Don't really need anything else. 

Colorado has some good small towns though. 

Edited by FondrenRoad

2 hours ago, BurntEyes said:

San Marcos is damn near an extended suburb of Austin now. Thd build out in Buda and Kyle is huge. Heck going north the development extends PAST Georgetown and Liberty Hill not long before it is in Jarrel which already is in varying stages of development.

At this rate it'll soon look like one city from Gainsville to San Antonio.

Grew up in a town <1000. You couldn't pay me enough money to live that life again. 

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1 hour ago, FondrenRoad said:

Yeah they are.  Most of the ones Ive been in destroyed their small town feel by centering commerce around the nearest highway exit. You don't see that in Europe. A 1000 person town in France will have a bar, bakery, and butcher you can walk to. Don't really need anything else. 

Colorado has some good small towns though. 

That trend has reversed, somewhat, at least in the towns that have some life left in them. Mom and pop restaurants, bars, stores, breweries, yoga studios and art galleries are coming back to downtowns in towns all over Central Texas and the Hill Country and in the Big Bend area. People are even restoring the living spaces that have been vacant for decades in the buildings around courthouse squares in those areas. Deep East Texas and Northwest Texas / Panhandle still blow, though.

2 hours ago, FondrenRoad said:

Yeah they are.  Most of the ones Ive been in destroyed their small town feel by centering commerce around the nearest highway exit. You don't see that in Europe. A 1000 person town in France will have a bar, bakery, and butcher you can walk to. Don't really need anything else. 

Colorado has some good small towns though. 

I don’t have an interstate within 90 miles.  Town economy is driven by Yellowstone tourism between memorial and labor days. 

3 hours ago, BurntEyes said:

San Marcos is damn near an extended suburb of Austin now. Thd build out in Buda and Kyle is huge. Heck going north the development extends PAST Georgetown and Liberty Hill not long before it is in Jarrel which already is in varying stages of development.

That whole I-35 corridor blends in together but I’ve always liked SM, it’s certainly changed from when I worked down there in the mid 80s. 

Edited by Underdog

I’d take new braunfels over San Marcos I think.  Wimberly would be ok as long as you are just outside of town. My folks were in between wimberly and blanco for a while, and had to drive 15 minutes just to get to the limited things those towns provided. 

Edited by Pato del Muerto

  • Author
10 minutes ago, BurntEyes said:

I've no issue with SM at all, but IMO it doesn't really fit the nature of this thread.

Neither does New Braunfels. Maybe 25-30 years ago, but not anymore. 

My personal definition of a small town is a town that contains a single high school that is classified as 4A or smaller (1150 students).  That gets you to truly rural Texas and away from the metro areas for the most part.  Most of these areas do not have a business base to support what the majority of posters here earn. So your choices are to commute in, downsize lifestyle or wait till retirement.  I personally commute into Houston and trade the time in the  car for a community where my kids are fully involved in any sport or club or extracurricular activity they want to participate in.  There is something to be said for a slower pace of life and a 5 minute drive to go across town. 

What about a small town on a Hawaiian island?

Only if a 2005 corvette is included in the relocation package.
1 hour ago, BurntEyes said:

Frisco to San Antonio. In our lifetimes barring zombies.

More like okc to San Antonio 

8 hours ago, BurntEyes said:

I've no issue with SM at all, but IMO it doesn't really fit the nature of this thread.

Yeah, San Marcos doesn't count anymore. On the other hand, I have heard people argue that "San Marvelous" is the new "Old Austin" in terms of the college atmosphere with it's subsequent "weirdness" (poor artist & musician Austin refugees are apparently moving there) and relative affordability. I'm agnostic on that take as I really don't know otherwise, but I can see it in a certain sense. Obviously, it's not a perfect comparison.

Speaking of which: What are our sloots up to these days?

Edited by bolverk

On 4/10/2018 at 7:00 PM, RDCanecutter said:

Pell City never forgets, and it never forgives.

The City of Pell?   

I grew up in Plainview and, generally, have a positive view of my childhood. That said, I prefer and enjoy living in a larger city. Did my time in Austin while at school and now in the DFW area. There are many more job opportunities and earnings potential than in a small town.

My parents live up in Borger now, and I enjoy visiting them with the wife and kid a time or two each year. I like the slower pace of life a small town can afford, but not enough to make it permanent. I also like being able to see the stars at night. They just aren't bright enough in the big city. 

I would have no problem with small town living. Born in Tomball and I have lived the majority of my life in East Texas, Houston mostly. My work keeps here. Definitely would not miss the traffic and BS I have to put up with daily to have a decent job.

Thinking about Onalaska TX on Lake Livingston for retirement. Great fishing and quiet community. Already have a family lake house in the area and have spent a lot of time there. Very cheap cost of living.Two stoplights, a Dairy Queen, Subway and a Sonic. When people talk about goin' to town there are two choices in different directions on HWY 190. Livingston or Huntsville. 

I am also thinking about taking a vacation trip up to the northwest, possibly Idaho just to check it out. Never been so I would like to see if it would be feasible to have a place up there or if I would even enjoy living there. I could do without having to endure the East Texas swamp ass every summer for the rest of my life. Any ideals from folks with experience in that part of the country would be appreciated.

 

I grew up in Brownwood and do not think I could move back due to the fact that it is 2-3 hours from any major city.  I think I could move to a small town that is under 1 hour from a major city/ airport.

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