Ot Which City would you like to have been born

[Pattylallacks2]

A very good topic, WanChai. Very difficult to give a sensible answer. Classical Athens, Renaissance Florence, Constantinople before it fell to the heathens. Perhaps even Berlin under the Weimar Republic; drugs, music, women and booze.

Sounds just like Bolton in the 90s.

[WanChaiMiller]

A very good topic, WanChai. Very difficult to give a sensible answer. Classical Athens, Renaissance Florence, Constantinople before it fell to the heathens. Perhaps even Berlin under the Weimar Republic; drugs, music, women and booze.

Not looking for sensible!! I can see your thinking on Constantinopole, etc.

[WanChaiMiller]

...but Nintendo will have built the cyber-reality bubble by then and you'll be able to climb in and dial in whatever world you fancy - including an imagined Miami 2400 that isn't under 20 feet of water!

To the OP's choice, I was living near Detroit in the mid-seventies but spent a fair amount of time in New York on visits. (I also worked there for five years in the mid-nineties commuting in from Connecticut.) New York 40 years ago was as different from New York today as contemporary London is from 40 years before. I stayed in the Bronx - an area I would try to avoid these days - even just driving through. Manhattan was definitely scruffier but more raffish and vibrant. There were neighborhoods where people could afford to live and small cafes and markets off the main thoroughfares. These days everything is driven by big money and largely homogenised. There was more begging on the streets and petty crime but it had character. I remember driving with a friend through neighborhoods where, each time you stopped at a traffic light, youths would come up and spray your windscreen with soapy water and try to wash it. My friend had a clip of quarters attached to his dashboard and would hand one out before they even started in order to avoid the usually messy "attack" - definitely a threat rather than a service.

Always interesting to read stories of your travels CT.

[CAMiller]

It's bit of a strange question because I have visited many places and thought 'this would be a nice place to live' but I've never even thought about or even wanted to have been born anywhere other than Rotherham. I suppose if you add in the time travel factor there might be some places/times I could come up with.

PS One things for sure, watching the antics of the NY crowd at the current USPGA Golf Championship I'm pretty glad I wasn't born a New Yorker.

[caytonmiller]

Wellington or Queenstown. I would pack it up tomorrow and move there if it wasn't for my miller's season ticket commitments.

[sota]

I’m very happy that I was born in the front bedroom of a council house in East Herringthorpe and had a great childhood playing football from the minute I got in from school until it got too dark to carry on. Played hiddy, kick can, tiggy and mabs, learned how to scrap and made some lifelong friends along the way. Wouldn’t change a thing.
Thankful for where I live now too x

[CTMilller]

Always interesting to read stories of your travels CT.

"Far Away And Further Back" on Amazon Books, WCM.

[CTMilller]

I’m very happy that I was born in the front bedroom of a council house in East Herringthorpe and had a great childhood playing football from the minute I got in from school until it got too dark to carry on. Played hiddy, kick can, tiggy and mabs, learned how to scrap and made some lifelong friends along the way. Wouldn’t change a thing.
Thankful for where I live now too x

I was going to say pretty much the same, Sota (except mine was on the tree estate in Bramley.)

[WanChaiMiller]

"Far Away And Further Back" on Amazon Books, WCM.

Thanks.

[sota]

"Far Away And Further Back" on Amazon Books, WCM.

I've read this book and it's an excellent read. To say the author has had a full and interesting life is an understatement. Well written too.