The Saga of "JackVegas" 30-Day Blog Challenge, Day 24

The town you live in.

[Blog Challenge:  Day 24]

 

 

Oh, must I?

 

For info about Jacksonville Alabama, click here.

 

What I like about where I live:

• I live in a quiet neighborhood.
• The Ladiga Trail - great place to walk, run, or bike.
• Jacksonville State University - My alma mater.
• The Marching Southerners - the best college marching band in the country (WHUP TROY!)
• Yarns by HPF - out local yarn shop this isn't full of snooty people.
• We have a good library.  Small, but good.
• It ain't Piedmont, Alabama.
• Our town is full of Southern and Civil War history.
• It ain't Anniston, Alabama either.
• Our Community Center is great
• My home church and my current church are both in Jacksonville.

What I don't like about my town (in a nutshell. If I went into detail, we'd be here a while):

• It's full of old money and pees on new ideas or innovation (Can you say status quo?) In other words, Jacksonville is very closed to anything not already like itself.  Also, we are still very racially and socioeconomically segregated.
• We don't have a decent bookstore, shoe store, or craft supply place (among other things we need).  I think it's tacky we have a ton of fast food places, but have to drive 40 miles round trip to Oxford to buy a decent pair of shoes or a good book.  Don't get me started on Wal-Mart's craft department.  Give me Hobby Lobby anytime.
• There aren't a lot of high end jobs in our town. Sure, there's the university and Federal Mogul, but you've got to be someone's blood kin to get interviewed, much less hired.  Yes, it still bugs me that I have two degrees from a university that won't hire me.  They can't balk about qualifications...
• We don't have any good entertainment venues.  Other towns have comedy clubs, concert halls, or civic centers.  But not us.  So, if anyone wants to see a concert or a great comedian, it's off to Birmingham, Nashville, or Atlanta--interstate trips that leave me high and dry.
• No bike lanes.  A sign that says "share the road" doesn't help motorists or cyclists.
• Must I go on?  "California, here I come...someday...hopefully soon..."

I must say that I've lived here for 35 years.  To see how little progress both I and the town have made in that amount of time has made me just a little jaded.  This is my hometown, but I've never felt at home here.

{I'm linking up with So, Funny Story http://ktslifeisfunny.blogspot.com for this 30 day  blog challenge.}