Why I hate city life.....

[gd357]

I'm currently living in Columbus, Ohio, and after the other city I lived in (which was much worse), I'm getting the heck out of town ASAP. I've seen enough violence, disturbing trends, and complete lack of self-restraint to make me sick. I work nights as a security guard, and this past week has me a bit irate at the lack of consideration and downright stupidity of a majority of the human race. Everything from vandalism, theft, and sexual assault has happened here THIS WEEK ALONE. Normally, the worst thing I have to deal with is drunks, but this really has me wondering where we're headed. Not very long ago, there was a shooting at a concert (Darrell Abbott was killed). A little better than a year ago, there was a lunatic shooting at drivers on the outerbelt. I don't normally like to complain, but this week (and past experiences) has me wondering when our society will implode. Sorry for the rant, but I'm nearly at the end of my leash (and straining to distance myself from the depravity of city life). OK, now I'll go back to civilized mode.....

gd357

[Jabba]

I'm with ya pal.

It goes both ways too. On one side you have the criminals killing, slashing and raping. On the other hand you have the Religious freaks trying to turn the rest of us into criminals.

I wish I could make a living in the boondocks somewhere. I need the city for my livlihood. So I keep driving in every day.

Jabba

[GoodOlBoy]

I make a living in town (62 miles from home) and live in the boonies. . . . . . Ain't life grand. BTW be careful because alot of us religious freaks LIVE in the boonies. . . .

:D

GoodOlBoy

[Jabba]

[i] BTW be careful because alot of us religious freaks LIVE in the boonies. . . .

:D

GoodOlBoy [/B]


You ain't a religious freak. They are out there... but you ain't one.

The people I consider freaks are the ones that think I'm going to hell for celebrating a birth day. Or "allowing" my wife to wear pants. Or ride a motorcycle... or any number of other things that is generally none of their business and effects them in no way.

Jabba

[Rocky Raab]

Not picking a fight, Jabba, but what someone "thinks" about what you do doesn't affect you, either.

Put me in the non-religious, non-fanatic crowd. Please.

But unless any group of "they" take action to prevent you from doing what is otherwise legal and ethical, "they" can think anything they like. It doesn't skin your nose.

Now, if they DO start to skin your nose, THEN we all have a problem. Nose skinning is how we got Prohibition, gun control, limited usage public lands and all the rest. None of it helped anything.

[Jabba]

Originally posted by Rocky Raab
Not picking a fight, Jabba, but what someone "thinks" about what you do doesn't affect you, either.

Put me in the non-religious, non-fanatic crowd. Please.

But unless any group of "they" take action to prevent you from doing what is otherwise legal and ethical, "they" can think anything they like. It doesn't skin your nose.

Now, if they DO start to skin your nose, THEN we all have a problem. Nose skinning is how we got Prohibition, gun control, limited usage public lands and all the rest. None of it helped anything.

Peace brother! I am there. I care less about what people think about me. I care when they start to try to enforce their belief system on me... and that does happen every day. We are a nation of do-gooders and the government is getting nuts about protecting us from ourselves.

People no longer are responsible for their actions and habits, and feel like they need to blame someone else and be compensated for their own poor choices. I am a fat guy, and will probably die young because I can't get me eating in check. That's no ones fault but my own.

Jabba

[Rocky Raab]

Amen to all that.

If we ever meet, I'll buy you lunch - and I'll have seconds.

[BILLY D.]

ROCKY AND JABBA

IT ALL GOES BACK TO BASIC POTTY TRAINING.

I WAS A NATIVE OHIO BOY AND LOOK WHERE I ENDED UP. A FEW YEARS AGO I INHERITED A HOUSE IN DAYTON AND LIVED THERE FOR ABOUT 6 MONTHS. I COULDN'T STAND THE CITY LIFE.

THE PEOPLE WERE LIKE MOLES, SOMETIME BETWEEN 6:30 AND 7:30 THEY WOULD ALL COME SCAMPERING OUT OF THE HOUSE, JUMP IN THEIR CAR AND LEAVE. AT AROUND 3:00 TO 4:00 THEY WOULD ALL ARRIVE BACK AT THEIR DOMICILE AND YOU WOULDN'T SEE THEM AGAIN UNTILL THE NEXT MORNING. CRIME WAS RAMPANT, ABOUT A MURDER A DAY, RAPES AND CHILD ABUSE OUT OF CONTROL. I WOULDN'T GO BACK THERE IF THEY PAID ME TO COME THERE AND THEN A MONTHLY STIPEND TO STAY.

THE BIG CITY IS NO PLACE FOR THIS OL' COWPOKE. I DON'T THINK I'M MISSING ANYTHING AT ALL.

JUST MY 2 CENTS WORTH.

[Andy L]

gd357,
Ever thought about leaving? I know several folks that have left St Louis to live here. They usually dont make the same money, but dont have to. Cost of living is the difference.

Dont know your situation, but I do know several that it has worked for......

Andy

[denton]

It's the anonymity.

I grew up in a small town. You had to behave and watch your step, because the assumption was, anything you did, everyone would know about. If you wanted to be trusted, and respected, you behaved accordingly.

If nobody knows you, and you don't know the people you're interacting with, the only practical problem is getting caught. People without a conscience take advantage of that.

[fabsroman]

You guys want to talk about city life, the life around Washington, DC sucks. Right next to a client of mine's shop, two people were shot to death in two days. I was just down there yesterday and today. In downtown DC, a 20/30 something man punched a 83 year old woman and commenced to beat her into submission so that he could steal whatever she had. This was all caught on video tape. She kept clutching her pocket, so he smashed her on the head about three more times with his fist. What made me sicker is that a white care drove by in the background and nobody got out. However, the video only showed the bottom portion of the vehicle, so I would like to think that the drivers of the car didn't see anything. Anyway, the guy got away and the 83 year old woman was hospitalized.

Whoever mentioned that anonymity allows people to get away with this stuff is right. I mentioned that to my fiance just last night as we were watching that video. If something like that were to happen in a small town, you can bet that the victim would know who beat her. In this case, nobody has a clue and the picture on the camera wasn't too good. Tons of people were stunned by this event. I guess it is easy for people to think that this stuff doesn't really happen, but to watch a brutal beating on tape kind of wakes people up.

[gd357]

Andy,

Hopefully within a year, I'll be able to. Unfortunately, right now I can't. I spent the first 19 years of my life out in the middle of nowhere, and I loved it. Now, I leave town on friday, and return sunday night. I spent 18 months in Flint, MI. That place was a heck of a lot worse than this is. At least here I don't have to listen to gunshots coming from downtown on a regular basis. I still just can't fathom why anyone would choose to live in a large urban area.

gd357

[Valigator]

Down here I think what balances the crime rate is the atmosphere...I am fortunate somewhat....as you dont really drive more than two miles without seeing Law enforcement...they have a very heavy presence, but arent heavy handed.....but to read the newspapers or listen to the evening news on any given day is getting more and more depressing....I enjoy driving, seeing the big boats the airplanes taking off and the beautiful homes...this has always been home to me, Florida born and bred.....I stay away from places I know are bad....but any and everywhere I do, hairdresser, work, watering holes etc...are ten minutes in any direction.....

[Rocky Raab]

I'm not advertising for more people to move here (Utah is already one of the fastest growing states, by percentage), but it's hard to beat an area where one can be an hour from elk hunting, or an hour from symphony and ballet.

I live in Ogden, and have good eateries, good stores and everything I could want. I'm also 200 yards from the boundary of the National Forest, half mile from a trout river, 15 minutes from world-class skiing, same distance from a nice reservoir and a bit more to a rifle range. I have mule deer feed in my yard many nights, and I can hear pheasant and coyotes many evenings. The scenery? Whoa!

Utah is a CCW state with low crime and family values.

On the other hand taxes are outrageous, the Mormon church does tend to make adulthood illegal or at least frowned on, and wages are low.

But in general, the West has everywhere else beat hands down for great living. Pick Utah or Wyoming or Idaho or Montana or Nevada or Colorado or Arizona or South Dakota and you can't go wrong.

[fabsroman]

Rocky,

You just managed to make me jealous, and that doesn't happen that often.

[Rocky Raab]

Fabs, I visit relatives in New Jersey once a year. That's all I can stand. I not only feel absolutely claustrophobic, but since the East coast is so socialist/commie and criminal-tolerant, I fear for my life the whole time I'm there.

I much prefer it out here, where it isn't hard to find Interstate signs that say: "Next exit 110 miles." Those mountains you can seemingly touch are 40 miles away; and the light, altitude and air really do make them look purple. The smell of sage after a rain is intoxicating.

Visitors here, on the other hand, suffer from agoraphobia. There's nothing but deep blue sky from horizon to horizon, and you might have to drive 50 miles between trees anywhere in sight. Utah has one - yes ONE - commercial airport. Of its two million people, 1.5 mill live in an urban oval 15 by 75 miles. The rest of the state is all scenery. Nevada has a total of 17 cities. Reno and Las Vegas account for 95% of the population. Wyoming has 600,000 people. Total. More antelope there than people. Really.

God, I love it.

[fabsroman]

Rocky,

You need to stop describing these places because you are making me cry. The population of Montgomery County, Maryland is probably the same, if not more than, the population of Wyoming.

[gd357]

Rocky,

Wyoming sounds nice. Not very many people, a good population of wild game, I think it might be the ticket. Just need to find some rolling hills, and some timbered acreage (and last but not least, a way to pay for it all :D)

gd357

[Jabba]

I'd love to live out west. My trouble is I have family and extended family in the mid west. They are all more important to me that pretty skies and all the rest. I'd love to do it... but I can't get everyone to transplant.

If I win the lottery, I'm gonna buy a ranch out there somewhere... and build a compound for all of them. ;)

Jabba

[Andy L]

I live a mile outside of a town of 4500, and its too crowded for me. Rocky is right. I have been scheming to get out west for good for some time now.

Trouble is, I cant figger out how to make a living. My wife, with her training, can get a good job anywhere. My trouble is, I have never really had a job. Always worked for myself. And I do make a good living at it, but its a small nitche in a particular area. Not something you could just pick up and go do anywhere. Too much competition from locals in those areas that are filling the niche there.

I have been reading alot lately about the border patrol putting on lots of new agents. Southern Arizona would suite me just fine. Land prices are cheap. Cost of living is cheap. If I could get a job there, my wife could get one real easy from what Ive seen, that may be an option. But, that is all I have come up with so far.

Listen to me. You guys are wanting to escape the city. I dont know how you live there to begin with. Here I am wanting to escape the country. :D

Andy

[Rocky Raab]

Jabba, the "whole family" compounds out here are all polygamists! Three or four men, 20 women in separate houses and 147 kids all dressed in curtain fabric.

gd357, the rolling hills part is easy - that describes ALL of Wyoming. It's the timbered acreage that'll be tough! There are trees in Wyoming, but they're mostly around Yellowstone Park. Land up there isn't cheap, and the economy is tourist-centered. You can make a decent living running a campground, though.

Fabs, this may come back to bite me, but anytime you want a visit, my door is open. Really. I keep trying to get Skinny out here to shoot PDs and rock chucks. You do more waterfowl hunting, I know - and did I mention that we have a million pintails plus Canadas, snows, tundra swans and even sandhill cranes huntable here? (Rocky twists the knife a bit harder!)

[Dom]

Yup, sometimes you have to put up with what life is dealing you at the moment.

I know this: Growing up in the country and living in the city -- you know what you're missing.

Growing up in the city and staying there -- you never know what you're missing.

Ya, it's painful bein' a city slicker -- I remember as a kid visiting relatives in the city and thinking, holy cow, look out their window and see house after house in the ol' subdivision and thinking man, I hope I never have to live in a city.

Ya just can't take the country out of the boy. One day I'll be back!! Waidmannsheil, Dom.

[Andy L]

Hey Rocky,
I may accidently be coming through your way in the next couple of weeks. Im going to Arizona to get a dog and we are thinking of making a tour of the mountains on the way. (Yes I know Salt Lake is not in line between Mo and Az. ) :D

Anyway, talked to Blaine, thought I may try and visit him while there. If I make it, I would like to meet you as well if its handy and your of a mind to.

Ill let you know how its shaping up.

Andy

[Rocky Raab]

Do that. Maybe Blaine and Denton and I can all meet up with you for beer and lies.

[skeet]

Did you say the word PINTAIL?? I love the word pintail...especially in the plural sense. Always had a bit of trouble even thinking there was a limit on them...years ago, you understand! Now I like shooting PD's and coyotes etc. BUT my motto is ...If it flies...it dies!! As long as it can't shoot back! Oh, I love Wyoming too!

[Rocky Raab]

Yeah, we get a couple hundred thousand of them in every fall. Along with mallards, all three kinds of teal, widgeon, gadwall, and even good numbers of woodies. Divers? we get cans, reddies, both scaup - pretty much of everything. Geese are as common as flies.

On the down side, our pheasant population has pretty much crashed, but chukar and Huns are thriving. Lots of blue and ruffed grouse, and you can even find ptarmigan up high.

[fabsroman]

Now you guys are killing me.

Skeet and I might have to take a ride out there. To be honest with you Rocky, I would love to shoot groundhogs and PD's all day long. However, where I live there aren't many places that you can use a rifle, so I do not get out often to do it. In fact, I only have one farm that I can shoot groundhogs with a rifle. Every other farm I hunt is shotgun only. Hence, the reason I am a big wing shooter and not a rifle shooter.

[gspsonny03]

Amen to that Rocky, I can get in my truck heading east or west and be in the Mountains in a hour and a half, going north or south I can be hunting in good deer or antelope areas. I've had deer and antelope in my yard all winter long eating my green grass and the tips off my fruit trees. I have a small group of wild plum trees that I planted that they bed under for cover at nights sometimes. It's great and I love it. Couldn't pay me enough to live in the big cities.

[fabsroman]

GSP,

I don't feel quite as bad right now. I can drive an hour and a half and he in West Virginia or close to Richmond where the hunting is great. Problem is knowing somebody out there with land and getting permission from them to hunt that land. My biggest problem is finding landowners that will allow me to hunt around here. I see plenty of geese, ducks, deer and groundhogs around here. In fact, I have a groundhog in the common area of the development that the dog has almost caught a couple of times. I have a group of six whitetails that come around all the time in the same area as the groundhog and there are two storm drain overflow ponds out there that have ducks and geese in them almost all the time. I have seen more mallards during the past two weeks than I have seen while out hunting.

The big problem here isn't the lack of game, it is the lack of land to hunt on, or for that matter, landowners that will allow people to hunt on the land.

[Rocky Raab]

The good news here is that 70-90 percent of the Western states is public land, or listed as open to public access.

It's BLM or state land or railroad land. No problem finding a place, but it can be a big problem getting away from others doing the same thing. Deer and elk season can be like a war zone within a mile of any road. Or farther, if you count the road hunters who prowl the jeep trails in pickup trucks with four to six "hunters" in the back ready to open up on anything they see. You can hear when they spot something - ten to twenty rifle shots ring out.

[fabsroman]

"hunters who prowl the jeep trails in pickup trucks with four to six "hunters" in the back ready to open up on anything they see. You can hear when they spot something - ten to twenty rifle shots ring out."

First off, those aren't hunters. That crap really pisses me off. See, things aren't quite beautiful in Utah either. Then again, probably less competition with varmint hunting. Seems like firearms opening day for whitetails in Maryland brings out all those once a year hunters that are idiots. That is why hunting varmints and wing shooting is somewhat more pleasant. With that said, a lot of the waterfowlers around here are terrible. I have seen three set ups in the same field. Intead of working together to provide a great spread, everybody has to do their own thing.

[Rocky Raab]

Yup, things aren't much different anywhere, my friend.

Idaho (just a few miles from here) always opens its pheasant season the same day as the Utah rifle deer opener - specifically to keep down the numbers of Utah bird hunters who go to Idaho for opening day. Thay also charge almost double for the bird license valid during the first nine days of the pheasant season. After those nine days (two weekends) the non-res license cost is MUCH cheaper.

They aren't dumb.

[.243hunter]

In new orleans theres at least a murder a day. Its almost entirewly all drugheads and crackheads killing each other. I say just give em more bullets. They'll get rid of theirselves.:eek:

[gspsonny03]

Fabs : Like Rocky mentioned, it doens't matter where you hunt, or what part of the country you are in you will eventually run into a hunting style that you will not like. That doesn't mean that they are all wrong it just means that you are not comfortable with it. For example have you ever seen a pheasant hunting show where thay are walking a field and there is 10 guys and four dogs walking to blockers at the other end. I have never liked that situation, it just don't look safe, but when you are walking big fields like that it's about the only way to get to the birds before they all get out the end. The same thing happens in deer drives. The point being, is when you hunt, you need to pick your hunting companions very closely, almost to the point of you knowing what they are thinking before they think it. I'm sure you have run into or hunted with someone, that when the day was done you promised yourself never again. I know I have.

[fabsroman]

GSP,

I completely agree and there have been several days that ended with "never again." They never understand why they don't get called to hunt again. Then again, I think I have some friends that did the same thing to me. I am pretty much by the book when it comes to following hunting and fishing regs, but they aren't, and I didn't get any invites from them last year. I am assuming that is why.

[Valigator]

I have been fortunate but then again I havent hunted as much as most of you...the guys in Georgia are like poetry...I just love to walk the feilds with them...and their dogs are great...I have learned alot from those people and its the same ones every year..now gator season is another ball game....there are for sure a few people I wouldnt crawl back into the swamp with...in fact it had crossed my mind once or twice to leave them there...just kidding....overall...I have had alot of fun....and learned more from the people I was with...

[Wolvie]

I moved to Ashville Ohio and even farther south to Ross Co. around Richmondale.
But i couldn`t make a living there, so I moved back up towards Grove City area.

And just to add my 2 cents,......I don`t care where you live,.....I now live in a small upstate town in NY,....been here for 5 years,...and there`s as much trouble here as I have seen in any big town.

Now I am not by anymeans defending big cities or towns,....but the way humans are reproducing and building new biz es and homes and such ,.....farm life and woods and wildlife as we all know it now will siese to exsist ,.I would say in 50 yrs or less.

We all need to start conserving our lands and rebuild our crapy cities and towns ,and knock down those eye sores ,.....take a better notice of crime and deal with it hard and make it hard on those who choose to keep doing wrong,......the repeat offenders need hard jail time,.not to just be aloud to sit on their duffs and watch tv and wait it out ,.......Construction and real estate firms need to work harder at gettin rid of the old rotting and decaing buildings and refreash our neighborhoods.

Education and Common Sense are the essential tools to rebuild with,.....along with caring and understanding,..human beings could make something work,.where City folk and Country folk could work and play together.

We need to rebuild what is just sittin there takin up space,......instead of killin our environment,our wild life, and our Hertitage,..and yes even our FREEDOM(S)!!!!!

And I know that somewhere in this post someone will make the statement,.....
"People can`t even get along,....how would they rebuild and make it better"?!

If someone has the answer for that,.....you should be GOD,.....cause I don`t know ,.....and if and when we have nothing,.....then and only then when it be thoguht of by more then just US here on HuntChat.

So here`s a way to start,.educate your children,....cause they are the ones that will suffer,.not us!

Later All
SAFE HUNTIN~