Hometown? What's that mean to a suburbanite?

When I first started using Facebook, I set up a profile and one of the things they  asked was what was your "hometown".  That one stumped me and I bet it has for lots of folks in cities, towns, hamlets, and even here in the bosom of suburbia.

See, my parents are from Brooklyn.  That's their hometown even though they haven't been there in 30-40 years.   You ask them and they say it clearly and with out hesitating.  

Bruce Springsteen had that feeling in his song "My Hometown".  Bruce Springsteen - My Home Town The inherent pessimism of the song, as well as the longing it are not quite the feeling one thinks of when posting a hometown on Facebook.  It references scenes (in my mind, at least) of Freehold, NJ, about 10 minute from one of my home towns, Monroe Township, NJ.  A nice enough town, but still not the ideal "American" little town.

You could go with Paul Simon and Art Garfinkel singing about "My Little Town" - a really pessimistic view  Simon & Garfunkel - My Little Town singing about the dead and dying in their old town.  I'm not grooving that either.   

Here's the thing, I've lived in lots of places:  I'm not sure what to put down. I was born in Elizabeth, NJ, lived in Jersey City, Monroe Township, Frederick, MD (actually Braddock Heights area), Allentown, PA for college, one summer break in Beaufort, SC, one summer in Memphis, TN, a year or so in Rockledge, PA, Willow Grove, PA, Warrington, PA, Hatfield Township, PA and now in Worcester PA. And, its the last one that I have lived in the longest. Any advice?  What should I put as the absolute home town?

With my brother, Lars, in Jersey City

Monroe Twp, NJ 6th grade.

Some say you should put where you are now, others say you should put your high school town, but I have two of those, both of which are very important to me.  Others say that home is where your heart is.  We've lived in this area around Lansdale, the bosom of suburbia outside of Philly for 20+ years, so maybe that should be my official "home-town"??  

Any number of other songs work on this challenge.  "Our House in the Middle of Our Street" Our House is our Castle & Our Keep but that one seems to gloss over a number of things and also makes fun of the shelter a house can be as we grow up.

Home and hometown are a continually resonating theme.  On American Idol, a winner's big launch hit was about it  - http://youtu.be/HoRkntoHkIE.  I like this one, it has the longing and caring about the person you want to bring to your home, but something is too syrupy in it for me.  

Ancient rock and roll touched it often, including this gem from Simon and Garfunkel:  Homeward Bound by Simon and Garfunkel .  It expresses a sense of being exhausted by the initial bumps of life and heading toward the shelter and love one needs to be restored before facing the world again.

Even old Hollywood standards, like the Wizard of Oz, tap into this root.  http://youtu.be/zJ6VT7ciR1o   Dorothy's wishes are in her hands all along, but she needed to leave Kansas for some other things to realisze the value home had for her.  

1977 "Styling" TJ HS
Grad Picture

So why all this wondering and wandering?  Today I went to the Englishtown Auction (which doesn't have any type of auction), one of the country's largest flea markets.  Its an amazing mix of junk and treasures, cultures from all over the walls, bargains and rip-offs and may other things in between.  Lunch was Filipino grilled pork on a stick and all American sweet tea.  Not what you could find there in 1974 at all.

After lunch I left the "auction" and drove around Monroe Township and environs where I lived from 6th grade until moving in the summer after my 10th grade.  I drove past my grammar school (where I wore very stylish (for 1974) white loafers under my dark blue graduation gown, my high school (which is now the middle school), the church where I was confirmed (a much enlarged, beautiful looking place).  Lots of the area was changed, but lots were the same.  It all seemed bigger when I was there as a kid, but ironically, it is all smaller than I imagined and I am bigger (around the middle) than I was then.

So, where is your "home-town"?  For me, it's here, where I have lived for 20+ years, its Monroe Township, NJ, and its Frederick, MD.  Its okay to have 3 hometowns, I hope, because I am sticking with that.  I have too many folks I love and loved in every single one of them to let one be picked over the other as being the "place I come from".

So, if you are sitting in Bangalore, Beijing, Sidney,  Oslo,  Baghdad, Rome or some where in the bosom of suburban Mexico City, you have a home town and a home, and maybe, just maybe the difference or names of the two don't matter at all. 

After all, its all where you are is and has been shaped - hurt or loved, changed or solidified.  Its all in you and part of how you interact in the world.  And maybe, just maybe, we all have the same "home-town" - our world, with all its bumps, bruises, joys and triumphs.  We are all neighbors, and that gives us a moment to consider caring for each other in way we would only do for the family next door.

So, where are you from........???