I grew up a rural area outside of St. Louis. My parents had 1 acre but my grandparents live next door and they had 25 acres to roam. Plus all of the neighbors.

I helped my uncle and cousin farm in the areawhen I was 13 years old-High School.

The city is fast eating up all the open land around here now. The only thing the farms grow now is HOUSES. We live on 3 acres kinda out away from the hustle and bustle. As soon as my daughter moves out for good, I am moving to the country again.

Yea the whole expansion thing sucks pretty bad!! Michigan, baseball really is a great sport isn't it! Maybe all the Michian guys should have a get together and come down to Adrian to watch a ball game so we can all meet!

I'm small town. But lived at the edge of town while I was younger and had all sorts of smaller critters in the yard. Skunks possums, coons, etc. I had a fascination with snakes too, we had em all over our yard. Caught hundreds as a kid. Spent alot of time hunting & fishing, but never really had the bigtime exposure of farm life. Went to college in both a rural small town campus, & then down to Pitt in the city. Bit of a culture shock but I am just as comfortable making my way around the city as I am the woods, but that is only from necessity.

Grew up in South Central PA, In the suburbs of a village that consisted of 12 houses and a Bar, and old one room school house and an old no longer in use church. The little village of Carsonville (about 1/2hr north of Harrisburg, PA) was located 10 miles from the nearest town in 3 directions and 20 miles to the nearest town to the south.

Grew up working on farms and spending as much time as possible in the woods and the outdoors, Never bowhunted until I went away to college in the fall of 1996. But I had been shooting a bow since the age of about 8. Played just about every sport immaginable and was a 3 sport athelete in HS. Captain of my HS football Team and all that fun stuff. Graduated in a class of 113 and proceeded to college in Williamsport PA at the Pennsylvania College of Technology to study Advertising Art and Graphic Design.

Have livedin Central PA for the past 10yrs just outside of State College PA the home of the Penn State Nittany Lions, where I have recently become divorced and am employed as a Graphic Designer for a local school district.

PA, sounds like a great place to grow up!! Wish I was equally as goodat getting around the city as I am in the woods!! I mean my last name is Woods so it only makes sense!!

Started out as a farm boy, grew up on my parent dairy farm in upstate NY until I was about 12 years old when we sold our cows. Worked on a local dairy farm throughout highschool though. All the farms from back home are empty now can't make a living milking cows anymore it seems like. Seems like there are only a handful now when there used to be so many, breaks my heart.
Anyways I grew up hunting with my dad, uncles and cousins first on our farm and now on a lease we have. Through high school and college I hunted every chance I got. I went to a local college and lived with my parents so it wasn't too big of a change. After I graduated I moved to Springfield Massachusetts, to go to law school and that has really cut into time spent in the woods. Living in the city sure makes you appreciate living in the country. It was a real culture shock, had to lock my doors at night for the first time in my life.
Despite pursuing a real white collar career, I still feel like I will always be a farm boy though.

It was a great place to grow up. A lot of people couldn't wait to get out of the valley, But honestly I loved it, You had all the pleasures of the country and small town life but still was close enough to a major city to be able to enjoy all of that too. It really was the best of both worlds. But honestly I feel most at home in the wide open spaces of the country.

100% Country boy here!!! Never had any cattle or livestock but raised some pigs and owned a few horses. My dad was the milkman for 30 some years so it didn't take long and I was working for a bunch of the dairy farmers my dad picked up milk for. I think I've thrown more hay and straw bales then most people. Thats where I made my money between 10 and 18 years old. On the average I would throw between 3,000 and 5,000 bales a weekend if the weather was decent. And after that it was off to milking the cow's at night. 120 hour weeks were the norm for me back then and I loved it! I now own my dads milk hauling business. My folks split up and got divorced 9 years ago after 25 years of marriage so I then bought the house and business that I grew up with and in. My 1st 5 years in the Milk Hauling business I didn't get much time off. Many a times I'd go 3 and 4 months without a day off. My job is 365 days a year, 7 days a week. These were 16 hour days, sometimes even longer! I finally got smart and hired some employee's so I now have some freedom to do what I want. Just recently I picked up another future hunting buddy! Her name is Lydia, she's my pride and joy, she's my daughter and she's 8.5 months old. She's something else!!

Here's a picture of my g/f and I with my future little huntress!

I too grew up in a small town where everybody knows everybody (and their business). Right now I live in Roanoke, Va which probably has a population close to 100,000. I moved here to work for the power company. We've been looking for a house somewhere in the country or close to it. As long as I can shoot my bow and pee off my porch with no complaints...I'll be happy.

Me too PA alot of my friends wanted to "get out" but hell I want to "go back"! I never wanted to leave just wanted to play ball! gmil, you really can't make a livin' milkin' cows any more, damn near makes me cry every time I see a farm parceled off!