I’m not sure if it’s irony or serendipity that the A-Z schedule has me on H for today, because I’d like to write a little about my Hometown of Hamilton, and I’m not there at the moment, nor will I be all day. (I’m up in Toronto for the Ad Astra convention, whoohoo! More about that some other day.)
I was born in Hamilton, grew up there, and through my life there hasn’t been a time where I didn’t have my permanent address there. Even in my university days, I might sleep most nights in a dorm room or rented room in North York, but every other weekend I’d be taking the trip back home.
Hamilton isn’t a really big city, or a small town – the population signs have slowly climbed up over the years to cross the half-million mark though. It has the reputation of being this really gritty blue-collar city, but I guess I’ve never really seen that, unless I’m taking the bus on the Bayshore route past the steel plants. Half of them are shut down now anyway.
Hamilton is a college town – my Dad taught for years at McMaster University, and we have Mohawk community College and a lot of smaller schools as well. It’s a popular filming town, (The train station scene in the X-men, anybody?) It’s a city with a small, but determined and stubborn artist community. It’s the biggest hockey town in Canada that will never ever get its own NHL team for real. (We’re just a bit too close to the Maple Leafs and the Sabres, alas.)
I suppose nearly any city or town has all of those different neighborhoods and places that can surprise you and jump-start your imagination. But Hamilton’s are the closest to me, and I’m satisfied with that. Well, again, except now, because Eglinton avenue is close to me now, and if that can’t jumpstart a story I don’t know what can.
So, what’s your hometown like? (Either where you live now, or where you grew up.)
The Kelworth Files 
Fun post. My hometown? It’s been so long since I lived there. I don’t think of it as mine anymore. Not sure I think of anywhere as home…must be a nomad!
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I love your site and as I browsed your blog I decided to award you the Creative Blog Award.
Go to http://astorybookworld.blogspot.com/p/awards.html and pick up your award.
~Deirdra
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Enjoying reading your blog and stories.
I grew up in a small town outside London and recently visited a friend that still lives there. I was overwhelmed by the powerful nostalgia that hit me as I got nearer on the train; and even more so as I walked through the old streets I used to frequent.
It was a really warm and positive feeling. But I don’t think I could go back there full time.
Interesting, got me thinking as I’m currently planning to make a big move, thank you.
Hannah Roderick: People Watch
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Greetings to Hamilton! I grew up in London and live in Jerusalem. What they have in common is history. And not needing to say where either of them is.
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My hometown is a city of 1.8 million or so. relatively small, but VERY spread out – it sprawls for a LONG while up north and down south. It’s also the most isolated city in the world. YAY. 😉 and yet a LOT of people who live in Perth do a lot of travelling. Our isolation doesn’t keep us down, no sirree!
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Hi Chris! Nice blog! And I WISH I’d had the chance to go to Ad Astra too, but too little money, and too far away! Say hi to Ryan McFadden for me if you meet him. (Ha! That’s a bit like someone from England saying “Hey, I know Joe from Canada. Say hi to him for me, will you?)
I’ll be back. Want to find out what you thought of the con.
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@eileen – Aww, Ryan was in my script writing panel but I don’t know where to find him now
Thanks for replying!
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Great Post. I love how solid but family-sized you make Hamilton sound.
My hometown is the place where I live. I tried hard to picture the place I grew up as my hometown but it didn’t work. My early years were too much of a mishmash to make me feel at home anywhere: I was born in one city; lived in a town until I was seven and the next until I was eighteen. The trouble was my school was in the next town along. Watford – large town – feels like my hometown.
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I live in my hometown (or very close to it anyway). It’s changed so much since I lived in the town proper that it doesn’t hold the nostalgia you think it should. My high school has been transformed into the Junior High, so even reunions are no longer held in my old school.
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I’ve passed thru Hamilton many times on my way to and from Toronto, but never stopped there. I’ve liked every Ontario town I’ve been in so I’d say Hamilton is pretty fine also.
The town I think of as my home town is Maryville, Tennessee, in the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains. It’s a nice small town that has just about everything one would need. I live in Los Angeles and don’t get to Tennessee too often anymore.
Lee
Tossing It Out
Twitter hashtag: #atozchallenge
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