I think once you live in Lincoln or Omaha for a bit you start to get bored of it too.
It just takes longer to get bored, probably.
Omaha...
- Thread starter Jaemekon
- Start date
It just takes longer to get bored, probably.
Met a guy who was around 24 last week from Montana. He had just moved away from Lincoln a few months ago. Said he couldn't believe it but he actually missed it. Bars and girls he said. So yes, I do think rural people see Lincoln as an exciting place.
Problem with rural lifestyle is...if you don't meet your significant other in high school you're probably screwed. Farmersonly.com don't cut it. I know, I tried it....haha.
Last edited:
I was ready to be out of Lincoln when I graduated UNL…but I was looking for the next step up…for me that happened to be Kansas City…as a young, single guy, I loved it…nightlife was great, there was never a shortage of things to do…however, the older I’ve gotten (aka, grew out of my 20s) the more I’ve enjoyed living in a community where my commute is less than 5 minutes and not every home is a Star home with a slightly different shade of color…40 year old me would take Bow over Omaha/Lincoln every day of the week, but I get the argument for doing your 20s and even 30s in a metropolitan area
it just depends on what someone's objective is at a location.
but i find your statement to be true. everything gets old, at least for me. i just get tired of stuff eventually.
i lived life already. I'm ready for the chill. probably different than most.
i met my wife in high school. ive never really had to worry about it.
maybe when i was like a freshman in high school I'd be like, man i could sure use some pussy. at which point I'd wish to have more girls around, not necessarily to be in a more populous area.
I have friends that live in Denver and never go to the mountains...never go hiking, never do the "Denver" stuff.
I wonder, with so many people working remotely and so much shopping be done online now if we might see smaller surrounding towns, start to get bigger
Where before living 20-30 minutes from "the city" was popular, we might start to see 45 minutes to 90 minutes become more desirable since there might be less and less commuting.
seems to be fairly typical.
good point about telework. it should provide people the freedom to escape more populous cities if they desire.
The girls were exciting for him. Not necessarily Lincoln. I guess they probably go hand-in-hand.
Especially when you get married and have 5 kids, haha!!
I kid, but having a small town where my kids could just go to the park or pool without me having to drive them there and spend my whole afternoon watching them would he nice. They would also get more of a sense of independence I think.
Ha!
Remember when neighborhoods would be built with a community pool, I feel like that has totally stopped. Which sucks.
I was just back in the old town this weekend for my fiftieth high school reunion. Here are my impressions of the state that I love to visit and only have fond memories of going to high school there. The small rural towns looked really depressed. There are a lot of empty storefronts on main streets and many houses that are need of repair or maybe just a coat of fresh paint. There are some really nice homes, mostly in the country. I drove up to Lincoln to ride bikes around town with an old friend that I met our freshman year living in Harper Hall. He lives on Hi- Mark golf course and we rode to the campus area and downtown. Boy! Lincoln is the exact opposite of the small towns. It is gleaming with prosperity. All the sports buildings look great down around the stadium. Main campus hasn't changed too much. Lots of new construction going up downtown. We had lunch at Lazlo's then rode to the Jamaica Trail and onto SouthPointe. I bought a shirt at Scheel's and then back to his house. Lincoln should be proud of their bike trails. I think if I were to move back to Nebraska I would want to live about 20-40 minutes outside of Lincoln. Enjoy the country but have access to everything Lincoln offers.
My reunion was great. I maintain close contact with many of my good friends, but it was good to see some people I haven't seen for years.
Last edited:
I am a UNL'er as well and going back (just from Omaha) for games is amazing in terms of how much Lincoln has changed over the years.
basically the same as me. Lincoln is fine to visit if you need to hit up scheels or target, but living in Lincoln isn't very good. i guess for bike riders it might be. i used to always ride my bike when i lived in smaller towns. but i don't ride in Lincoln.
maybe if i had a reason to be here, then it might be better. I'm glad you enjoyed your stay.
You haven’t been around long enough…
We’re talking about a DIFFERENT dude.
Like, there is ZERO chance I’d let him around my kids, but at the same time, he doesn’t want me around his kids either.
Someone is still salty about not even being nominated for a Jaemekon award 🤣
I was so proud when I got my lifetime achievement award for "dragging nuts on @scopeandtime head". It's on my mantle with my cool bourbon bottles!!😂
I might be tempted to move to Crawford if it weren't for my family (never will leave Omaha) and Costco.
Friggin' Costco. It's a love/hate thing.
Friggin' Costco. It's a love/hate thing.
I obviously know nothing about you or your life but you couldn't find a job in a smaller city like GI, Kearney, NP? Get an older house or downsize?
Thing about being married and a small town, its just so much harder to get that side pussy. Everyone knows everyone! Oh well, there's always porn and my trusty ol friend, Mr hand. 
Thing about being married and a small town, its just so much harder to get that side pussy. Everyone knows everyone! Oh well, there's always porn and my trusty ol friend, Mr hand.
we already live in a small house, only around 3000 sq ft. it would be tough to downsize. also locked in with an excellent interest rate, what are those running currently? I'm ready when the opportunity presents itself.
either is fine. but i think i prefer closer to 2,000.
I've lived in Hastings and Columbus previously. i prefer smaller than those.
If I had to bet I’d say small towns are generally screwed. It is true that increasing remote work opportunities and the advent of online shopping makes living anywhere UPS might deliver more tolerable, but I don’t know that that’s enough for small Nebraska towns to flourish into the future.
Some handfuls of people might move but not enough. Mitigating the positive is the fact that internet access in rural towns is horrible to bordering on non-existent and a lot of people who are going to rely on a tech life lifeline to a modern lifestyle are probably not going to like what access is actually available to them in those places.
And while shopping is popular, people generally like to go out and have “premium” experiences at fancy bars or the like with a bunch of friends and family, and the town diner next to the town stoplight isn’t going to cut it for many.
I’m from Omaha and now that I’ve turned the corner at 40 I’m thinking about where to invest ina retirement home and my wife would like to move somewhere smaller. We’ve lived most of our life on the coast and certainly will have by the time we retire. We’re thinking maybe Vermont or something north for the summer and maybe South Carolina or thereabouts in the winter.
However, were still wrestling with exactly how remote we actually want to be. Anothe me mitigating factor for older migrants like ourselves would be that for routine stuff most small town healthcare is probably ok or there’s generally telemedicine at like UNMC for Nebraska. But if you actually need serious care it may be too far away or annoyingly hard to get to ina routine basis.
Some handfuls of people might move but not enough. Mitigating the positive is the fact that internet access in rural towns is horrible to bordering on non-existent and a lot of people who are going to rely on a tech life lifeline to a modern lifestyle are probably not going to like what access is actually available to them in those places.
And while shopping is popular, people generally like to go out and have “premium” experiences at fancy bars or the like with a bunch of friends and family, and the town diner next to the town stoplight isn’t going to cut it for many.
I’m from Omaha and now that I’ve turned the corner at 40 I’m thinking about where to invest ina retirement home and my wife would like to move somewhere smaller. We’ve lived most of our life on the coast and certainly will have by the time we retire. We’re thinking maybe Vermont or something north for the summer and maybe South Carolina or thereabouts in the winter.
However, were still wrestling with exactly how remote we actually want to be. Anothe me mitigating factor for older migrants like ourselves would be that for routine stuff most small town healthcare is probably ok or there’s generally telemedicine at like UNMC for Nebraska. But if you actually need serious care it may be too far away or annoyingly hard to get to ina routine basis.
Don't give up on rural Nebraska so easily. One of Pillen's missions is to ensure that all areas, no matter how remote, have good internet access. It is already starting. I work summers in the Sandhills 45 miles southwest of Valentine and the ranch has no issues with technology access. And speaking of Valentine, that fair city is running ads as far away as New York extolling the virtues of living out on the prairie. I have not yet heard how successful the effort is.
A lot of a town's survival will depend on the people living there and running the place. Red Cloud is vibrant, as are some other out of the way small burgs. The Nebraska Community Foundation has been a big success. As for me, I grew up in Omaha, was away for decades and chose a smaller (7K) town to retire to when I returned to Nebraska two years ago. Sometimes I don't lock the doors at night. Best move I ever made.
More generally there’s no set of people, particularly young people, who we can point at and say they view small towns as an opportunity.
The old people who live in small towns are generally selling off family farms to corporations and the 1% independent farmers who own large large farm holdings. They want to retire by the lake or move south or whatever.
For most young people, the idea of moving to a small town is seen more from a how will I survive perspective, technologically financially socially you name it. Not as an unbounded opportunity placed before them.
Ultimately that will finish off many places.
The old people who live in small towns are generally selling off family farms to corporations and the 1% independent farmers who own large large farm holdings. They want to retire by the lake or move south or whatever.
For most young people, the idea of moving to a small town is seen more from a how will I survive perspective, technologically financially socially you name it. Not as an unbounded opportunity placed before them.
Ultimately that will finish off many places.
I’d like to see rural towns flourish again. I’d hate to think the only people that might be out there in the future is basically the corporate farm employees and kids on a field trip to see what 20th century towns looked like.
I live fifteen minutes south of the Ravens stadium in Baltimore by highway and I never lock my doors and most of my expensive equipment is in my car port for anyone to wander off with while I’m a work. It’s never been a problem here. That’s never really been a measure of quality of life for me.
