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I'm buying my very first house in the neighborhood I grew up in. It sprung up in the late 40s, early 50s and the old part still has the charm it did back then (so my mom told me). Most people don't understand why I prefer an older home instead of a new one but it is the location I'm attracted to. The community feel and family atmosphere are bringing in many from the newer areas of town who want their kids to grow up in a neighborhood with a small town feel, even though we are 20 minutes outside KC. Homes are more expensive but so worth it.

For 10 years, I lived across the street from a house I had lived in as a child in the 1950s.

My favorite part of living there was on Election Days, when I would walk a number of blocks to the polling place, which was my former elementary school for part of my life.

I took the same route I had walked in the 4th grade, which was really a fun thing to do. I walked it all the time for exercise, but going to vote was especially gratifying in that kind of atmosphere.

We did something similar. Our house is a 1952 perimeter-wall brick three-bedroom of 1300 square feet including converted garage, second bathroom, and toolroom. It is located less than one mile from the center of our city in an old neighborhood full of oak trees. We have the city public high school, a small convenience store, several restaurants, an ethnic market, a pharmacy, a shopping center, and the best pizza place in town within an easy ten minute walk. A major university of the state system lies one mile to the north, and downtown (city hall, public library, art museum, and stage theater) is about one-half mile beyond that. Our city's large Vietnamese neighborhood lies immediately to our south, with working-class neighborhoods to our east and the country club (and associated neighborhood) to our west. The Catholic parochial school our son will attend is within walking distance as well, and its bells can be heard all over town.

Now if only we had streetcars...

I've never thought twice about living in some godforsaken suburb. We have everything we need and nothing we don't here in the heart of the city -- and at less than a third of the price of one of those slab-foundation Celotex nightmare houses they're slapping up on the edge of town. Houses like mine were built for families, built to to last; my 1950s house still looks great after 65 years. Those new mini-mansions and fake Georgians the developers are throwing together are built to sell, not to last; they will crack and crumble in half that time.

Man is an urban creature. The countryside should be left to plants and animals and those that tend to them.

I have often thought about buying the house I was born and raised in. But it is a pier and beam structure so I really wouldn't want it. The lot is very nice and driving by it the other day I noticed how big the crate merdles(sp?) have grown. They make the front lawn seem very small now! Ha! I would like to go into the back to see how the old huge pecan tree is doing. I would kill to be able to move it, but oh well.