Stories From Your Town

[Troubadour]

We have Borderers from all over the world, so I thought it might be fun for us to share any local stories, myths, legends or facts from our parts of the globe... Who lived in your area? What important historical events took place there? Are there any apocryphal stories that are common knowledge where you are? I'm interested to know what makes your town, city or county unique!

[cricrichan]

Oh, great topic Troub! I was thinking of starting something similar just last week, then I forgot to do it :P I'm so curious to know stories and traditions from all over the world! In the next few days I'll try to talk to you about my town - Pinerolo, near Turin in Italy ;)

[VAisForEagleLovers]

I've lived in the Manassas/Warrenton, VA area for over 30 years. Manassas, of course, was the site of two battles of the Civil War (First and Second Battles of Bull Run or First and Second Battles of Manassas). The first was the first battle of the Civil War. There are a lot of battlefields and parks in the area, and where I live now had a minor skirmish that never made the history books. The creek (or run) near my house had gold in it at one time, and the occasional piece of gold still turns up.

As for where I grew up, Somerset, PA, as most of you know that's where Flight 93 went down on 9/11/01. There's a few ski resorts in the area, but other than that, not a lot has happened there. The biggest myth/legend I can think of, the house where my dad grew up (near the house where I grew up) was at one time a stagecoach inn. Before stagecoaches came into being, it was just an inn along the Mud Pike. While not documented, it's rumored that George Washington stayed there at least one night. (It's documented he went to Pittsburgh along the Mud Pike and it was the only inn in a reasonable distance from one where he did stay). The main section of the house is brick. Not a facade, but a wall that is six bricks wide (for insulation), and there used to be a fireplace in every room.

[Troubadour]

How interesting, VA! I love it!

[Tiffanny Twisted]

va very cool

jahh has been to manassas for business many many years ago.
It was very intresting to read your story. I am fimiliar with it about the civial war..How cool to live there..

we are in the valley forge area so for me ...its humbling to drive or walk the park especially in the snow.....

when the kids were little we would go to gettsburg cause my son just loved it....we alwyas had him and his buddy.when Iwas cleaning out his room I found he still has the cannon he bought there and the bullet at general lees headquaters ..

[Prettymaid]

Since this is an Eagles board, I will post the Eagles connection to my hometown. Just click on the link and scroll down to the year 2003. The picture alone is worth clicking on it.

http://www.danville.k12.il.us/Schools/DHS_Site/aboutus/wall_of_fame.htm

Good ol' DHS, my alma mater!

[Troubadour]

I love that Irving Azoff is from your hometown! You could say that Danville spawned Satan... ;) That picture is brilliant.

I'm going to be really lazy here, because it's late, but this page gives you some really interesting facts about my home city, Winchester. It's full of history and associated with all sorts of famous figures like King Alfred, Henry VIII, Jane Austen and John Keats.

20 Facts about Winchester (http://www.visitwinchester.co.uk/site/about-winchester/20-unusual-facts)

[Tiffanny Twisted]

Since this is an Eagles board, I will post the Eagles connection to my hometown. Just click on the link and scroll down to the year 2003. The picture alone is worth clicking on it.

http://www.danville.k12.il.us/Schools/DHS_Site/aboutus/wall_of_fame.htm

Good ol' DHS, my alma mater!
cool

[sodascouts]

Since this is an Eagles board, I will post the Eagles connection to my hometown. Just click on the link and scroll down to the year 2003. The picture alone is worth clicking on it.

http://www.danville.k12.il.us/Schools/DHS_Site/aboutus/wall_of_fame.htm

Good ol' DHS, my alma mater!

Lol! Can't believe they didn't get around to inducting him until 2003. He should have gotten in right away!

Also cool that Dick Van Dyke and Gene Hackman are from there!

[Brooke]

Irving looks better now than he did back then! :hilarious:

[TimothyBFan]

I've been a resident of New Carlisle Indiana since 1989. My husband was born and raised here but I'm from Bremen, Indiana, about 40 miles south of here. We are a VERY small, one stop light town, an hour south east of Chicago, 20 minutes away from the south side of Lake Michigan and 10 minutes over the Michigan state line. It's "quaint" and very old town but stifling at times. :hilarious: I actually live in one of the oldest houses in town--it was built in 1889, but it's been added on to, sided, etc... We've never gone back to the "historic" way it was.

We are the snow capital of Indiana because of the location off of Lake Michigan. We average about 100 inches of snow every year. Here's a link where I posted an article in the Indianapolis paper in the How's The Weather thread in January of 2009 about our record snowfalls.

https://www.eaglesonlinecentral.com/forum/showpost.php?p=52875&postcount=207

One of the funniest things about our town is the fact that we are divided by 2 different time zones, Eastern and Central. I live in the Eastern Time Zone but 2 blocks away switches to Central. It's the most ridiculous thing and hard to keep track of--everyone has to keep track of rather an event, the time, etc.. is "slow time" (Central time) or "fast time" (Eastern time). It wrecks havoc on our cell phone times. :hilarious:

Oprah had a huge place here for several years by one of our local lakes and it wasn't unusual to see her on weekends jogging or at the local Kmart (I'm not kidding. LOL) She even stopped one evening at the park when my daughters dance team was rehearsing for a regional competition. A big white stretch limo rolled up, back window rolled down and she watched. When the girls were done, she yelled to them, "Way to go girls!", waved and rolled away. :hilarious: We are also known for several of our old houses that were part of the underground railroad. It's rumored that on several occasions, Al Capone and some of his gang would hide out in a couple of the homes in the rural area when they needed to lay low out of Chicago. One of the homes still has a tunnel that the door is visible from the road that ran under the property and into a "hideout".

Here's the link to our town.
http://www.townofnewcarlisle.com/

[sodascouts]

New Carlisle has a lot goin' on for such a little town!

My current home of Memphis, as most know, is famous for being the "birthplace of rock'n'roll." Most people think immediately of Elvis and Graceland, but there's also the famous Beale Street with its string of blues clubs. The blues is as much a part of Memphis as the scent of barbecue and the Mississippi River. However, other music types such as jazz, gospel, and soul also flourish here.

Famous musicians who got their start in Memphis or are from here:
Elvis (of course lol)
Johnny Cash
Aretha Franklin
W.C. Handy ("father of the blues")
Jerry Lee Lewis
Roy Orbison
Carl Perkins
Otis Redding
B.B. King

Other musical landmarks include Sun Studios where many of the above recorded their first tunes and Stax Records. Stax Records studio no longer exists, but there's a museum on the spot filled with music history.

Memphis music has influenced every rock'n'roll band, including the Eagles: Glenn calls the style of "The Long Run" a "tribute to Memphis, Tennessee."

Also, in the late 80s, Joe spent a great deal of time here; he would often go to Beale Street and sit in with bands or do shows at small clubs. I hear the cover charge was usually $2. He is listed in the Memphis Museum of Blues and Rock'n'Roll as someone who recorded in Memphis. A photo of the famous Memphian Theater (now torn down, sadly) is on the cover of his album Got Any Gum. (See it here (http://joewalshonline.com/images/gotanygumcover.jpg)).

On a more serious note, Martin Luther King was also assassinated here. There is a Museum for Civil Rights at the hotel where he was killed, and you can go and see the very room and balcony where the tragedy occurred. The museum is thorough and informative about the entire Civil Rights Movement; it's not just about the assassination. I've been there twice and it's fascinating.

I love living in a city with so much music history and I will be sad to move away when the time comes.

[Houston Baby]

3 facts about Houston from my Snapple bottle today:

1) Most air conditioned place in the world

2) First word spoken from the moon

3) Bigger than the state of Maryland

[prayfordaylight]

My hometown in Pennsylvania is mostly known for two things nowadays: it's also the hometown of P!nk (we went to all the same schools but she was a few years ahead of me) and the movie "Signs" was filmed here. The farmhouse was built on the campus of the agricultural college here and I drove by the set almost every day on my way home from school.

[Troubadour]

Cool about the movie, PFD! I love Joaquin Phoenix.

[Tiffanny Twisted]

My hometown in Pennsylvania is mostly known for two things nowadays: it's also the hometown of P!nk (we went to all the same schools but she was a few years ahead of me) and the movie "Signs" was filmed here. The farmhouse was built on the campus of the agricultural college here and I drove by the set almost every day on my way home from school.
do you still live in bucks county or did you just grow up there?(doylestown area central bucks??)

[Troubadour]

I just came across this pic in my Photobucket account and thought I'd share it. It's one of the six mortuary chests in Winchester Cathedral. Originally, they contained the skeletons of some of our earliest kings, but when the cathedral was badly vandalised in the Reformation, the chests were opened and the bones were scattered over the floor. So now, the chests still exist and they still contain the bones of our kings and queens... but they are all mixed up! Nobody knows which bones are in which chests.

http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c374/Lulabelle_/Continued/MortuaryChestWinchesterCathedral.jpg

[Tiffanny Twisted]

very beautiful picture ans even more intresting story . what is the catherdial called?

[prayfordaylight]

do you still live in bucks county or did you just grow up there?(doylestown area central bucks??)

I don't live in Doylestown anymore. I moved to DC/VA about 10 years ago but I'm back frequently as my family is still in Bucks/Lehigh County.

[TimothyBFan]

That is a very cool story but yet a bit disturbing, Troub.

What PFD said about the movie reminded me. The movie Prancer was filmed in our town the year Larry and I were dating. My sister in law even had coffee with Sam Elliott and met Cloris Leachman during it and my niece Barb was an extra in the school dance scene. How did I forget that? The house that Cloris Leachman lived in in the movie was an old abandoned colonial house on the town hill in great disrepair. It has since been bought by the town and is now a bed & breakfast called The Old Republic. Here's what it looks like now.

http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e136/williehoo/OldRepublic_zpsa1c5cce3.jpg

[Prettymaid]

very beautiful picture ans even more intresting story . what is the catherdial called?


http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=gxLAzuGtPpI

Winchester Cathedral.

I never cared for this song, but it immediately popped into my head when Troub posted her picture!

[Troubadour]

LOL, I can see why you never cared for the song, but it has some decent Winchester pics in the video! If you ever get the chance, you should visit. I know I am biased, but it is absolutely beautiful and full of history.

Of course, this is another song (closer to my heart) featuring the Cathedral...

http://youtu.be/bg-_QyJQago

[Brooke]

That is a very cool story but yet a bit disturbing, Troub.

What PFD said about the movie reminded me. The movie Prancer was filmed in our town the year Larry and I were dating. My sister in law even had coffee with Sam Elliott and met Cloris Leachman during it and my niece Barb was an extra in the school dance scene. How did I forget that? The house that Cloris Leachman lived in in the movie was an old abandoned colonial house on the town hill in great disrepair. It has since been bought by the town and is now a bed & breakfast called The Old Republic. Here's what it looks like now.

http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e136/williehoo/OldRepublic_zpsa1c5cce3.jpg

Thanks TBF, that's cool! Loved that movie! What a beautiful old home!

Troub, that's awful! Don't it just make you wonder the things some people will do?! :crazy:

[Troubadour]

Beautiful house, TBF!

[Freypower]

I just came across this pic in my Photobucket account and thought I'd share it. It's one of the six mortuary chests in Winchester Cathedral. Originally, they contained the skeletons of some of our earliest kings, but when the cathedral was badly vandalised in the Reformation, the chests were opened and the bones were scattered over the floor. So now, the chests still exist and they still contain the bones of our kings and queens... but they are all mixed up! Nobody knows which bones are in which chests.

http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c374/Lulabelle_/Continued/MortuaryChestWinchesterCathedral.jpg

You do have William II in there, though. (You knew I would have to say something like that)! I've only been to Winchester once but I cherish those postcards you sent me.

[thelastresort]

LOL, I can see why you never cared for the song, but it has some decent Winchester pics in the video! If you ever get the chance, you should visit. I know I am biased, but it is absolutely beautiful and full of history.


Sadly for me that was the only thing of interest in Winchester, even Amazingstoke had more going on ;)

Another decent one to check out is Peterborough, and Lincoln.

[Troubadour]

Sadly for me that was the only thing of interest in Winchester, even Amazingstoke had more going on ;)

LOL! Nooo. Winchester's much nicer than Basingstoke. Though I guess the shopping/cinema complex is a bonus.

[cricrichan]

Great stories and great pictures, guys! I'm sorry, I didn't have time to write anything on my town ... but I will do soon ;)

[VAisForEagleLovers]

I've determined that nothing has ever happened in my new town, Elizabethtown (E-town), KY. However, just a few miles away in Bardstown is the birthplace of Abraham Lincoln. They're calling for rain today or I'd go check it out.

We are also near Maker's Mark Distillery, part of the Bourbon Trail, and since MM is one of the premier bourbons, I'll definitely check that out soon. I'm not a big fan of bourbon, I was at one time. Maybe I'll get a taste for it again living here.

[Ive always been a dreamer]

First of all, I love the idea for this thread, Troub and have enjoyed reading everyone's post. VA, I hope you love your new home, and hope you are pretty much all settled in. I know it has been stressful for you, and, selfishly, I'm gonna really miss my fellow Virginian. Now, that things are somewhat calm in my world, I'll try to post some info on my hometown here soon.