What is charming or quirky about your home town or neighborhood?

Additionally, one may volunteer to sit and read in an armchair in the window of the book store for thirty minutes. You get to wave at all your friends and then receive 50% off on the book of your choice. There is a local brewery open on Sats. behind the used book store, owned by Dodie, who had nine children after her doctor told her she could never conceive.

We have rubber duckie races down our little river every summer; a parade down main street of firetrucks from earliest days to the present; “pirate days” where all the downtown merchants dress up and the mayor surrenders the city to Captain Kidd; carolers dressed in period costumes serenading shoppers and diners for a Christmas Festival; all sorts of charming little events… I love it!

There was a restaurant/guitar shop in Nashville that has come up with some very amusing and confusing signs on their marquee, in the past. one in particular was really confusing. below the menu for the day, it read:

“Picks on sale”.

Did the sign mean guitar picks or toothpicks???

@john65pennington: What’s a toothpick going for these days in a big city?

My town has a potato festival every September. The town in which I grew up has a dairy festival every year that features cow bingo!

It depends, i guess, if they are made plastic or wood. some rich music artists have gold toothpicks in this town. would you expect anything less?

I love to hear stories about @gailcalled‘s charming town. I want to retire there someday

We have a lot of Tiki bars, and ocean feel to the place. Alot seafood resteraunts. I really would not call it quirky. Can be charming if you head out to Sanibel Island? Old fashion ice cream parlors. Antique shops, people ride bikes all over. Then you got the Bubble room. It is a cool place. here

I live just outside the state park where the Californis Goldrush began in 1848.

Sutters Mill on the American river in Coloma Ca.

We also have a beautiful riverfront park, Lotus park, that is a wonderful asset to the community.

There are many fun events such as the big blues festival every Sept., Xmas in the park, Goldrush days, and we sport the oldest small theatre in the state.
The Old Coloma Theatre which has been in the same location since the 1840’s and offers a wonderful local theatre group and selection of plays.

We have premiere white water rafting and kayaking conditions, quite a few fun little hole in the wall places for dining and drinks, lots of campgrounds and a quirky local population ranging from old hippies, artists, entrepreneurs, oldtime family ranches and properties, cowboy types and the usual assorted humanity. lol

The local stores, ( including the little river thrift store I moonlight in ) extend credit on a handshake policies for their customers, such as the local feed & hardware store leaving me a sack of grain on the porch the other night when I was running late at closing time.

Everyone lives on 5–100’s of acres properties and it’s a great little tourist community that dwindles to a whisper in the winter and us locals live in obscurity once again.

Wow…does it show that I LOVE where I live? lol

@gailcalled is your pub Welsh?!

Charming and my hometown don’t mesh together in my mind. The only thing I can think of is the Little Theater (I’m not sure why we refer to it as the “little” theater. We have no “big” theater to compare it to.) When our city was a little town there was one-room school, the Little Theater. It has since then been used at the theater for the drama department at the high school. It’s a very old building that used to have a balcony (it was sealed off when some morons removed structural supports from it. Now it’s not earthquake safe. They’ve been vying to get this fixed.) One of the English teachers, who used to be the librarian / journalism teacher, had her students invent a ghost story about a girl named Sarah who died when she fell from the balcony. It’s a legend that still gets passed around as truth.

The Little Theater has been host to an annual Magic Show for the past twelve years. This will be their final production at the high school and I will be in attendance :)

Well over half my neighborhood is on the National Register of Historic Places. It’s one of the oldest suburbs in the US.

@harple: It purports to be, nominally at least. One can eat Cornish pasties and all sorts of beer and ale from the UK. (And, of course, have a hearing test.

Here’s Main Street
and the clock tower
and book store (gray-and-white striped awning

@chyna: Sheets are clean, kettle is on and Milo is ironing his jeans in anticipation of your arrival.

@gailcalled Those pictures do show what a quaint town you live in and I would love to live there. I’d better give Molly a bath first.

@gailcalled I just love that fact it’s called “Pint of Beer”!

@harple: It’s a paradigm for the sociological make-up of the community. The old-timers go to
the two bars in town; the second-home owners, writers, artists, musicians and people like me to the pub. We can hear live Celtic music and bump into other people like us.

@gailcalled it’s sounds great! :-)

We’re a small-ish coastal town, more or less surrounded by even smaller villages. The qurkiness of which you speak lies in those villages. A lot of the villagers have lived their all their lives & retain an air of days long since passed. A refreshing change to the hustle bustle of modern day life. Oh & of course the fact that I reside in my town automatically qualifies it as charming & quirky. Almost by default you could say! :¬)

Ooh @ucme you’re not still at war with Russia are you?.... ;-)

It’s maritime history is what it is known for… and lots of weirdos XD

@harple Niet!!

Me. I’m both charming and quirky in nearly equal measure—not always simultaneously—but not always either, either.

There’s wild chickens, and I swear a chupacabra. Well, maybe not a chupacabra, but it’s chupacabra heaven, non the less.

We get a lot of money from the European union to help build roads. and for the past 12 years or so, every town mayor that has been elected has spent money on the roads. but, its a very small town about 2 to 3 miles by 2 to 3 miles, and the mayors never have any experiences with designing roads or traffic systems. as a result, if you want to turn left you often have to turn right first and drive for a mile before you can turn round and go left. we have roads that you can go down, but if you do, there is a no left turn sign, a dead end sign to the right and a no entry sign ahead, meaning you have to reverse all the way up the street. we have streets with no entry signs that if you do go down them, there is a stop sign at the other end.

the road that used to be the main road is now a walkway and cycle track, and a little dirt lane is now the main road. there are stop signs every 6 or 7 meters, and the entire traffic system is just a madness. oh, and there is no parking, anywhere, at all.

EDIT: if im walking from the lower side to the upper side of town, i will walk there faster than you can get there in a formula 1 car. i could maybe even stop off along the way to chat to a friend or buy a can of soda.

Ah, the home town. It is nestled in the Shenandoah Valley in Virgina, surrounded by the Blue Ridge and Appalachian mountains. The town was established in 1732 and somehow was spared during the Civil War. Thus, some of the original buildings remain, as well as a beautiful cemetery where Civil War soldiers, from both sides, are buried.

In the past 25 years, there has been a campaign to renovate and rejuvenate the town, and they have done well. The warehouses surrounding the train station have been converted into independent shops and restaurants. The city built The Blackfriar’s Playhouse, which is a replica of a Shakespearean theater.

Some things haven’t changed. The town still boasts having the oldest community concert band. They offer free concerts in the summertime at the park. People bring their blankets and lounge chairs and sometimes a picnic dinner. The children head over to ride on the mini train that has been available for 50 years. Couples still stroll hand in hand on the paths around the large pond while the children climb up on the fence to through bread crumbs at the ducks and koi. The independent fast food restaurant that opened in the ‘50s is still going strong.

While the changes have attracted a fair amount of artists and people who want to retire in a place that offers four comfortable seasons, these ‘strangers’ are welcome to the community and quickly adapt to the friendly neighbor lifestyle.

The neighbors pretty much know everyone, but aren’t gossipy for the most part. They just look out for each other. People leave things on each others’ doorsteps because they know someone appreciates it, be it flowers, magazines, or home grown fruits and vegetables.

And yes, the town has its share of quirkiness. There is Mary, who wanders around town and offers to let you feel her tail (yes, she has one); the caustic neighbor next door who Mom feuded with for years and now sends his snow shovel service crew over to do her driveway; and the woman who built a huge house up on a hill and has it decorated to the hilt with holiday lights. She opens up the gates so people can enter and drive past the house.

I couldn’t wait to leave after high school. Now, it is a pleasure to go back.

@Pied_Pfeffer

I am dying to take a road trip through that area along with other old Cival war history. :-)

2nd Answer. back in the 60s and 70s, there was a tv show that was recorded in Nashville. anyone remember HEE HAW? out of this tv show, came a day set aside for those of the country origin. it was call Hillbilly Day and was celebrated in a small suburb of Nashviile in Madison, Tn. Hillbilly Day was almost a national holiday, since people from throughout the country brought their horses, mules and wagons to Madison to celebrate. HEE HAW and Hillbilly Day,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,a tv show and time to remember.

@JilltheTooth: I may have to steal the rubber ducky race concept for my home town.

@tedibear: I also love the idea of a potato festival. Potato ice cream, bubble gum, smoothies, shampoo and conditioner… the list is long.

But, what is cow bingo?

@gailcalled – that’s when you set up a “bingo card” on the ground using stakes and some sort of rope, bring the cows through to do their business, and when their leavings form a similar winning pattern: “BINGO!”

I’ve actually seen this. It was some years ago back in WI.

Ringing church bells.

The lonely whistle of the train, which passes through town fourteen times a day. I love to hear the Doppler effect when I am lying in bed in the dark.

Our charming local public library. There is a 10’ x 6’ L.C. Tiffany stained glass window in te main reading room.

Outside the building is a majestic red oak. Planted in 1902, it is the oldest Arbor Day tree in New York State.

There is a canal nearby and as we are on a small hill there are lots of locks. There are a couple of nice pubs by the water.