I like living here in St. Cloud, Minnesota

It's a lot like home in Southern California, where I was raised. I realized that there is no rural in Southern California when I went back to the hundred year anniversary of the elementary school in Crafton which is where I went to school a few years. I had the same first grade teacher that my dad had, and we had 7 kids in first grade when I went there. At the hundred year anniversary there were over 700 kids in first grade, and the elementary school covered at least ten times more ground.

I remember once taking off my shoes as they were new and hurt my feet. I just put them under an Orange tree thinking I would put them back on when I went home. I walked about a mile to and from school. However, the teacher asked me why I was bare footed, and I told her that the new shoes hurt my feet so I took them off and went on to school bare footed, which I was most of the time anyway. She asked if I knew where they were and I said that I did and as it wasn't very far someone walked me back to where I took them off and I put them back on. A lot of trouble I thought. However, there was none for the first grader.

Can't even come close to doing that now almost anywhere in the US.

But here in St. Cloud I have a small fire pit out back about six or seven feet wide over-all and I just completed burning up the fall clean-up limbs and some leaves. Only took a couple of hours burning it all up, without any problems from anyone at all.

Not many cities one can do that now in the US, however there are many in MN where that is acceptable. However, we also did that in Crafton, Southern California when I was a kid also.

Also of note the ethnic diversify in St. Cloud has gotten much greater over the years since we moved here in 1995, and I feel more at home with that diversity, and am a lot more comfortable lately than when we first moved here.