I lived in Massachusetts for my first 10 years then Illinois for the next 15. I came to California 31 years ago. Out of all the places I have lived I would say I like this the best. I like the weather most of the time and there is quite a variety geographically. We have beaches 5 miles away, ancient redwood forests within walking distance, we live in the foothills of the Santa Cruz Mts. so have great views of valleys and even the ocean. I can drive to the mountains in a few hours if I want to play in the snow or to the desert if I want heat. I have lived close to the CA coast for 22 years and enjoy the Mediterranean climate. I can garden all year long and have fresh veggies, flowers and fruit. We are north enough to have some seasonal changes, but don't usually get the extremes in heat or cold. Though in the last couple of years I have been noticing some changes in the weather pattern. Everything you could want is close by, great 5 star restaurants, big shopping malls, historical sites; Santa Cruz, San Jose and San Francisco museums, symphonies, theaters. We get lots of big name entertainers. You could go 24/7 for a week and never repeat anything if you wanted. I don't miss the very cold snowy winters or hot humid summers of the East Coast or Midwest. Occasionally I get nostalgic for the Autumn changes that you get in New England. And I miss the fresh clams and fresh picked blueberries. The only other place I would want to live is Hawaii. Clare

Thank you again for your kind thoughts. I have talked to Shane's father, he appreciated that I had called his mother. I was the only one from my side of the family that has contacted with them and I had to join facebook to find them. I had Shane's phone number but the police had his cell for awhile.

I used to live in NJ but I was only 10 so maybe I was still in DUMBO=elephant mode!!! Thanks. Learned something today. Yeah!

I guess one could say I cheated on this one.. When I was in the Air Force I was stationed in Texas, Arkansas, Massachusetts & W.German. After I got out of the AF I drove 18 wheelers on long trips for over ten years and where I would be out on the road 4 or 5 months at a time. I have been in all 48 continuos states plus Alaska and 5 Provinces of Canada. From there I went into the construction trades and I have lived an worked in 10 different states from Arizona, Texas, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi,Georgia to Ohio, Indiana, Pennsylania and Massachusetts. I was born in Idaho and have made a couple extended visits with kinfolks there and I was raised on a dairy farm in Ohio. I was living in Youngstown, Ohio when I first retired and to put it mildly, I was not the least happy there. Try to imagine a city of 90,000ppl that averages in excess of 50 murders a year. In that area it is not a matter of whether your house might be broken into, but rather, when and how often. I was sitting there contemplating this very question, where do I want to retire too, when one night the phone rang. It was my old friend Jan from Massachusetts. She and I had a friendship like brother & sister way back in the late 70's and over the years we had managed to stay in touch even though it was from a distance. She informed me that when she upgraded her cell phone plan they gave her 4 phones and she has a national plan, so she was sending me a cell phone to use. She said she averaged 600 rollover minutes a month so if I kept it under 600 minutes I could use it free and all calls between she and I were free. A week later I had the phone and we talked about an hour a day for three or four weeks until we realized that we were both single at the moment (before that, when she was single I was married & vice versa,LOL) so we began discussing the idea of sharing her house until we could decide where we wanted to move to. A week later I was in Massachusetts, where I have been for the last two years. When we began discussing our future retirement plans we both agreed that we wanted four seasons. We then wanted a quiet comparitively low crime area and one that has features for seniors. Then a good selection of shopping facilities within a short easy commute and finally, plenty of parks and recreaton areas as well as rural scenic areas. Then I tossed into the mix that I had once again taken up serious photography so I wanted plenty of historical sites, points of interest and both indoor and outdoor activities And finally, just to add to the mix, a good public transportation system. When we looked around, we realized we have it all right here. Not one, but three huge world class hospitals within 10 miles, the Bay State Medical Center is a teaching hospital that is actually rated in the top ten in the USA and higher than Boston General, which is the Harvard Medical School hospital. We have a very low crime rate and a top notch police force, but then all our govt services are top notch. Our city has its own electrical generating company and they have only had three power outages that lasted more than 15 minutes since 1940. In fact, last year, after the tornado went through here the power company had to cut the power to our street for one hour while they cut some trees and repaired the lines, and we got a written appology and a $20credit in our next electric bill. Last year we had two 40" snowfalls within a week and many of the local cities and towns around us were snowed in for days, but in our city the deepest the snow ever got on a street was 2". We have recycle pickup one day and trash pickup the next, and there is no limit as to how much trash you can set out, by example, last week a lady across the street set out two couches, a huge chair and about 7 huge trash cans, and they took it all without question. Our street is swept by a street sweeper truck twice a week. Now for our shopping commute...It's 1.2miles to Walmart superstore & Home Depot, B.J.' wholesale(like Sams Club) and Big Y grocery is closer, and CVS pharmacy on the wasy. A huge polish meat market about three blocks away, the farmers produce market 1/2mile, 8 major groceries within 5 miles, or we can go one block and jump on the interstate and go two miles to the mall at Holyoke. The local PVTA(Pioneer Valley Transit Authority) buss stop is about a 1/2block from the house and the PVTA routes cover 11 cities and towns within a 34 mile radius adn senior can get a monthly buss pass for $21, which provides unlimited rides on the entire routing. 1/2 mile from the house we can get on the Massachusetts Turnpike (Interstate 90) and go 90 mile east to Boston or 3000 miles west to Seatle Washington or we can take I-91 south to Long Island Sound or north up through Vermont all the way to the Candian Border. Now add to that, I have a list of over 300 historical sites, some dating back before the Revolutionary War, all within 30 miles of our house. When all was said and done,we decided to stay right here.