I wouldn’t say this is odd, but I always though that my friend had a lucky upbringing. She was born and raised on a Caribbean island; the kind that people pay lots of money to vacation to. Blue skies all the time, clear waters, lots of sun, simple island life. Oh, and random stray chickens instead of stray cats or dogs. Sounds pretty awesome to me

That is not the norm, that’s for sure @cutiepi92. It does sound awesome!

This was my “backyard” growing up. So many wonderful and nostalgic memories…

Edit: I just reread the question and I guess I didn’t really give you the answer you were looking for. I didn’t have an odd upbringing there, but it certainly was not the norm by most people’s standards.

I think growing up in Sarajevo would be the tits. Maybe not so much in the 90’s but any other time.

Who is to say what is normal? Living in the tropics with blue skies and blue waters is not that odd for a lot of people. It is why I love living in FL, every day I feel like I am on vacation and there is a whole bunch of people living down here with me. There are people all over the world living near coasts with moderate climates. The chickens aren’t walking around here though, that’s true. But, in many parts of the world they are.

I guess maybe you are talking from an American perspective, since most of our country has four distinct seasons and many cities and towns are land locked.

Las Vegas is fairly unique though. Still, I would think daily life was pretty normal. Wasn’t it? School, family, friends.

A women I used to live next to had a second home up in Stowe, VT and she said the kids brought skis with them on the bus to school. That is odd to me. Makes sense though. I’m not sure if they actually used the skis to get to the bus? Or, if they used them at school or what.

Odd is really a very relative term. If you’re raised in Germany, odd is one thing, and if you’re raised in Botswana, odd is another thing. I can think of many different places to grow up. I am just thankful that I was born in a safe place with food, clean water and love.

Manshiyat Naser (Garbage City) in Cairo, Egypt. The people basically live off of dumpster diving and recycling. I think it would be very odd to be raised here. It would be like living in a garbage/recycling factory. You’d certainly learn to be very resourceful. At least one would become accustomed to the smell.

Just out of curiosity…...what did Liberace give out on Halloween ??

I have a friend who is from the Bronx, NY. Her mother died when she was 7 and she was taken in by the nuns of her church and was raised in a monastery. I think that is a very odd place to be raised.

@Plucky That doesn’t look too cozy, huh.

A lot of kids are raised as live-aboard sailors as their parents travel around the world. I’ve heard that many of them grow up very resilient.

Well, it depends on how you define odd. Is the Amazon rain forest an odd place to raise children when they learn to live a life as hunter gatherers? What about North Korea, when brainwashing starts at the age of toddlers? Or Saudi Arabia where girls are told they have the rights of cattle and sheep?

Before getting to the details of this question, I was going to say Las Vegas.
My parents met in Henderson, NV, which is close by. My Mom lived with her Uncle, who was a Sheriff. Her father and my Dad’s father were local drunks, who constantly ran into trouble with the law aka Mom’s Uncle.
Trying to instill values and morality into children living in Vegas has to be a nightmare.

@OneBadApple His doorman handed out small bags full of pennies. I think it totaled $1. That would get you a couple candy bars in the 70s. :)

Anyone looking for a definition of odd, all I have to say is whatever is odd to you. I was just asking this question for fun. No need to get all deep (unless you want to), I’m enjoying the examples given so far!

Growing up in the country, I can’t imagine living in LA or NY or Dallas as a child. We had so much fun running barefoot, riding bikes, swimming in ponds and being goofy.

I was raised in a fly in only “bush” vil in AK. We were partially dependent on subsistance for food and we as kids worked our butts off. Our jobs included weeding, mowing our sad lawn, tending our poor garden, spreading gravel with shovel and rake on the drive way and fill dirt on parts of our lawn. Picking up nails and screws after dads projects. Painting, helping install a septic systems. Cleaning fish, canning cutting and packaging caribou. For example.

Our play was books bikes three wheelers horseshoes sliding off the roof when the wind blew enough against a building, steam hut, berry picking skating on ponds even if it was with our boots, etc.

We didn’t have TV and only allowed to watch a pg or g, not disney movie, once or twice a week.

Inner cities, people, bus systems can still overwhelm me at times and it is impossible for me to imagine what that would be like.

Any place with a major tourist attraction. Not only would the livelihood of so many people depend on said tourist attraction, it would also bring in a steady stream of outsiders.

I think it would be weird to grow up in a place where the majority of the people don’t even live there.

Hmmmm…or did you mean “create the most interesting people”?