I relocated to Torrington, Ct and it was a mistake

That bad, huh? But aren’t there some nice areas nearby in Litchfieid County?

Really. I am looking at moving back up north but targeting East Canaan CT or Hudson NY (if I can afford it).

What do you not like about Torrington?

r2, I was thinking it'd have kind of a funky Hudson vibe but it's just lonesome and run down.

I've lived in CT for years - I don't like it and I don't hate it. For a small state, different sections of the state can be radically different. It really seems to lack an identity. At least it is not a red state, so that's a plus.

Well it's better than Bridgeport.

I relocated to Hartford last year for work and absolutely agree with R4. Hartford is a "nice" little city. It's not quite field of dreams, like they built it but then nobody showed up. I'm always surprise about how rural the state get if you veer out of any of their cities. Also Southern CT is like a whole different state altogether.

Just smoke copious amounts of pot, silly!

I just visited a friend for a few days in Hartford. The Mark Twain house is very interesting if you haven’t visited. Harriet Beecher Stowe lived next-door.

r8, that sounds exciting...

I LIKE the "monied working class" beach towns in CT. Growing up I spent a lot of time at Walnut Beach and Laurel Beach - Milford. So unpretentious but yeah you might need some money to be right on the shore. Black Rock CT, which may actually be IN Bridgeport. Get to know the local small businesses - restaurants and bakeries - many are on their third or fourth generation in the same family. Fairfield, Woodmont. It helps if you know people, of course. Unless you are horsey why avoid the shore in CT? It's really a great body of water for a relaxing summer.

Litchfield County in the northwest corner of the state is beautiful - filled with lovely small towns (not Torrington), rolling green landscapes, historic architecture and affluent, cultured residents, many of whom are NYC-based weekenders.

I have nothing to add to the Torrington, CT discussion except to say that Torrington would be a lovely name for a snooty flat-faced cat.

I hated hated hated CT every single minute I lived there (going to grad school). No redeeming qualities whatsoever, and the people who live there think CT is the center of the whole mfing universe. The towns are so parochial people think driving more than 20 minutes to work is a horrible thing. If you can't figure out where you are, it's because you weren't supposed to be there in the first place. And I have never met such unfriendly people (they call it "reserved") in all my life. People you know won't even wave at you. They carried on for years making sure they wouldn't get a Walmart, but when they got one, the traffic to get in and out of there was as bad as it is in LA.

I could go on and on, and I have CT stories that would curl your hair...but it's upsetting me just to write this much.

Suffice it to say that I always tell people, "I didn't leave CT -- I [italic]escaped[/italic]."

Meanwhile, most people in WMass will talk your ears off. It’s usually all complaints though.

I look back at my Norwich/New London years with fondness.

For what it’s worth, OP, I know a lot about relocation regret, too. But when I go back to my home town it’s so changed and so frenetic now that I don’t recognize it, either. I’d have had to have stayed there and let all the changes seem to have come more slowly to have felt that it was still home.

So I’m coping by identifying my living room as “where I live.” I journey into the kitchen sometimes and hike up the stairs to go to bed and, THANK GOD, have good neighbors to smile at occasionally. And for entertainment I walk and walk and walk. I did my first 5k last weekend. It was fun and I’ll do it again, but God, I miss home and my friends who died.

Torrington is the most populated municipality and largest city in Litchfield County, Connecticut, United States, and the Northwest Hills Planning Region. It is also the core city of Greater Torrington, one of the largest micropolitan areas in the United States. The city population was 35,515 according to the 2020 census.

This turn of phrase cracked me up:

[quote]Litchfield County in the northwest corner of the state is beautiful - filled with lovely small towns (not Torrington)

If you "relocated" from Trenton NJ things are working out very nicely for you.

[quote]I've lived in CT for years - I don't like it and I don't hate it.

That's how I feel. I'm in Rocky Hill. Not sure where else to go if I decide to move. Been here a long time and can go out to a restuarant and usually run into someone I know. My childhood home is in Bethel and travel down to visit my cousin occasionally. My old house was leveled and somehow they managed to build 20-30 small condos on the small lot.

I lived in Coventry for a short while but it was too isolated and I'm prone to depression. Came home to find my house burglarized and decided to move back to where I am now.

It was nice growing up in CT in the 1970s and 1980s but I left after college. Not much to do there as an adult, especially as an unattached gay man

Agree, R21 but being single and now retired I would feel isolated no matter where I go.

Do they still have the great college radio station?

Is Ridgefield, CT supposed to be a rich enclave?

Just wondering, because I was watching a video of a guy who supposedly came from a wealthy family from Ridgefield.

However, I didn't know if it was bullshit or not.

I rented a house in Ridgefield for 2 summers. It’s a beautiful town but sort of mix of suburban and country. It’s commutable (though a very long commute) to NYC. North Salem, NY is the next town over and is gorgeous horse country where some of the richest people in the country have houses (Spielberg, Bloomberg, Springsteen, Larry Fink, Bill Gates).

I want one of those colonials in Litchfield. I've never seen so many historical homes in such pristine condition.

Litchfield has remained relatively unchanged, despite the high NYC population. They have uber strict zoning and historical regulations.

help

We live outside of Torrington and it’s so lovely. Beautiful country with ponds with beaver dams and flocks of geese near cows grazing.

Heaven.

Wherley says he, Layla and their dog were on the creek by their house, when he felt something grab his kayak. Wherley says at first he thought it was just his dog pulling the boat, but it wasn't. "It was a big ass crazy beaver," the father wrote in the Facebook post.

"It kept trying to bite and get into the kayak after me. I kept beating it with the paddle, this went one for a few minutes. It wouldn't give up," Wherley wrote. His photos show a beaver jumping out of the water, appearing to bite an oar. The beaver battle only escalated from there.

"Finally it swam to the opposite side of creek and turned and saw Layla on her kayak who is now 30 yards in front of me. It takes off straight after her. I yell at her to get to the shore, I jump out of my kayak to help," the father described in his Facebook post. He says the beaver made it to Layla's kayak and started to climb onto the back. "(S)he was screaming bloody murder," he wrote.

The tenacious beaver wouldn't give up. Wherley says he punched the animal and it fell into the water, but then it started lunging back at him. "I was punching, kicking and trying to get away from it. I ran to the bank with Layla and it followed me still trying to attack us," he wrote.

Wherley says the attack continued on land. He says he started pummeling the beaver with rocks, but it did not stop. "After about 5 more big rocks to the head it swam away a little bit, then came right back. I grabbed a big stick and smacked it on the head 5 times as hard as I could and the last hit crushed it's skull."

r29 oh my

R16 I feel you. Sending a hug.