O.k., my hometown is far from hip. It's a smallish city in northern Minnesota surrounded by farmland, forest and Native American reservations. Still, it has its finer points that lean towards being kinda cool. It is a college town, it's built around a pretty lake, it's home to many artists and artisans who make neat stuff, and they even have a weekly farmers' market. With roots in the lumber business, I guess they're doing well. Over the past ten years it seems to keep a relative balance of yin and yang: for every Wal-Mart and bank branch, there's a privately owned coffee shop and art gallery.
Every once in a while, it feels like there is a fun, radical uprising and the town oozes the potential to appear in a trendy magazine as a "diamond in the rough" kind of vacation spot. Then, time, the great leveler, quiets that voice and the townsfolk come out of their shells and go back to their favorite chain restaurant to order "the regular."
Hipness in my hometown? It's there if you look for it. I found this nifty robot graffiti downtown. Perhaps his missing lower half is symbolic.
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