Tapok said:
But by no means is it anything other than average.
I've always seen it as a calm, small little town that is happy being itself, with no ideas above its place. Stafford is like a kwik-e-mart compared to a supermarket: You can get everything you need, but if you want bigger and better, you have to go to the brighter lights of Sainsburys.
The Stafford T-shirts are kinda crazy and self-congratulating, but the Stafford song certainly takes the cake. There's parts of Stafford that I won't even call a shithole, for fear of devaluing the word. It certainly isn't the jewel you seem to be painting it as. A semi-precious gem, perhaps, but not anything near diamond or ruby level.
Don't get me wrong, I like this place, but come now, ladies and gents, let us keep a sense of perspective. If we're going to get overtly (Emphasis on "overtly") patriotic about Stafford then I'll be forced to climb to the top of St. Mary's and start taking potshots at you with a tranquilizer gun.
Now this is interesting ..It's a sort on non slating type post but at the same time a kind of .."so why do you lot think its great" sort of post
Theres a long list my friend ..although not too keen on the rozzers situation now and we pay 124 quid out of our C charge thngy !..anyway won't waffle ..
The Stafford thing for me is that i love the place ..it doesn't have all the big attractions of larger towns and cities ( but I don't want it to! if I want them I'll take a day trip out)
It doesn't have an enormous crime rate , people are still confident enough to be out an about without fear of attack or robbery ( most of the time)
The people are generally friendly
House values have increased and are staying reasonably that way
It doesnt seem to have been hit with any major steep prices "cos of the place you live in " type tarrifs
Theres places to go to match a mood ..although I guess it's not really a single persons town it tends to cater more for your couples I think ..although having said that a good time can be had by all
The countryside ( and I mean proper cow shit and grass type )countryside is less than 10 mins away
We don't seem to have any major extremists, rioters, or general ne'er do wells
oh and countless other reasons ..but certainly a large "friend " base helps loads
Having lived in inner cities , sheffield, birmingham, London and Manchester
Being brought up in the welsh "outback" ( nearest neighbour 2.5 miles)
And also abroad in two places france and austria
and lived in luvverly Devon ( which we escaped from after a "eureka" moment in the Agricultural Arms in Braunton which is a nice place and yep people all go there on their hols but to be frank you would only live there if you were retired or brought up there type place.
Still found myself coming back here 3 times now so far !
I loved the old market town as it was ..Stafford was a wonderful place to live then . I am sort of open to it's new ideas , major developments everywhere ..new unit this , new road works that, new superstore the other ..but it is growing at an alarming rate ..which is sort of good and sort of bad depending on the way you look at it..
The strange thing is having now been here for almost 20 yrs on and off the people who make these moves and decisions tend to be people you know..so you sort of feel more involved ..sounds weird I know
I would have loved it to stay the way it was( think you would have hated it then ..wot no 24 hour opening ??) ..but you can't hold back progress . With that progress comes new people ( I wonder what a Stafford "incomer" would be known as ?) and with new people comes new challenges, new ways of doing things and of course new expectations ..but it's all good as long as the crime rate stays low I'll stay if the progress causes problems and i feel like i'm back in the "ghetto" then reluctantly i'll bugger off ( although 'er indoors might have something to say about that " .
So " a jewel" maybe not in the shiny "everyone has to see it " sense ..but thats good I would hate bus loads of daytrippers coming in every weekend to be honest .So i'm chuffed we havent got an NEC type building or a massive museum or huge shopping complex ..and hope we never do !
Y'see I think the reason lots of people like it here is because it isn't big, it isn't all "bright lights" and 24/7 madness and it is relatively safe .
Although i really really really wish someone would sort out a proper live music venue!!!!! soon before I'm too old to enjoy gigs on weekends and dance my drunken ass off ( thats my own little bugbear about the town but it isnt much really ..and yes I could "bog off " to Brum or wolvo etc .. but i would like to able to see decent beat combos in my own town ..but I'm sure it will happen eventually
Frankly if you or anyone else feels they want all the "city" type life then bog off to the city and be a nameless, anonymous face in a throng or a crowd struggling for your survival and get over charged inflated prices when you go out and do watch your back for the thieves, the con artists, the meatheads and the looneys ..and tolerate the fact that everything is marked, broken or vandalised ..and the smell! etc etc
or stay a while .. meet and greet , marvel at the countryside, smell the cowshit ( better smell!" on a saturday afternoon walk across the fields . Go watch the Rangers play and scoff a pie, walk, fish, cycle,.Stagger home from the pub , with no major fear of being mugged,. Eat a sensibly priced meal and wash it down with reasonably priced beer .. then look a the happy smiling and optimistic people around you .. notice the lack of gloom when you go out and be part of what the town is rather than stand on the sidelines and moan about it
Or simply to anyone who doesnt like the place .."do one" and find your own particular utopian journeys end .
You see ....after all that outburst .. I like this town because it is "average" and I never want it to be anything else OR I will be the one doing the moaning !
end of rant ..
Rough Guide 
