I lived there for a couple years when I was in school. I actually liked it. Two of my favorite places to eat nearby. Cafe Rio and Tucanos. Owl baseball. UVU basketball. Snowboarding within an hour. SLC about 45 mins away. My only problem is that it's dead on Sundays.
I lived in Orem for 27 years. Moved there as a young married when ex DH got a job at YBU.
I hated that it had no downtown...just a bunch of businesses scattered along State Street.
Read today that the Midtown project that was started when I lived there is at a standstill as the developers are bankrupt and the June payment on the debt was missed...whoops, sorry Orem city leaders...you have a white elephant on your hands. I always thought it was a boondoggle and I really felt bad for the low income folks who lived in the trailer park they tore down. Most of them had few resources . I guess a few of the condos are occupied but the people who live there are kinda stuck because they can't get out of their mortgages. It's a mess.
I remember Safeway, Sprouse Reitz, Grand Central, the Bishop's storehouse and they are all gone now. And Orem looks a little shopworn to me. The neighborhood I lived in looks very run down, too.
I am glad to be out of that place and out of Utah County. Salt Lake County is much more diverse and I don't get the stink eye if I go out and mow my grass on Sunday morning.
I remember riding my bike to Storehouse Market with money I earned mowing lawns. I remember walking to 711 (now an insurance place) crossing Scera Park to get there. I bought my first cola there - Like Cola. It was new and my friend told me I was bad for buying it. Tasted like The Celestial Kingdom.
I grew up in Orem. I really liked it, because it seemed like everyone in my high school knew each other because of the wards and seminary. Otherwise, I'd only have known the people in my Honors and AP classes, and not the more "normal" students. Sorry if that sounds arrogant on my part, just how it was.
The downside was that I didn't have any friends who left the church before me, so I didn't have anyone to talk to about it, and I was a LOT more hesitant to leave than I should have been. It would have been helpful to see people do it before me.
Sunny skies, warm, lazy SUNday. I live and love in Orem. Hiked Baldy yesterday, went shopping today, and got scoweled at by a neighbor on the way home.
Orem is true, but the members are not necessarily genuine, or even friendly sometimes. Sad, but Gospel true. Amen.
I live in Orem now. I definitely feel like I'm living in a sheltered bubble, but I do have a gay neighbor who lives with his partner and my other neighbors have beer and poker night, so I guess it could be worse.
It was like living in Pleasantville. Beautiful scenery - walking out the front door and seeing Timpanogos was always breathtaking and there were still cherry orchards around that when they were in bloom were beautiful.
I really was lucky because the ward I lived in was not anal retentive. I had a really cool Bishop and the youth leaders were awesome. They would take the YM & YW to hike up Timp, go tubing in the winter and white water rafting in the summer.
It was all blissfully innocent and I actually miss those days.
Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 08/23/2011 09:15AM by kookoo4kokaubeam.
I moved to Orem from Wyoming in the mid 70s fresh out of high school. Since I was a young brainwashed TBM preparing to go on a mission I love it then. Those were the days of disco and there was a club in Provo called Uncle Mario's that I used to go to constantly.
Anyway, I returned there from the old mish and met my ex wife there and we married and lived there for many years. My disenchantment with the church began there as well.
I remember the old Grand Central that was torn down years ago, it used to have two drive in movies, and lots of orchards. Now days it is all houses and like another poster said, business scattered from one end to the other along State Street. That Midtown project is sad too. Every time I drive by there I just laugh because when I saw the news that they were going to build it I said it would never make it but I didn't think it would go belly up before it was even built.
Orem is pretty much nothing but a bunch of houses and a few businesses but it is so disjointed and scattered that it will never be a major metropolitan center, or even a minor one. It is just a cluster f**k between Pleasant Grove and Provo.
Craig Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I remember the old Grand Central that was torn > down years ago...
I remember it became a Fred Meyer and then now Burlington.
I also used to go to Coronets next to Safeway which is now Smiths. I remember when Albertsons came to town and when McDonalds was built on that corner.
We used to go down Carterville road to the PopShop and get refills for our bottles.
My family moved to Orem my junior year of high school. Orem High was so white compared to my high school in Texas! I liked the church better outside of Utah. I remember seminary in the middle of the school day seeming so weird! Beautiful scenary all around you, but everyone too busy with church an family to appreciate it. I work in Orem now and it seems to be more diverse than it was 13 years ago.