Weekly Wanderings: Lincoln, Nebraska

By Jennifer Nemec
Published on August 26, 2008
1 / 4
2 / 4
3 / 4
4 / 4

I’ve decided to institute a weekly feature here at Joy in the Journey. As I’ve said, I’m a wandering kind of girl, and, at least for the foreseeable future, I will be making an almost weekly trip somewhere. Last weekend it was Lincoln, Nebraska.

I’ll admit my bias upfront. I lived in Lincoln for 11 years or so (which ties it for longest in my lifetime to date). I was born there and my mom’s family is from there, so I’ve been making my way up O Street for as long as I can remember.

Lincoln bills itself as a large small-town. Now that I’ve lived in more “city-like” places – Omaha, Denver and Topeka – I’d have to say that I agree with that assessment. There’s something about Lincoln that never quite makes it to “citified.” I haven’t lived there since 2000, though, and they’ve experienced some growth since then. Because I have been going there since the ’70s, the changes in Lincoln are the most obvious to me. Landmarks that used to mean “We’re almost there!” are now swallowed up in residential areas. Looks like ~100,000 new residents have moved in since 1970. The green, tree-lined streets I miss are still plentiful, though, as is a smile on a street corner downtown.

Lincoln has a very interesting dynamic as a town pretty much created by and for government. The little village of Lancaster was renamed Lincoln and accepted as the state capital of Nebraska in 1867, when the city planners laid out future streets in a blissful grid. 

Online Store Logo
Need Help? Call 1-866-803-7096