Stars Hollow Syndrome

For those out there who are Gilmore Girls junkies (and yes, I include myself in this!),I must admit that I have some 'Stars Hollow Syndrome'. For awhile now, a group of us girlfriends get together and have our 'Gilmore Girls Night In'. We eat junk food and laugh and watch through the series until we can't stay awake any longer and then we pick up again the next week. We all end up talking about the same things (though most of us have seen these now how many times), 'Will Luke and Lorali ever get together?' and 'how about all those fast 1-liners!' and then always, always, always 'oh, i want to live in Connecticut in Stars Hollow. How fun..' and the comments go on and on and on.

Now, for those who have never seen the Gilmore Girls, I will give you a quick inside: Stars Hollow is a fictional New England town of aprx. 9,973 people in Connecticut. If you are familiar with the show, please skip the direct quotation from Wikipedia below:

Stars Hollow was inspired by and is loosely based on the real town of Washington Depot, Connecticut (located in the middle of the western half of the state, about 45 minutes from both Hartford and New Haven) which writer Amy Sherman-Palladino once traveled through. But at

There are many clues given during the course of the show as to its location in Connecticut, but unfortunately no one town fits all clues. Hartford is supposed to be within 30 minutes and New Haven is allegedly 22.8 miles away. Towns mentioned as being close include Woodbury and Beacon Falls (generally in the central south west of the state), Litchfield, Groton and New London (in the south east). This information can't be reconciled any better.

Washington Depot, the town Amy Sherman-Palladino mentioned as inspiring Stars Hollow, also uses a town meeting-style government and was founded in 1779. The homes and buildings in the town all match the style of that in Stars Hollow and the archetype New England town. In real life Woodbury is very close to Washington Depot. It should be noted that plenty of other Connecticut towns have village greens, gazebos or small quaint shops and give a feel much like Stars Hollow to a visitor.

Greg Morago of The Hartford Courant writes, "...... the Stars Hollow of The Gilmore Girls rings true. The town's antiques shops, small businesses, schools, government and infrastructure look the part. But where Sherman-Palladino has truly excelled, despite her Clueless origins, is in her drawing of colorful Connecticut characters. The populace of Stars Hollow, from the town busybody to the town troubadour, is familiar to any Nutmegger who ever attended a town meeting."

Now I post all of that above because of the point that I want to make: at some point I think many of us long for such a 'place'. It's this everyday, yet whimsical and magical small town that makes you feel like everything is just going to be ok and that people are just the nicest and best that there ever was. And even though life gets tough, there is always someone there to have your back.

When things start to get tough or begin to change, I naturally gravitate towards moving and changing atmospheres. I have been like this since I can remember and there are days where all I want is to live in my 'Stars Hollow' and go to town meetings and have a town troubadour sing while I walk down the street. Course, for right now, I guess that my Harry Connick Jr and Coldplay will just have to do the trick, eh?!