Best location for my protagonist

[UltimateUniverse900]

My protagonist moves with his family as a young child who came from a large eccentric city environment to this small Midwest town in Middle America in 1995 which is a more conservative values, rural and religious environment with mostly sport and football fans, rather than comic and videogame lovers, with a tin of folklore myths deep within this town. He'd stand out from his precious city home compared to the kids in this amall town. What state and town could he have been from previously that was a more vibrant eccentric city life and what state and town could he have moved to with their more conservative, religious values abd traditions, and larger football fans? This would be set in the mid 1990s, 1995 to be exact.

 

[Wayne Mack]

Thinking about 1995, I would think about the grunge scene in Seattle, Washington. Other, more stock locales would be San Francisco, Los Angeles, and New York. Perhaps Las Vegas, as well. There is also Austin, Texas, the home of the SXSW festival.

For move to locations, pick out a small town in Texas (huge high school football environment), Oklahoma, Nebraska, Indiana, Ohio.

 

[Yozh]

If you’re looking for deep folk myths, I think it make more sense on the eastern edge of midwest, like Ohio or even western Pennsylvania.

West of that, there is not as much old local folklore in most small towns, because the communities that exist today are just not that old. European settlers forced native people off their lands in mid-late 1800s and ignored their folkways, and the towns that exist now are only maybe 150 years old. (It doesn’t sound like you are thinking of placing story in Native American community).

Here and there, you might find a community that was settled by a single group of people with a shared religious and cultural background, though, which might be an interesting setting. Amana colonies in Iowa come to mind.

 

[paranoid marvin]

The smaller the place, the more accurate you will have to be in describing it and what happens there.

I would consider picking a suitable area, looking at a number of place names and then making up a mame that seems to fit in.