Here are some things I do not miss about my ex-home (in my case Oklahoma)
Football as religion. HS Football all night Friday, Saturday might as well have been called Sooner day (lived in Norman not Stillwater) and Sunday might as well been Cowboy Day.
I don’t miss driving. I really don’t. I really don’t miss having to drive 10 miles to do anything.
I don’t miss The Daily Oklahoman or the general right bent of all politics there. I don’t miss the idea of having my car vandalised because I have a Clinton bumper sticker.
I don’t miss the weather. Especially the Spring, when the weather will try and kill you with a Tornado, or the unrelenting heat of teh summer, or the bi-polar falls where you might be in shorts one day and in thermal underwear the next and I really don’t miss the winters which are cold but not a lot of snow to make it pretty. (not that there are any hills to go sledding on but using all the snow in your yard to make a snowman, who ends covered in brown grass is pathetic)
Things I don’t miss about ‘home’ (South Louisiana):
The heat.
The humidity.
10 months of summer, 2 weeks of fall, 4 weeks of ‘winter’, 2 weeks of spring, then another 10 months of f%$#in SUMMER.
Distinct lack of topographical variation (damn it’s flat!)
Mosquitos. FIRE ANTS!
I know exactly how you feel, Zebra. I am living in Oklahoma, transplanted from Syracuse/Albany, NY, and I just don’t really dig it here. So much damned football here. The humidity is awful. The Daily Oklahoman is for certain one of the most conservative newspapers in North America, to the point of censoring comic strips. It is also the only paper of its kind availiable, if you happen to care about local news. As for the driving bit, that’s not an exaggeration as well. The nonchalantness among many residents concerning tornado warnings is almost humorous. There also seems to be a cultural cutoff in comparison to other cities regarding radio station choices, not taking into account the Clear Channel/Westwood One monopoly. Sorry if I hijacked you slightly, Zebra; to be fair, I will say this: These are the things I won’t miss about Oklahoma when I move away from here in the near future.
I’m originally from Pittsburgh’s Mon Valley. I love the area, but I won’t miss…
Declining towns and their attendant crime problems.
Union troubles that lead businesses to decide not to locate there.
Idiotic politicians and one party (Democrat) rule.
Inability to buy beer and wine at the grocery store.
Mullets (male) and big hair (female).
The hole in the floor that I stapled some plywood over so we wouldn’t break our ankles.
Sunlight through cracks in the brick walls + the leaks. No carpets, LOTS of splinters, only the nails that held a carpet once.
Single glazing, no heating. Not a single right-angle in the flat (not essential, but all the walls bulged and tapered in - all the floors were cambered)
The rotten window-frame that broke, I stapled it back up to stop the glass from sliding onto the street.
No gas, no cooker, no BED! (my flatmate bought an inflatable one, I was so jealous)
This list goes on and on.
Boy, I’m glad I got the lucky break.
I am from Northern California. The only thing I really don’t miss is my sister. She’s 18 and very dedicated to ruining the lives of the rest of the family. My parents have her in therapy, so maybe she’ll eventually become bearable someday, but until then, I’m ecstatic to be thousands of miles away from her irrational accusations, bizarre and violent outbursts, and self-destructive behavior.
