What do you miss most about where you were born and raised that you wish you still had?
(assuming you no longer live where you were born and raised)
Me:
Born and raised in South Jersey
Beside the obvious Italian hoagies, cheese-steaks and soft-spoken women :), I miss jughandles (the “Jersey Left.”). The only sensible way to turn left, is to turn right—keeps all the turning riff-raff to the right lane, away from my well-earned, free-flowing left lane. Every highway on Earth should use jughandles. Of course, the wacky Brits would have them mirror-imaged and call them something high-brow like, “Wedgwood teacup handles.”
Now to things I miss that are still there. I lived in Baltimore for my first 46 years. What I miss most now that I’m in Ohio is seafood, fresh seafood available everywhere. When I lived in Baltimore, I never ate at a Red Lobster. Now, God help me, it is my regular source of seafood. I still have to go back to Baltimore for steamed crabs.
Yep. Raised in Baltimore, spent most of the last 12 years in Nevada, and steamed blue crabs are at the top of my list. Even when I get out to the California coast, the dungeness crabs they serve there are just a pale imitation of the real thing.
Attempting to keep my title from being too long, I think I made it a bit ambiguous. To re-phrase the question: what was available in your home town, city, state or even country (that is still available there) that you wish was available where you live now (assuming you moved from where you grew up).
Baltimore seafood is a good answer. I visited Baltimore once, many years ago, and got a fish cake served between two saltine crackers, from a cheap seafood shack. It was quite good. Was that a Baltimore specialty? Is it still?
Our garden from which I could see the surrounding countryside (I lived on the edge of my hometown). Cows behind the hedgerow at the back. Roosters crowing. The smell of the grass, flowers and, yes, manure from the farm down the road. Clean sky, being able to see the stars at night.
There was little traffic in our street so it was very quiet. On summer nights, when I was lying in bed, I could hear the occasional car a couple of minutes before it passed in front of my house. I could even picture in my mind exactly where it was (at the top of the hill behind our house, now going down the street, passing by the swimming pool, stopping for a short time before turning left into our street).
Now, I have a relatively big terrace overlooking a nice pond. Big buildings all around. Non-stop (but moderate) traffic. In the summer, the sky just above the horizon is a bit dim because of the pollution.
Growing up, I had a corner bedroom with 2 windows. I’ve never lived anywhere else with the same setup, and I miss being able to let in a cross-breeze. And the porch swing. And the hammock. And the pool. It’s hard to choose just one thing! My childhood home has a lot of bad memories attached to it, but it wasn’t all bad.
Grew up in a small Mediterranean island, so I guess the things I miss are the ones that drive millions of tourists there every year.
Not having to check the weather forecast before leaving my place. Being able to walk from my place to the beach. Cheap, fresh seafood. That kind of stuff
And yet I wouldn’t want to live there again, not in a million years
I currently live too close to where I grew up so that doesn’t count. But over the years the Army took me various places. Mostly it was my family and just an overall feeling of belonging that I missed. But there were specifics.
When living in Germany I missed round doorknobs and American plumbing. It seemed like with each new toilet I needed 10 minutes with a diagram to figure out how to flush. And I was never a fan of the shit shelf.
In Iraq I missed green vegetation and being able to sleep without someone lobbing a rocket in my general direction.
Various locations in the States: missed the usual Jersey food snob stuff, good pizza, good bagels, good (Americanized) Chinese food, good subs…
A Baltimore specialty is the crab cake, made of the meat of the steamed blue crabs mentioned by Enginerd and me. They are heavenly, and are often served with saltines. There are also cod cakes in Baltimore, but I think that is more of a New England thing.
I miss the big city life and culture of the DC area. Part of it is the wide variety of top quality cuisine. Another part is all the activities and destinations one can enjoy. A third part is the more realistic outlook on life that people here in FLA lack.
Nineteenth century-designed small town VS 1980’s suburbs (*and suburbanization of small towns)
Sidewalks, aligned on grid-pattern street plans, instead of subdivision nodes. You want to walk? Put a treadmill in front of your flat screen and summon up something on Netflix. Oh, you want interaction with other people? Go on Facebook: all the front porches have been replaced with snout-houses anyway.
*old sidewalks have been torn out of the older sections of town, in emulation of the subdivisions.
Public parks designed according to Frederick Law Olmstead’s “lungs for the city” philosophy, instead of clusters of softball and soccer fields for generating revenue through rentals.
The fruit from the garden: white strawberries, red ripening goosegogs, redcurrants, blackcurrants, rubarb, rasberries, the sweetest tastiest plums from the tree with no centre - why it still lived we shall never know, sweet william/stinking billy, elderflower wine, elderberry wine and the mighty tiny rowan tree for the birds in winter.
The Funhouse at Playland at the Beach. Wooden slides, rotating hallways, shaking floors, one big, rattling, building-sized wooden firetrap. If you weren’t hurt when you left, you didn’t have fun.