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I wasn't sure if this was the right place to put this thread, but I figured this was a good of a place as any to ask this question.
I'm grew up in a suburb of Boston, but I currently live overseas in Malaysia. I love living over here, but I often find myself truly missing the place I grew up. Admittedly, Boston is one of my favorite cities in the world, but I'm not from the city itself, but a smaller suburb 25 miles away. Only my mother and a couple friends still live in the town and I wonder if she decided to move away, would I still miss it?
Sure, I love going back to see where I went to HS or where I hit my first homerun (both places have been torn town) or where I had my first kiss. But if I lost that my emotional connection to that town (my mom), would I miss it? I really don't know.
As anyone who has looked into it knows, your home town has probably changed enormously in even a single decade. It’s no longer the same as your memory of it. The longer you are gone the bigger the effect.
I live about 20 miles from the town and neighborhood I grew up in. While I miss the old neighborhood - how it was in the 50s and 60s - I sure wouldn't want to be there today. It's in Gary, Indiana, and most of the city and my old 'hood now looks like a war zone. It's the legacy of crooked politicians and gang activity over several decades. Countless homes have been abandoned and are either falling down from decay or have been torched. Same goes for businesses and many of the schools. Knowing it's a risk to even be there, every year or two I drive through my old neighborhood and can hardly believe my eyes.
Yes, I miss the old times and the old 'hood, but I sure wouldn't want to live there now.
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It's only in the past year that I've kind of missed my hometown. I suspect some of it is nostalgia related to being stuck inside for a year and because I'm getting older. My parents don't live there. An aunt and a couple of cousins do. A sister lives nearby.
Maybe because I live 15 minutes outside of a town the past year has been especially isolating--days on end seeing no one except my husband. The town I grew up in (NW Indiana like PJSaturn) is smaller now than when I was raised there. For some reason it appeals to me now in a way it has not for decades. I never would have raised my children there for a variety of reasons. The truth is I never 100% fit in there; I wanted different things in my life and believed different things than most people there. That's still true, but the small townness of it now holds some appeal--maybe it was a simpler time than the past year. Maybe it is the connection between people and knowing everyone's business. Maybe I'm just recognizing there was value there in that time and place. It's definitely only since the pandemic started I've felt this way.
Occasionally so, but mostly during the summer. A short walk down the road and you could get a decent twist cone at Abbott's custard. Happy memories. Well, the prices did seem much better compared to now. I'd treat myself every once in a great while if I lived up there now. The closest one to us now, is perhaps a 40 minutes drive away. We haven't gone in that direction for over a year now. We occasionally opt for yogurt. Have a Sweet Frog nearby. Have to watch our toppings. Easy to over indulge. Oh, and the end product gets weighed too.
Sometimes even opt for a mini Blizzard at Dairy Queen.
I live about 20 miles from the town and neighborhood I grew up in. While I miss the old neighborhood - how it was in the 50s and 60s - I sure wouldn't want to be there today. It's in Gary, Indiana, and most of the city and my old 'hood now looks like a war zone. It's the legacy of crooked politicians and gang activity over several decades. Countless homes have been abandoned and are either falling down from decay or have been torched. Same goes for businesses and many of the schools. Knowing it's a risk to even be there, every year or two I drive through my old neighborhood and can hardly believe my eyes.
Yes, I miss the old times and the old 'hood, but I sure wouldn't want to live there now.
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I know what you mean about Gary, Indiana. Around 1990, my husband and I stayed overnight at his friends house in Gary. Just like you said, it “looks like a war zone”. The houses were in very poor condition, and there were prostitutes on the streets. I hardly slept that night and was happy to leave there in the morning. I feel sorry for the people who have to live there.
Last edited by Iluvbeagles; 05-30-2021 at 12:56 PM..
Reason: Added something
I grew up on the Jersey Shore and had a great upbringing. We had the beach, the boardwalk, woods, lakes, you name it, all around us. It was a day trip to go to NYC, Philly, or the Poconos. Many Saturday nights were spent in Atlantic City.
But I got bored with it over the years and I couldn't wait to go someplace else, especially with a lower cost of living.
Now we are thirty years removed from our hometown and I actually do have some feelings of wanting to go back again. But as a previous poster mentioned, hometowns have evolved over the years and they are not the same as you remember them.
Aside from being even more expensive than it was when we lived there, the area is a shell of what it used to be. The only thing that I miss up there is walking the boardwalk in the evenings (and our old friends of course).
No, I'll never go back there to live. We'll just make the occasional visit every now and then.
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