There's no place like home... (Pittsburgh, York: transplants, new home, neighborhoods)

[dufala15468]

Sooo, at a time of emotion in my life about missing my old life in sw pa, I thought this was a great place to express how I (an I'm sure like many others) feel...
I grew up in the Pittsburgh area, my family was coal miners and steel mill workers, I grew accustomed to a comfortable life of sw pa's beautiful rolling hills, seasonal weather, along with everyday people that drink pop, eat hogies, and like to ask how yenz doin'. After 21 years of building a solid, an comfortable foundation in life, my family moved to central Florida. I went along with them for two reasons, family means allot to us from western pa, and Florida looks nice on TV, lol. So here I was, I skinny lil' patch hunky that sold cars down here at the bottom of the U.S. on this big sandbar trying to not just work my way up to a mansion on the beach, but to settle in a place down here that felt like home...
But, after 7 years of thousands of miles in Florida to find myself, as I been toughing it out like a true pittsburgher does, there's just no place like home. Florida is a great place to vacation, but everyday life is another ballgame. Life doesn't feel normal when your accustom to a certain lifestyle, with a flat terrain, steamy an sticky hot weather for most of the year with a sun that beats down on you, a population of mostly southerns, spanish, new yorkers or bostonians, and old people. Also, life isn't mostly a beach, because 400 miles north an south, and a 100 miles wide it's like southern Georgia. And to be cramped up on the coastline with those same people, isn't exactly the comfortable elbow room of the western hills of pa...
Now, I understand everyplace has it's pros, an cons. Though in short, vacations are great, but you can't live at kennywood. But, we people are creatures of habit, and feeling like a lonely polar bear in the jungle isn't a comfortable lifestyle. We should instead try to continue to make life better for our future pittsburghers, like the steel mill workers, and coal miners did for us. Because elsewhere when the steelers are on, or talking with great people from the Pittsburgh area that knows about things that made life good, or when starring at a ocean of just water and sky doesn't cut it, and you want to sit up on a hill an chill, you realize that even substituting life with a beach and a palm tree, that there's NO PLACE LIKE HOME...

[Q-tip motha]

Originally Posted by dufala15468

Florida is a great place to vacation, but everyday life is another ballgame. Life doesn't feel normal when your accustom to a certain lifestyle, with a flat terrain, steamy an sticky hot weather for most of the year with a sun that beats down on you, a population of mostly southerns, spanish, new yorkers or bostonians, and old people. Also, life isn't mostly a beach, because 400 miles north an south, and a 100 miles wide it's like southern Georgia. And to be cramped up on the coastline with those same people, isn't exactly the comfortable elbow room of the western hills of pa...

I couldn't agree more about Florida or many other vacation spots that people assume to be paradise when they're trudging through the snow of a northeastern winter. My wife was born in Grove City, but grew up in Orlando after her family moved. She couldn't wait to get out of Florida. Imagine growing up as a kid and not being able to play outdoors for the majority of the summer because it was too hot, and thinking that 50 was "too cold" to do much outside. Sure the beach is an hour drive away which is nice, but how often do you make that drive in a given week?

Florida isn't for everyone, and it surely isn't for me. The handful of times I've been down there I've noticed that everything between the coasts is like one big humid mini mall sitting in a swamp. Its flat (unbearable for a guy who grew up in the hills of WV), you are occasionally exposed to the unpleasant smell of swamp gas, and the population is primarily transplanted New Yorkers or Mass-holes. No thanks.

I'll take an Appalachian fall, summers where you can actually venture outdoors, local architecture/neighborhoods that have a distinct 'personality' to them, the strip district on a saturday, and shoveling snow with my neighbors any day of the week.

[nuwaver88]

I moved to Florida in the late 1990s. Pittsburgh was growing stale on me. The Naysayers were holding this city down by trying to shoot down a plan to finance stadiums and nothing was changing. So I needed a change. I thought Florida was the answer. I got a nice job at a golf resort on the Gulf Coast. I thought I was in heaven. After only a few months, it started to get old. I was in my mid thirties when I moved and had Pittsburgh firmly entrenched in my blood. I missed the cool and crisp days. I missed the neat neighborhhoods. I missed the culture and the character. I took so much for granted and moved back within a year and never looked back. I like to visit Florida once a year, and that is about it.

[userrobin]

Hmm, these notes make me homesick for Pittsburgh, and I live in Ohio! I am and have been in love with Pittsburgh for a decade at least. What an inspiring city, the renovations, along with the history. The work eithic of so many, and yet the friendliness. If things go well, I will one day live and work among you all. Until then, much props to you all for loving where you come from and knowing exactly who you are!

[rhondee]

dufala1
Many people over the years have left Pittsburgh for greener pastures. Some have found they like their new home and the move has worked out well for them, but it's also not an uncommon occurence to meet Pittsburghers who have moved back.

Maybe when the opportunity presents itself you can be one of those who does move back. Your home will always be here .

[dufala15468]

Thanks for some of the replys...

[gg]

I went to college in Florida and stayed for 8 or so years. I lived in Miami, Orlando and Sarasota. Liked Sarasota/Venice the best. After those years, I just felt I wanted to come back to Pittsburgh. I did. Never felt I could trust anyone in Florida. It had a very transient feel and seemed so many people that lived there were transplants looking for something new or they were running from all the people they took money from back up north. Just different than the Pittsburgh'ers that I know that when they tell you something, they mean it. Their word is important. Community is important. Just different.

I will probably retire in Florida, but for now I think I am here to stay. I have many friends that I have known since I was 4 years old. They have great ties to the area here and so do I. Most can move anywhere they like, but stay. Most don't complain like so many do on here, they just enjoy life. Hard to beat really.

Oh, one more funny note. One of my roommates after college was from Pittsburgh. I didn't even know him, but since he was from Pittsburgh it was okay. Funny how that common bond travels in other states. We used to talk about Pittsburgh all the time. It drove others crazy and they always left the room when we got started. Too funny.

[dufala15468]

It's funny how the area of where we grew up, an or live defines who we are, in the way we look, talk, eat, live, and think...
From being a beach bum from california wearing only swimmin trunks an flip flops, eating tofu, and going to yoga, TO asking for friends "Yinz com'n over ta watch da super bowl, I'l git da hogies, if you bring da pop." and all in between...

[Hopes]

When we were vacationing at the beach, I asked my husband, "Wouldn't it be great to live here?

A wise man, he responded, "We'd be too busy with the responsibilities of everyday life to enjoy it like this."

[Mr. Humble]

As much as I love the city itself, it's the people that made it home. For those of you missing your home, go now while it's still there.