Ask Lemmy

The bicyclability

I grew up in the Okanagan, and moved to a rural coastal community.

I miss the seasons, coldy snowy winter's, asphalt melting summers.

I also miss the fruit and veggies, while I have blackberries here, I don't have the apples, peaches, strawberries, and endless veggies.

Honestly? Not much.

I grew up in the countryside, there was maybe like 50 kids in my entire school. Somehow I became the main bully victim. Later I spent a few summers at the grocery store which doubled as a cafe in the weekends, and honestly it showed me the adults weren't any better with their constant gossiping and rumour spreading.

I got out of there as fast as I could afford it. It took a few tries in different places both big and small, but I eventually landed on my feet in a small city.

Still close enough to nature that the countryside of me doesnt feel cramped. Found my crowd, made friends, and discovered passions I never knew I had. Life is pretty good right about now. Bought an apartment with my partner a few years ago. Now we're gonna be parents soon!

I've reestablished connection with my family too. We've talked it all through, and now I go home to visit and spend time with them once or twice a year, so I guess that's the answer to your question. Anyone else there I couldn't care less for.

I'm from a what was a little town in Western North Carolina and a kind of missed the smallness of it but now it's just turned into and Asheville suburb.

Home.

One dozen warm, salty panisses rolled in a paper and an anisette to slide them down peacefully. Yes I'm a walking cliché so what

Zestos and Polly's Freeze and that's about it.

I miss their malts, they were always the best.

The food, the city, pretty much everything... Except the people

Moved away from a small rural village. Except for a couple of friends/relatives that are still living there am not missing a single thing.

The last time I went back to visit my parents, I just sat in the living room and listened to the quiet. They're on the outskirts of a small town, and there is zero traffic. The house stays at the right temperature with no fans or other mechanical help. The nearest neighbor is much further away than at my suburban house.

Language. The dialect from home.

Nothing. Small town country Australia wasn't a great place to grow up, and it's not a great place to go back to...

I miss the layout of my neighbourhood from when I was 5-10 years old.

I lived in one of the middle units of a 10 unit townhouse. Each had a ~30'x30' fenced in backyard that opened up to a large field and playground. The u-shaped roads that flanked this field and the houses along them left a large cross shaped grassy alley on either side of the field.

I'm not sure that description does it justice, but this setup created a huge amount of grassy space for the surrounding neighbourhood kids to run around in, while keeping them somewhat contained. There were only 3 entrances/exits to this neighbourhood that were pretty well supervised by parents, so the kids were able to roam a pretty big area without anyone having to worry. Something I've come to appreciate more with age.

It also meant a TON of snow to build and play with in the winter, without playing in the road :D 🇨🇦

The quiet.

Went from living in a small rural town to an actual city. It's always loud af no matter what time of day or night.

Seems kind of silly...but the downtown started this tradition years back in coating the entire facade of the buildings in Christmas lights...not in a gaudy, cheesy way, but one single color per building. One shop would be blue and the shop next door would be red, etc. It started to become "known" in the area that this town would have the most lights ever in the downtown. They basically made a festival every year about it and more and more visitors seemed to come from out of town. And as time went on, more and more business neighboring the downtown started taking part. It looks amazing at night...every single building entirely lit up in a different color. I haven't seen it in years...I guess it'll be almost 10 at this point.

The place I grew up had three houses and was miles from the nearest shops.

Spent most of my childhood in the woods making dens and getting stoned.

I've ended up in Madrid, I miss the quiet. Like the no noise at all kinda quiet. On the other hand I don't miss the inconvenience of having to drive to go and get milk or a pack of skins or other mundane stuff.

Shops closing half day Wednesday and not open at all on the weekend - don't miss that either.

The dialects - miss those too

I miss TexMex food.

The sunsets, and the smell after a rain.

Literally everything else can get fucked.

Pizza, bagels, knishes, Jewish delis, and whitefish salad.

US -> Japan. Mostly, I miss family. I have basically no love for the area in which I grew up nor contact with anyone there (half my family never lived there, the other half moved to another state).

I do miss some foods that are hard to find or very expensive here. Things like PC parts are (or at least were) much cheaper in the US since it was generally a niche hobby device outside of business use here until quite recently.

The aphids singing on summer nights. That chorus really doesn't exist in other parts of the world and it's even hard to explain to people!

I really miss my family and friends. And also pulled pork.

The weather. Moved from Southern California to the Pacific Northwest. I like it here, but even after three decades the winter gloom still gets to me.

I moved from a decently sized city (100k inhabitants) to a small city (10k inhabitants) in a different country. I enjoy the more peaceful environment, but I miss being able to casually greet and talk with random strangers, as I don't know the language here and very few people here know English. It was so much easier to find events and things to do when I knew what everyone around me were talking about, and the posters were easy to read. I oftentimes find myself using a translating app, but it's a hassle, comparatively.

I miss the sandwiches. Every time I go back to Philly I eat too many.

All the mom and pop restaurants I grew up with that have since closed.

Also knowing all the short cuts it took through the neighbor's yards to get home.

Nothing. Village of 1400 people, the only "shop" was the bakery, no other commercial activity whatsoever, anywhere to spend money was concentrated in one nearby town (one supermarket, one movie theatre with one screen, some doctors, some construction trades) surrounded by several similarly dismal villages. Loads of disillusioned teens headed for dead-end jobs in the surrounding area or lifelong unemployment, and probably the extreme right. Everybody with a bit of brain left as soon as possible.

(I just tried to check the results of the most recent national elections - it's too tiny to have its results listed separately. They REALLY like conservatives down there.)

Nice landscape though, good for retirement you might think - until you learn that, since you left, all the doctors have moved away from the area, the teeny tiny hospital in that central town and the slightly larger one 30 minutes away by car have closed down and my parents now have to drive an hour (if traffic permits) to get to the hospital.

Gawwwd you made me think about that place, day ruined, thanks a lot....

Moved from a mega metropolis and got shuffled around a lot

Might be an oddity here but... I basically missed nothing. I grew up pretty sheltered, and on top of that my hometown didn't really have much going for it despite its size. Probably the only redeeming quality is the high-quality public transit... which isn't remotely as good as it seems if you actually live there

I think now that I've grown up & have more defined interests, my hometown is starting to feel a bit more exciting since there are all kinds of hobby groups & such... But still feels mostly soulless to me IMO

Being next to my servers all the time.

Family and the memories, I think. And the hills, and maybe some of the architecture. Otherwise, every time I go back, I’m glad that I left.