In the middle section of the country where all 4 seasons are profound. A bedroom community outside a city where everyone knew everyone, we all went to high school together. The community looks like Stars Hollow from the Gilmore Girls and had the same cast of characters. I was raised in a 150-year-old house that my grandparents and parents died in. The downtown area is the heartbeat of the town, and I too bought a 150-year-old historic home where my girls slid down the banisters and ate chocolate chip pancakes on Sunday mornings.... 

My life today looks nothing like my whole life before. Today I am in a new home in a subdivision where the weather is warm all year.... (well warmer than what I am used to in Spring, fall and winter) and semi close to the ocean. I miss home all the time. 

I grew up in her is described as a hamlet (even though we never used that word) outside of a village near Syracuse, NY. Syracuse and my hamlet is on Lake Onondaga. I posted this picture because it reminds me of all the times I would bike or run on the trails around the lake. It used to be severely polluted but it’s getting better over these decades. There are a lot of carp. There’s a nice big park on the other side of the lake I could ride or run to.

My own neighborhood was suburbs but we had farmland behind us so we would play on the farm, in all the undeveloped woods. My elementary school was up the street. There was a small grocery store about a mile away and all the parents could send their kids to pick up items, even if you were like 8. If you forgot what your mom told you, you could ask the owner to call your mom for you. We used to go pick up cigarettes for our parents if they asked us.

We all played kickball or fort or other games. Everybody knew each other. My mother would whistle for us when she wanted us to come home.

I grew up in San Francisco when it was a waaay smaller and cooler town than now. I still love it and miss it. Living in the south without an ocean is a totally different universe!