Have you ever had a longing for some place you have lived, or even just visited? Something about that place so appealed to you that you just want that feeling you had there back. And then one day something happens or you do something or something about the weather gives you just a glimpse of what you were missing.
For me it’s Southern California. I spent about six years there in my youth and even graduated high school there. There was something about living there that was special and has always stuck with me. My family was always doing things, going places, seeing things. We were a happy active bunch. We knew our neighbors and hung out with them on the front drive. We opened our windows and curtains to let the fresh air and sunlight in. We went to restaurants and ate outside. We took off to small towns to pick apples or we stopped at roadside stands for our produce. We went to parks and museums and zoos and on hikes. It seems there was just something magical about the time and the place. Or at least so my memory tells me.
Not long after I graduated we all packed up and headed north. No real plan just that we were moving too Seattle. Even with the cold and the drizzle and rain, we were still an active and out going bunch. We went to festivals and zoos and clubs and explored. I remember one day, I’m not sure what we started out doing or where we were going, but we pretty much spent the day driving around, I’m not sure where. It was an adventure. We had a lot of those when I was growing up. After a while though, it was time to move again. This time to the other side of the world. Well not quite literally though it sure felt like it. We went from Seattle to Orlando.
When we first got to Florida it was great. The weather was fabulous and Thanksgiving weekend, we had 80s and sun while our Seattle neighbors were suffering snow. We went to the theme parks and out to the Space Center. That was when getting in cost you nothing, you only paid to go on the tours or see the movie but all the exhibits were free. We went there a lot. And we tried to watch every shuttle launch we could. Aside from that, we didn’t do as much all of us together. My sister and I were independently mobile and so we were off doing things on our own. And at that time it was a nice place to be and the heat and humidity hadn’t gotten to us yet.
We have all gone away from Florida and gone back to Florida, some of us more than once. It has been 21 years since my family first found themselves in the Sunshine State and yet through it all the one place I have always wanted to go back to is Southern California. I think, because, overall we were all the happiest there and there seemed to be so much opportunity.
Every once in a while I would have a day, an afternoon or just 10 minutes that would remind me of what it was like to live in Southern California. I’ve moved out of Florida, again, finally, and where I am now I’ve had a few of those moments that remind me of what that time was like. Last weekend was one, sitting on the grass, in the cold, in the park to see my friends play was one of those moments. A few weeks ago when I open all the curtains and blinds in my living room and fell asleep watching tennis was another. And now sitting here, typing up this article while I sit on my balcony in the warm fall sun with just enough of a breeze and listening to the birds. Yeah, this was what a fall afternoon used to be like.
It’s hard to identify those intangibles that make a place a place you long for. When enough of those things happen in one place to remind you of that other place then it makes you start to realize that that same feeling can happen other places as well and that magic something can be found in other places.
Me, though, until I find a reason not to, I’m still working my way back to California. For me, that’s home.