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32submissions
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Hey Pandas, What’s One Thing You Miss From A Place Where You Grew Up?
Is it the taste of a tropical fruit? Your family? Or something like public transport? Whatever it is, tell me!
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#1
Fireflies. They're disappearing everywhere due to urbanization and have never seen one where I live now. It was a summer thing to go outside after dusk, chill and watch them.
Final score:
9points
RELATED:
#2
I've been living in the UK, but I grew up in San Francisco. I love it here, but I miss a lot of stuff.
The ocean
The weather
The diversity
Going to Chinatown to buy ingredients. You can't very many Chinese ingredients here
My cat. (And my family as well :p)
Final score:
6points
Dog Mom to Zoe 3 weeks ago
Born and raised in San Francisco. Live in what is called the East Bay. A drive across the Bay Bridge is about 20 minutes in the wee hours but can take up to 2 hours in peak times. Hills, I miss walking the hills. Of course, Ocean Beach is mind and my dogs favorite places to walk.
#3
my youth
Final score:
6points
#4
I miss the changing of seasons. Grew up in New York and now live in Florida. Sometimes miss snow, but mostly the tree colors, smells, and relatively nice temperatures. Now it's humidity and sweat, or just cold enough to frost the grass.
Final score:
5points
#5
I miss the trees! I watched so many of them grow. One of my favorites was a huge willow we used to climb. I still remember the best places to sit and how it felt like a secret place.
Final score:
4points
Huddo's sister 3 weeks ago
Where I grew up was next to a creek and wetlands. There were so many weeping willows and I loved climbing them. There was also a little stick hut someone had built around the base of one that was almost watertight. We spent a lot of days playing there and building campfires out the front.
#6
I am originally from Rio de Janeiro, but now live in Philadelphia. Besides family, and the people of Rio, what I miss the most is fruit. Like fresh fruit right off the trees. Apples and melons are fine, and you can get nice oranges here, but real mangoes, coconuts, avocados, and papaya are nowhere. Just the tasteless ones at the grocery stores. Also, fresh fruits of the sea. We could walk to the beach and the little shops would buy fish from people fishing nearby, and they'd cook it up and serve it right there. What I don't miss is the extreme poverty and intense crime.
Final score:
4points
#7
Nature. I grew up in northern Minnesota where few people live. Good fishing and hunting and lots of space to breath. Georgia is nice but crowded in comparison.
Final score:
4points
#8
The food. Southern California has so much diversity in the food scene (naturally, because it has so much diversity in its population). I now live in a very rural, very homogeneous area and the food is awful. FOOD!!!
Final score:
4points
#9
Everything. I miss our family farm.
Final score:
4points
#10
The creek! Or "crick" as we called it. It wound around our small town. The water was green from algae, and it smelled like fish, but it was our playground. Fishing, swimming, wading, catching minnows and crawdads and tadpoles, finding shells and pretty stones. I'd like to go back there just to smell the stinky water and turn over rocks to see what critters are underneath.
Final score:
4points
#11
The beautiful scenery of New Zealand, especially the gushing clear rivers, deep blue lakes and safe beaches of the North Island. I live in Perth, Western Australia, now and though the beaches are beautiful, they have sharks and stingers .... And it's so very hot in the summer, especially now. But I can't afford to move back and all my family are here so I stay.
Final score:
3points
#12
I grew up in Asheville, NC and returned in my late 40s. I miss the local vibe and the community first atmosphere. Over tourism has downgraded my current experience.
Final score:
3points
#13
Grew up in the UK, live in Germany. I don't miss a lot but I really miss the humour and chatty Edinburgh ladies on the buses!
Final score:
3points
#14
I moved from Melbourne to a regional town 1.5hrs away. I miss the access to public transport. We have a bus service and train here but the bus routes are more limited and the train goes to Melbourne, which would be good if they ever completed track works. At the moment with busses replacing trains most of the way, it takes 4 hours! I didn't even get my licence until I was 27 I didn't really need it that much with all the transport options.
I also miss being half an hour from multiple beaches and having more options for grocery shopping, especially gluten free food.
Final score:
2points
#15
Better than Boullion isn't just better, but infinitely better than boullion.
Final score:
2points
R.A. Haley 3 weeks ago (edited)
I make a cup of that most mornings instead of coffee or tea. Yummy.
#16
I miss living on a farm 7-8 hours from where I live. Is was just good there, but now I live on another farm sooooo otherwise..... its goodd :)
Final score:
2points
#17
Lived on St. Croix for a few years as a kid. While the food is a close second, particularly the fruit, I really miss the beaches. But in my hometown of Richmond VA, I miss exploring the woods and eating berries off the bush.
Final score:
2points
#18
Grew up in western Pennsylvania. I miss the piroghis that every church sold every Friday (my mom helped make them), the 24" submarine sandwiches that all the school clubs sold throughout the year (I helped make them), the pizza places where you could get a single slice, and very much I miss the Coney Island style hot dogs. Man, it's a wonder I'm still alive.
Final score:
2points
#19
When I was a kid (age 4 to age 10) We were lucky enough to live overlooking a river - this is in commuter belt UK, so pretty unusual - and the riverbanks were open meadows with wildlife, wild plants and plenty of opportunities to fall in the water/get covered in mud/stung by nettles and all sorts of great stuff. It was a rather Enid Blyton existence.
At the end of our road was a stream, over the stream an ancient wooden bridge, over the bridge on the left was a boathouse and on the right a paddock containing Zack the Donkey.
Apples and carrots were compulsory to feed Zack on the way out and the way back.
Whenever I think about that period of my life I always remember Zack, he was so pleased to see us - or more likely the apples. He'd run over braying excitedly and I loved it.
I have a great fondness for donkeys because of Zack and am so grateful that part of my childhood taught me about animals and trees and that wasp stings are not fun.
So many kids now are not able to run free as I did.
Final score:
2points
#20
I grew up in Flint, Michigan and now live in North Carolina. I miss Flint style coney dogs, everywhere else will try to call what they make as coney dogs but they are nothing more than chili dogs. When I do go back up there always make sure that I have one.
Final score:
1point
Ervin Conn 3 weeks ago
I am from Detroit and we had a lot of coney dogs. One of my favorites was Duly's Place on Vernor avenue. If you google it the first picture is Anthony Bourdain sitting at the counter. Going there for a hot dog after the bars closed was always an interesting adventure.
#21
Italian Beef, Pizza, Sliders
Grew up in Chicago, moved to Louisiana. However, we do have great seafood and many other good things.
Final score:
1point
#22
Grew up in TN, we had a river running through our town and lakes around the area. Swimming, boating, fishing. Not so much here in AZ.
Final score:
1point
#23
Grew up on Cape Cod in Massachusetts. I miss Sandy Neck and the National Sea Shore beaches. I miss the way the air smells a mix of salt air and fresh cut grass. I miss Four Seasons ice cream and Craigeville Pizza.
Final score:
1point
#24
Trees, Greenery, Sun light
Final score:
1point
#25
I grew up in northern CA and ran deliveries throughout Norcal all my life. I kbew where everything was and how to get anywhere.
When I moved to Alabama I was lost. I know it's a simpler road system, but I just can't get a feel for where I am. I miss that. Thank goodness for the gps.
Final score:
1point
#26
My friends, the freedom and the railroad tracks and creek where we used to go. I am still in the same house but the friends are long gone (two are dead; no idea about the others) and, at 65, no energy to go anywhere.
Final score:
1point
#27
Pierogies and Cleveland Cassata cake. You could get homemade pierogies Cleveland in many restaurants or bars in Cleveland, sauteed with onions, mushrooms and garlic. I have not had decent ones since I left the midwest. Cleveland Cassata cake is layered custard and strawberries with buttercream frosting. Very involved and I cannot pull that off.
Final score:
1point
#28
When I was little, I stayed with a friend (lets call him jim for this case). Jim and I were really close, our parents also knew each other and still talk to each other to this day. Jim has a discord that I have and otherwise we don't have any other contact info (he lives in America, I live in Canada). I still miss him I also hope that if he's reading this that he will add a comment (even though that is very improbable).
Final score:
1point
#30
The peace and quiet. I grew up in the country, until my early 20s. It was so quiet, and you could see the stars at night. While there are many things about living in a rural area I don't miss, namely the majority of the people and their- erm, political leanings, especially from 2015 on- the city I live in now is so noisy. So crowded. Always traffic, always low-flying planes (near an air base and a major airport). Always gunshots, always sirens. And I can't really see the stars.
Final score:
1point
#31
I grew up in a few places. I miss ballet class and doing the recitals. I miss the roller rink that has since been demolished and replaced by another building. It was iconic in the city at the time.
Final score:
1point
#32
Grew up on the East Coast till I was 14, almost 15. I hate the cold, but miss seeing the leaves turn. Wish my kids had had the chance to play in the snow growing up: sledding, snowball fights, skating on the lake. I miss the best pizza I've ever had - Big John's was/is delicious! But I don't miss the small town minds & what came with it
Final score:
1point
What do you think ?
Tired (Post author) 3 weeks ago
Thank you for all of your submissions! I really enjoyed reading through them :)
Tired (Post author) 3 weeks ago
Thank you for all of your submissions! I really enjoyed reading through them :)
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