traveling back to your old haunts...

I have two homes full of old haunts - the Santa Cruz area where I grew up and San Francisco where I spent my 20s and early 30s. Santa Cruz started feeling weird to me almost immediately after leaving for college because of the 1989 earthquake - most of Santa Cruz litterally fell down and with it went most of my memories. Now when I go back it only really seems the same in my parents house - and that is in a total time warp! LOL. But San Francisco is where it all starts to feel truly surreal. All of my friends are still there, living in the same apartments, still doing the same things in the same jobs and hanging out in the same bars. But they all have different boyfriends/no boyfriends so that's weird. And my fav. wine bar closed down where I knew everyone behind the bar. I really just feel sort of discombobulated in general when I'm there - it's all exactly the same and yet entirely different if that's possible.

Oh, and I'm 100% with those of you who said you don't like being surrounded by so much American-ness. That gets on my nerves a lot now - and makes me feel like a stranger in a not-so-strange land.

A really good 2 week visit when all is said and done.  now back to work tomorrow 

Brief hijack: welcome home, Matt! It would appear that BBQ weather is becoming a sporatic reality. When you guys get re-acclimated give us a bell!!!

I love to see how things have change since I left San Diego and the kids I babysat when I was younger. I remember meeting on of the little boys I used to babysit in Washington DC who now was a  quaterback at George Washington Uni...he used to head butt his sister so I totally see how that happened 

Another old haunt I would love to see again would be Ensenada / Baja California as the last time I saw it I was young and goth so I didn't enjoy it

Brief hijack: welcome home, Matt! It would appear that BBQ weather is becoming a sporatic reality. When you guys get re-acclimated give us a bell!!!

Thanks, Anne!  The weather isn't quite as warm as it was in Baltimore but I'm sure it will soon be, should be in the 20s this week, woo hoo!
We've been pondering a July 3 BBQ (as the 4th is a Monday and we're away the 2nd), I'll give you a bell if it looks like it comes together.

Bring on the great British Summer!

Matt

Carlisle Pennsylvania: It was...actually rather depressing to see this little community caught in a time warp. I really felt I was in the Twilight Zone. But, it also gave me a feeling of being 17 and going to football games. It was just really strange seeing so many people all in one room that I knew! I'd go back, but I'm not sure what I'd do if I did. I feel like I've moved on while they haven't. And I'd probably start saying "Ignernt" again.

"Ignernt"!!!!! OMG!! They said this in my part of PA too and I never noticed until I moved away. My small hometown is caught in that same time warp.

When I was 16, my first job was in a Denny's type place called Eat-N-Park. On one of my recent trips home, we decided to go there for breakfast. It blew my mind to see that 20 YEARS LATER, i recognized at least 6 or 7 of the day shift waitresses from when I originally worked there. Waitressing is not exactly an easy thing to do for 20+ years and some of these women were not exactly spring chickens back in 1985. It really struck me and reminded me of just how lucky I was to have chosen the opportunities I did to move away, go to school, and walk a different path.

Eat n Park  shouldn't it be Park n Eat 

Carlisle Pennsylvania: Grade 4, and then again grades 7 thru 12. We went back for my 30th high school reunion. Everyone was the same. The old haunts still standing. It was...actually rather depressing to see this little community caught in a time warp. I really felt I was in the Twilight Zone. But, it also gave me a feeling of being 17 and going to football games. It was just really strange seeing so many people all in one room that I knew! I'd go back, but I'm not sure what I'd do if I did. I feel like I've moved on while they haven't. And I'd probably start saying "Ignernt" again.

Wow!!! Must be a PA thing.   
My grandparents live in Palmerton.   I think it's fantastic.  Only spent a full year there when I was about 8, but go back every year as part of the family visit.  NOTHING has really changed.  DH thinks it's fantastic and is where he wants to move to if we ever leave England.  The small town appeals to him, he relates it to living in a village here. 
I think I the reason that I love it so much is that I actually have friends there.  Growing up as an AF brat, friends are all over the world these days.  When I go to PA, it's like going home, people the same, friends the same, aunties, uncles and cousins all the same.  Just makes me slow down and let the world go by instead of getting all caught up in it. 

Oh wow- I remember Eat N' Park from when I went to college in Beaver Falls, PA (estern PA) for a year in the early 90's!

Time warp - cool! hehe

Eat n Park  shouldn't it be Park n Eat

Maybe this shows the priorities of Americans these days? 

Matt

Maybe this shows the priorities of Americans these days? 

Matt

  you're naughty

TMI alert!!! 

From the website:

Why Not Park'n Eat ??

The secret to Eat'n Park's original success was innovation. The original carhop concept was developed by Mr. Hatch, who understood in 1949 that cars meant the future and that the Pittsburgh area needed a restaurant to capture the spirit of the times.

It also needed a name that matched its function. Logically, a customer parked first then ate -- either in or out of the restaurant. However, in the late 1940's, "Park & Eat" was as common a sight as "Drive Thru" is today and could not be copyrighted.

In a brainstorm, Hatch and company decided to reverse it -- to Eat'n Park. The catchy name stuck, so much that while the once everywhere "Park & Eat" signs have virtually disappeared from American highways, "Eat'n Park" remains a tri-state tradition, even though the name no longer describes the restaurant's dining style.

OK. Just had to clarify LOL. I'll slink away now.