'Thank you for the days': Homesickness

Anyone watch Paramount Comedy channel? They have a promo running using the Kink's song, Days:
Thank you for the days,
Those endless days, those sacred days you gave me.
I’m thinking of the days,
I won’t forget a single day, believe me.

It uses clips from the Wonder Years, Happy Days and Mork and Mindy. The clips from the Wonder Years show first the two boys on their street, which looks very much like the neighborhood I grew up in, in Southern California, smog and all. Mork and Mindy are driving in a jeep in what looks like (to me) Big Bear or more likely the Santa Monica Mountains or even Hollywood Hills, similar terrain anyway. And then it ends with another bit from the Wonder Years with the little boy walking on the white sidewalk, with a few leaves on it, like a sunny day in September.

I miss white sidewalk.

Now, I know I am post-partum, up and down with the emotions, worse when the night has been more sleepless than not (like today, was kept up pretty much from 3 am on). And I also know, from when my daughter was a baby, that this time is more 'homesicky' than others, because of the whole having a child thing and all the thoughts of your own childhood that brings out. And also my folks were here a couple weeks ago so whenever I see them and then have to come back to reality here, it's tough. So what I am saying is that I am more susceptible to homesickness or these kind of images now than usual for a variety of reasons.

But when I see that stupid promo, it hurts! I want to go home! I want to be in the sun, I want to be in that weather, I want to be in the heat and in the mountains and in the desert and I want to be walking on those sidewalks in autumn and the way everything smells and feels and I miss it so much, I just want to go.

But I know I can't; and I know that I don't want to live there, well, sometimes, I don't know, I think about growing old here and I wonder, but when my folks are gone, that's it, no more connection to my home, it will just be another city in the LA sprawl and no reason save sentimentality to visit.

Anyway, I just wondered if anyone else sees things on the TV that make them ache for home. Sometimes I watch CHiPs just because it reminds me of home, and looks like my childhood (I grew up in 1970s SoCal). Do you ever just want to go home? I mean just go?

It's a weird thing being an immigrant and leaving behind all that, and loving your new home yet suffering it at the same time.

I felt that way in May.  I just wanted to sit in my mom's house and have dinner with my parents.  I booked a last minute flight and went home for 2 weeks.  I needed it. 

Aw.  Hugs.  I know what you mean.  Sometimes the Halloween or Thanksgiving episodes of American sit-coms really make me sad. 

Hugs Stella!

Sometimes I find myself wishing for a perfect early autumn day with all the range of colors we get in New England. I'd be sitting in the back yard of my grandparents house, listening to the World Series on the radio, and eating the last of the season's corn and tomatoes. There'd by a touch of woodsmoke in the air. It's the woodsmoke that does it for me. Both our house and our neighbor's have wood burning stoves and all I need is a whiff to take be back.

I miss white sidewalks, too!

Ditto to you, too, Mindy. We were at the butcher today and since it's new owners, I decided to ask them about a turkey for Thanksgiving... and then got sad that I would have yet another one here.

*goes off to check airfare for November*

Yeah Ditto on the hugs 


if you're up for a care package thingy give me a shout..

chin up and hope that things cheer up soon...well wishes.

I too grew up in Southern California in the 1970's. I can sympathize with you about your feelings. Sometimes I wonder what my live would have been like if I had never met my fiance and never moved here. I'm not imagining this because I regret moving here I think about this for a comparison. I wonder what I would be doing now, where would I be living, who would I be with? On the other hand moving here has made me stronger. I had to learn a new language and new culture and that wasn't easy. I don't plan to move back to the US (it is a brief passing thought in my mind) but sometimes I think about my life there what was and what could have been. I ususally feel stronger about this after visiting my family and friends but then within a few months it calms down.

Is it possible for you to go to the States for a few weeks?

I'm Sending a big e-hug your way. 

I understand completely... I'm right now back in the States and it is like heaven. The skies are blue, it's warm, there's open space, people are smiling, every house is different, and everything's blooming. I've forgotten how much I love it here now that I'm back visiting. Plus, I'm near the ocean so there are beaches to go to. The UK is great, but then again being back here you know the US is just wonderful.  You forget just how good it is until you go back. Definitely go back to visit as soon as you can.

The skies are blue, it's warm, there's open space, people are smiling, every house is different, and everything's blooming.

Ahhhh, yes.  This is how it is in Linlithgow today... apart from the 'every house is different' bit!  Damn, I love it here!! 

I also grew up in So Cal in the 60's & 70's, but my memories arent so fond...   
Still, i would like to see this trailer that MaBear is talking about, with the Kinks song.   

Hope all of you who are suffering with homesickness feel better soon.

Ahhhh, yes.  This is how it is in Linlithgow today... apart from the 'every house is different' bit!  Damn, I love it here!! 

London is lovely today.  A light breeze, sun, blooming windowboxes, trees rustling lightly.  I'm going to miss this when I move to suburbia on Wednesday.

I had a nightmare I had to go 'home' and stay there; that I couldn't come back here (vivid preggo dreams).  It was so awful I woke up at 2.30AM and stayed up till 4. 

I miss my mom and dad, but I'd just as soon not live as go back to Houston for good.  I hated it there for as long as I can remember, and schemed to get out from the time I was 13. 

I have to say when I feel I 'miss' anything it's in Denver, not Houston.

But those days are few and far between.

To all those who feel homesick, I hope you feel better soon! 

I hope my post didn't come across as homesick. I'm anything but, I just wonder sometimes what I'd be doing right now if I had stayed there. I miss my family and friends but not really so much else only small things that in truth I can live without. I never was a Wal-Mart, fast food, 24 hr shopping fan. I do miss the ocean, the seabreeze and the feeling of the warm sand under my feet, these are a part of my "small things" list though others might consider them to be big.

The longing feeling that I have when I return from a visit is from missing my family. My parents are older (though I'm only 33) My mom suffered a brain hemorrhage and stroke a year ago and is paralyzed on the right side of her body and unable to talk. My dad was diagnosed with cancer only a few months ago. I miss not being able to see them as often as I'd like to, I worry about them, and lastly I feel a lot of guilt for being here. I know that they want me to be happy and live my life but it's hard when I worry as much as I do. This is what I meant when I wrote that it takes me a few months to "calm down" once I come back here.

As a side note: Many ex-pats that I have met here in Sweden will often say things like "back home" when they talk about their homelands. I don't. I say "back in the US, or back in the States". I consider Sweden my home since I choose to live here, no one forced me to come. 

Maybe not 'homesickness' for some... merely 'nostalgia'. 

Definitely. In my case it is nostalgia. Good point Otterpop.

Sabeine, I know what you mean. Nostalgia yeah and a bit more. The only regret I have about moving here (apart from the geographical issues such as weather and terrain) is my parents. Now they have two grandkids (and they are great grandparents and the kind you'd want to be near) and time with them is so short. I don't like that. But we do what we can with phone calls, letters, emails, photos, and the visits we can afford. But they are getting older and I will probably always regret the time not spent with them, especially when it is gone for good. My dad has leukemia and my mom has a number of other health problems...basically just the two of them getting older and well, it breaks my heart. It's the same thing, you know, they raised us to live our own lives so we did, but is this a sacrifice worth making when it is so finite? Of course, like you it takes me awhile to get over having just seen them, they were here shortly after the baby was born and I am working out missing them and the homesickness. Plus my dad got really sick after being here so that brings things in starker view.

Anyway I know what you meant and about the small things too. I miss driving on the freeways on a summer evening with the windows down, hell I miss smog created sunsets too. But let's not get me started on this today.I went ahead and got 'Days' from iTunes yesterday, how sad is that.

It's not sad! If it makes me you better or take a trip down memory lane that brings a smile to your face then go for it. I listen to songs that remind me of my childhood whenever I feel down. We're talking cheesy songs from the 70's the kind that you'd deny listening to if asked.