How do you find "home"?

[Sarah in SC]

I am definitely planning on visiting Charleston in the next year or two when we go see my aunt and uncle. Maybe this time we can meet up and go to a good seafood place.

Of course! And perhaps the boat will be running again by then. Ah, yes, the joys of boat ownership! There are tons of good seafood places, that's for sure!

 

[meierlde]

I grew up in In and MI and as soon as I graduated from college fled snow for Ca, then moved to Houston for a job and stayed there for 28 years, then retired to my deceased parents home in the Hill country (Why live in a big city when a town of 20k in a county of 40k will do?). Actually with Amazon and other modern versions of Wards and Sears, it can appear magically at your door in a few days. (Actually had helped my folks pick the site, because they again got sick of winter)(I think it gave them a few more years to be in Tx over MI and in Tx if it gets icy you just stay home (about once every 3-4 years it snows and every 10 or so there is an ice storm).

 

[bbbamI]

I don't think about home as being in terms of 'finding a home'...I think about 'feeling at home'. I felt at home when I was a kid growing up in a rural part of MO. I was surrounded by family members and many friends. I never once thought I would ever move away.

But fate has a way of changing plans.

We've moved several times because of employment. I've had to say goodbye too many times to friends and leave behind the houses where I lived. Even though I've lived in my current house for 17 years and like my area, I wouldn't shed a tear if I had to leave tomorrow.

I don't think I'll ever feel at home like I did when I was young.

 

[old woman]

I grew up moving a lot but mostly to different parts of Seattle but some AZ and eastern WA. I moves often while married he loved to move and I spent probably 10 years in MI and some in Alaska, FL, CA and GA but in 1976 I told him I wasn't moving again when he wanted to leave MI. I explained I was done and we could move one time then that was it. He picked Seattle because the wages were better than CA and the cost of living lower than AL or CA and my family was here. Next time he wanted to move I just said no, if you want to go you go alone so I have been in Seattle since 1948 some and since 1976 constantly. I don't ever plan to go more than 100 miles again. Even if I lost my family I wouldn't move I love it here.

Seattle has mountains, ocean, rivers, Puget Sound. The weather is perfect today was hot at about 80 so we put an air conditioner in the bedroom. We put one down stairs last week. We love the cool summers and not so cold winters and being outdoors.

I love not needing a map to know my way around and reconnizing buildings and places and remembering the past. I might drive by a place I knew someone had lived once or a place I used to work, I never feel lost.

I took my mom to get her some licorice ice cream one day last fall and didn't tell her where we were going. We started into the neighborhood she lived in after high school and she told me she used to go to an ice cream parlor for a phosphate. When we got there she said it was the same location. I asked someone if they were there in 1944 and they said they had been. Mom said the last time she was there she didn't finish her drink because a cute sailor came in and offered to walk her and her cousin home. She knew him because he was from her town so he walked them home. That sort of thing is why I like being where things are familiar.

Now mom is 84 and I am retiring soon so shouldn't leave where she is anyhow but I wouldn't even if she moved away.

 

[JOHNNIE36]

I used to think Pittsburgh weather was bad, and then I went to live in Annapolis.

People used to ask me all sort of questions about the town and local life. But heck, I was spending all my free time trying to get as far away as possible...

Nords, as part of my transfers around the midwest with megacorp, I spent four years in the South Hills area of Pittsburgh (1976 thru 1980). Without a doubt, it was the most enjoyable four years of my career. Those were great years to be living in Pittsburgh. The Steelers and Bradshaw, Pirates and Stargell, Tony Dorset at Pitt and even the Penguins were starting to come to life. Loved the golf in the area. Hated it when I got transferred out. Made great friends there that we still communicate with. Winter sucked for navigating all the hills in the snow.

 

[itsmyparty]

This is a question I've thought about a lot. Another one: what is the answer to "where are you from?"

I left the city where I grew up at age 25 and my home country age 28 and have never returned to live there, though I have visited frequently. Apart from my hometown, my last stop (Winnipeg, Manitoba) was "home" for the longest period (21 years). I was comfortable introducing myself professionally as being "from Winnipeg" but if people asked about my accent I would explain my personal history.
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Similar background...born/raised Winnipeg and left at about 22, then to Vancouver & Toronto..finally moving to US in '78 and this is my 'home' now. For some reason..I never really had a Cdn accent..but some word differences. Like you, few actual relatives left, go back occassionally to Wpg, and the place is not the same..weather might be though! Have duel citizenship..and thinking it would be nice to spend extended time in Victoria, BC. where a cousin lives....but find northern Nv's climate overall good and free of extremes.

 

[Avalon]

I know where my true 'home' is (or was). In a way, it's a place I'd rather not see again for emotional reasons. There are times, however, when I'd like to saddle up and ride the old home place one last time before it's paved over.

 

[Westernskies]

DW and I have spent a lot of time of late trying to answer "How do you find home" ...

The answer, so far has been elusive.