Posted: 8/6/2024 5:32:34 PM EDT
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Title says it all. I miss western PA. Any other PA ex-pats miss their hometown? |
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Originally Posted By Ambridge77: Title says it all. I miss western PA. Any other PA ex-pats miss their hometown? I lived all over from 2006 until 2015, then left again on and off from 2018 until 2021. I hate leaving, and would like to stay, but the politicians will decide I suppose. |
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Originally Posted By Scrapple: I lived all over from 2006 until 2015, then left again on and off from 2018 until 2021. I hate leaving, and would like to stay, but the politicians will decide I suppose. Originally Posted By rc2: I am still in PA but I miss western PA as well. @Scrapple @rC2 Sometimes I'll sit on a post so I can reply later with more reflective thoughts. I don't know how old y'all are (I used to say a version of yinz, more like yunz the farther you got from Pittsburgh). 1977 was the last full year I lived in PA. We lived in a trailer in Moon, but Ambridge was my home... my grandparents and closest cousins lived there. 1970s. I remember Stop‐n-Go, Eat'n Park, Kroger, Giant Eagle, Hill's, Zayre, and all the small local places. I miss hiking hills above the valley, and looking down on Ambridge. I miss catching crayfish and fishing in Big Sewickley Creek. I miss watching Bowling for Dollars, and seeing the PA State Lottery draws. I feel sad my kids don't know that freedom. |
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Originally Posted By Ambridge77: @Scrapple @rC2 Sometimes I'll sit on a post so I can reply later with more reflective thoughts. I don't know how old y'all are (I used to say a version of yinz, more like yunz the farther you got from Pittsburgh). 1977 was the last full year I lived in PA. We lived in a trailer in Moon, but Ambridge was my home... my grandparents and closest cousins lived there. 1970s. I remember Stop‐n-Go, Eat'n Park, Kroger, Giant Eagle, Hill's, Zayre, and all the small local places. I miss hiking hills above the valley, and looking down on Ambridge. I miss catching crayfish and fishing in Big Sewickley Creek. I miss watching Bowling for Dollars, and seeing the PA State Lottery draws. I feel sad my kids don't know that freedom. I do know the feeling. I was born and raised in Northeast Philadelphia, left to enlist, then I finally moved back to PA, although we settled in the "Yinz" territory for a few years first. We are back near Philly now, but often consider going west again to enjoy the mountains, culture, and weather. PA is a beautiful place, I just hope that we are able to maintain our freedoms. It's a hard war that we're fighting. As for you, VA has some beautiful areas as well. Especially down south and west. I just visited the Charlottesville area and got to enjoy some beautiful landscape, and the WV line is spectacular. |
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Originally Posted By Kalashnikov762: I moved out of that corrupt, frozen, pothole riddled, tax gangster state in 2018 and will never go back. @Kalashnikov I get it. As an outsider, I've read stories about government corruption, regardless of political affiliations. Especially in Beaver County. I see PA through rose-colored glasses of a once six year old. I miss hillsides, acres of woods, grapevine "Tarzan" swings, "cricks," and the fierce closeness of blue-collar families. Most of my PA family has moved to Florida, whether to escape brutally cold winters and aching joints, or because it was their dream to live in the REAL Sunshine State. Enjoy Florida! It's a great state.  (I can't be happy without mountains to look down from.) |
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Originally Posted By Ambridge77: @Kalashnikov I get it. As an outsider, I've read stories about government corruption, regardless of political affiliations. Especially in Beaver County. I see PA through rose-colored glasses of a once six year old. I miss hillsides, acres of woods, grapevine "Tarzan" swings, "cricks," and the fierce closeness of blue-collar families. Most of my PA family has moved to Florida, whether to escape brutally cold winters and aching joints, or because it was their dream to live in the REAL Sunshine State. Enjoy Florida! It's a great state. (I can't be happy without mountains to look down from.) My house in PA was at 1,730 feet. I understand! |
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Originally Posted By Ambridge77: Title says it all. I miss western PA. Any other PA ex-pats miss their hometown? I left in 2002 and came back in 2008 after an enlistment ended. Wife is an only child, her parents are adult children, and the only adults near my parents are my wife and I. My sister is a mostly formed adult, my brother acts half his age, and my other brother lives down south. As much as I would like to leave. I feel compelled to ride out my parents/her parents remaining years. Plus moving in this economy isn’t happening. My mortgage is 3.5% I’m not doubling my interest rate just to buy a house twice what I paid for this current house to have the same or similar space and dirt. |
| I spent the first 23 years of my life in Cambria County and moved to Virginia in 2005. I miss it more with each passing year, but I think it's mostly nostalgic and memories of how things were. I still get back to visit a few times a year and hunt up there and I enjoy the visits. |
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@Scrapple... Where in NE Philly? I'm a NE Philly kid too. I spent my first 41 years there....it was time to get out. I absolutely love AZ, but I miss birch beer, real / good hoagies and italian bread. I was back about 5 years ago for my buddy's wedding down on Rittenhouse Sq... But the place has changed so much.  My wife wants to visit and see where I grew up.... |
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Another reason I miss PA is because of how spoiled VA is. While PA was turning into the poster child of the "Rust Belt" in the '70s/'80s, VA was increasing its proportion of government workers and "MIC" employees sucking at the taxpayers' long-depleted teats. I love my fellow Pennsylvanians, and enjoy reminiscing with yinz. (I had to stop myself from saying y'all.)  |
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Originally Posted By CowboyGunner: @Scrapple... Where in NE Philly? I'm a NE Philly kid too. I spent my first 41 years there....it was time to get out. I absolutely love AZ, but I miss birch beer, real / good hoagies and italian bread. I was back about 5 years ago for my buddy's wedding down on Rittenhouse Sq... But the place has changed so much. My wife wants to visit and see where I grew up.... Cheltenham Village area |
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Originally Posted By Ambridge77: Any other PA ex-pats miss their hometown? Originally Posted By Ambridge77: Any other PA ex-pats miss their hometown? Originally Posted By CowboyGunner: … but I miss birch beer, real / good hoagies and italian bread. And slippery ham pot pie. And hot turkey sandwiches and french fries with that bright yellow gravy that had to be pure cholesterol. I grew up on all that stick-to-your-ribs Pennsylvania Dutch food and it was delicious. I grew up in south-central Pennsylvania less than a mile from the Scotland School that they are currently planning to use to house unaccompanied minor immigrants. What a disaster that will be. When I was a kid the area was about as close to Mayberry-ish as you could get. Left when I turned nineteen about thirty-seven years ago. Was back for a visit a couple of years ago and was depressed for days after I left. The area is nothing like I remember as a kid and not at all for the better. I always thought that I might go back “home” when I was old and retired but clearly the “home” I remember is no more. My wife grew up down I81 in Hagerstown. It’s certainly not any better there now either. |
| I’m still here Ambridge, in fact I live at the top of 24th st close to the old country club. I hate to say it but you’re not missing much. Once the boy graduates college I’m looking to get out of here for possibly West Virginia. The taxes and crime is outrageous! |