They Say You Can Never Go Back
 

What do you miss about your northern home state compared to living in Florida?
I think living in Florida is great at my age, but there are times I reminisce after 7 years down here.
We travel back, but it just isn't the same.

For me it has to be the 4 seasons, not the snow and cold, but the change in weather, the fall colors that never seem to last long enough.
The farm fields in summer watching the crops progress from month to month, or the smell of freshly cut hay and miles of corn fields.

I return up north spring thru fall. It's the food hard to find great pizza, good Deli’s (German, Italian, Kosher and Polish), Chinese, fresh seafood all that has been discussed already.

Food, Broadway Shows and city Department Stores.

The 20 acres we owned and a few hundred acres of woods that adjoined it.

For me - motherhood and apple pie !

i don't miss anything but the people i knew. we tried visiting 2 years ago for 5 days, & i couldn't wait to get back here

We have been in Florida since 1996 and here in the Villages since June or so of 2005. So, Florida is home.

Rohnert Park, CA; Reno, NV; Scottsdale, AZ; Itasca, IL; Belmont, CA; Minneapolis, MN; Denver, CO; Menomonee Falls, WI; and Provo, UT would all seem quite different now.

And I have run into people here in the Villages from every one of those places. Or, at least, while in Palm Harbor, FL.

What "northern state", LOL ! Left Florida once for college, twice more to grad school, was really tough me. I definitely understand your fleeting yearning from time to time. When I did leave Florida for school, I really REALLY missed Florida, the smell of fresh cut hay at our cousin's farm in Weirsdale, the sweet smell of the orange blossoms, the beautiful trees turning in fall in the national forest, just the sound of the waves lapping the shore and smell of the fresh ocean air. I'm sure we all pine for the sights, sounds, and even smells of our "home states". Oh, maybe most of all I missed HONEYBELLS, they seldom are available outside Florida unless you order from a specialty grove, never saw a single one in a regular super market in Champaign, IL (University of Illinois) or anywhere outside Florida ! I've visited Alaska a few times, I can even understand how you could miss it that far north if that was where you grew up. I'm sure mountain state people would miss that if they moved to Florida... Arizona might be a better choice for their retirement; mountains AND warmth, LOL !

Against my better judgement, I went to a reunion meet about 5 years ago to where I was raised. What I noticed the most, was the people who I remembered, and were still around, had got so old, and lived and acted so old.
No future but the Grim Reaper in nearly all of them. No looking forward.
Really depressed and shook me. Will never go back again.
I bl**dy hate 'old' people!:mad:

I've lived here in the TV for 10 years and it does have its advantages. Safety, people of the same age, convinces to doctors and overall cleanliness. I'm a native of N.Y.C. where there were a lot of disadvantages especially for people my age. Now that I said that I do miss the diversity and the quality of food, the theatre, the museums, the ability to disappear into the crowed without following some preplanned activity. When they say N.Y.C. is a city that never sleeps, it's actually true.

I miss the restaurants and sub/pizza shops up north as others have mentioned.

Not living in yourassic park
 

not having to look over my shoulder more than the sopranos crew. Up north they would go the way of the buffalo.
Ir en pedazos !

Who says "you can never go back"? Having a northern home is the way to go for many of us here. It's more expensive to run 2 homes, but for me who hates extreme weather, it's part of retirement 'heaven'.

exactly, you get the best of both worlds


,you just have to be able to afford it, some villages can’t

Winter is coming
 

me either

From the North; N>Y>
 

Been here since the year 2000, owned 5 houses in TV, originally kept place in N>Y>, but got sick and tired of reaching for a tool or some other item and it was in the OTHER place. So, here I am , and will not be moving. :bigbow::spoken:

Been here 23 years and still miss NJ Tomatoes. There were the best on my BLT SANDWICHES.

We lived in a valley surrounded by the Blue Ridge Mountains. They were beautiful in every season — covered in snow, budding a thousand shades of green, or covered in fall color. They were the background of my life and I miss them.

My wife has a t-shirt with the logo "Its weird being the same age as old people".

To us, that says it all. Back home in Minnesota, living less than an hour from George Floyd "Ground Zero", the living situation was far less than ideal. Feeling that you had to carry a pistol every time you went anywhere near the MSP metro was a real pain in the bleep, but that is where the best restaurants and shopping (outer ring suburbs, anyway) were. The problem was that the ground zero mentality and environment spreads; even our sleepy little town was not immune.

Other than that the physical challenges were enormous and were getting more so as the months and years went by. Living in a four-bedroom rambler with a huge yard and deck meant maintenance and upkeep that I was progressively less able to do, not to mention having to shovel snow for six months out of the year and driving in conditions that most southerners cannot even imagine let alone cope with. High taxes on income, property and just about every other thing you can imagine. Law enforcement that was becoming pretty sketchy, even in our sleepy little town. All in all, being a senior citizen in that environment was becoming a challenge that was getting progressively harder to meet. It is HARD being old in Minnesota.

But here? I love those "severe weather warnings" when the mercury is supposed to plunge to (gasp!) THIRTY DEGREES ABOVE ZERO. Golf and tennis year round. Anything you could possibly need or want within a 15-minute golf cart ride. Environments tailored to the needs of Seniors. Flowers blooming year round. Excellent law enforcement for the most part. A tan that I don't have to buy. Folks who offer you a ride when you're walking in the summer. NOT having to constantly look back over your shoulder. Clubs for any interest you can possibly imagine. Not having to wake up at 2:00 AM to a strange sound coming from the vicinity of the garage. Lots of people of our age group. Arthritis pain nearly nonexistent for the most part. And so on.

Sure, family is back there, but it is a short airplane ride in either direction and we see a lot of them. Other than that? After three years here I cannot envision myself back in that situation. It's not whether or not you can go back. For us, we don't want to.

We moved here 13 years ago. At first I missed "elements" of where we came from. People actually 'knowing' us and being able to get to dr's, shops etc. within 15 or less minutes. We lived in a small midwestern town close to a large city. Traffic wasn't bad neither and people less impatient as well. The seasons I missed---Spring and summer. Fall's could be very wet and chilly with impending winter, that seemed to come earlier and stayed longer. The ice, snow and cold---do NOT miss that at all. It's true you can't go back to what 'seemed' familiar. People we know continued along with LIFE (as they would here) and a true connection seemed missing. This was my interpretation anyway. I'm very content here. We live in the south now---got used to a new culture and cuisine (many can't seem to). We don't dwell on "what isn't" here as others seem to. Nostalgia is nice....memories (for the most part) are nice too. We have been back but the topography has changed as the places are growing there too. The towns (we've lived in a handful over 50-something years) have all changed. The changes don't mesh with the memories.

The food especially and for sure the medical care.

Not from "up north," more like "flyover country." But, there some things I do miss:

1. Real BBQ. Not the wanna be stuff dished out here.
2. Summers spent boating on lakes without alligators.
3. Homegrown tomatoes and farm fresh sweet corn.
4. The Ozarks.
5. The fully-equipped woodworking shop I used to have.

That said, on the whole, I'd rather be here.

Ditto
 

This is me..I go up kicking and screaming for an obligatory visit once a year.

Sweet home, blue ridge mts
 

agreed. Loved driving thru them on the blue ridge pky. Stopping at grandfather mt ( where forest gump ran the curve) and standing on the 1 mile high swinging bridge was a blast.

I don’t miss a thing,

I miss Lake Michigan and living at a marina. I miss spending spring and fall at our apartment on the Allegheny River in Pittsburgh, a block from PNC Park and three blocks from Heinz Field (I'm not into calling it Acrisure Stadium yet...). If it weren't for the winter, we never would have moved.

Forget 4 seasons, NH has 19
 

Forget 4 seasons, NH has 19:
- Early winter; 1st snow season
- Ice-in season
- More snow (repeats) season
- Sledding/skiing/ice-fishing fun season
- Even more snow season
- Ice heaves season
- Fake spring season (used to be called indian summer, but that's racist now)
- Oops, even more snow season
- First robin season
- Spring
- Mud season
- Ice-out season
- Black fly season (probably also racist now)
- Birds and squirrels season
- Heat wave season
- Tourist season
- First freeze season
- Pretty leaves season (More tourists)
- Leaf raking season

Grandchildren, good butchers, (not impressed with the new butcher at Sawgrass) convenient shopping and quality medical care. Will never make this my permanent home and give up my doctors up north.

I don't miss anything, I am a Florida resident now and I am proud to say it!
Sold the home of 35 years on 2.5 acres with 2 outbuildings full of tools and machines of all sorts. My life "up north" was all about work, and I honestly loved it. My life here is all about games, golf, billiards, cards, skeet, going out to eat, etc. etc. Don't even talk to me about work, I am loving retirement!
I can say I have made more friends here in a year, than I did in the last 20 years "up north".
I still own a second home in the mountains, looking forward to selling that too. Been there, done that, on to new things in Florida.
I do meet a lot of people here, living in the past.
Not me, very happy to experience new things here in my new home, Florida.

I am a lucky guy having the best of both worlds, the beautiful Chesapeake Bay and the fantastic The Villages.

These days, absolutely nothing..........

Taxes, taxes, taxes
 

Taxes, taxes, taxes. Who would want to go back north?

It's really a shame the right person isn't reading this. Almost everyone from the north stated they miss the authentic food, ie; pizza, subs etc.
What a goldmine opportunity for the right pizza shop(s)
I grew up in Utica ny, better known as "little italy"....oh my you could get anything there. Got married and moved about 100miles away and ANY time we drove thru we had to stop at Napoli's for tomato pie, or hempstrauts for half moon cookies. Many of you may have heard of Wegman's, the unbelievable grocery store originally out of rochester ny, well they had everything and eventually could make ...anything! Let me tell you, they couldn't come close to Utica tomato pie or half-moon cookies.
Anyway, my thought is if an authentic shop went in down here...omg, what a killing they would have!
Bon appetite 😋

We still go back 4-5 months each year, and will continue to until I drop.

While we really like living in The Villages, our northern home does offer much better and more varied shopping, far more competitive grocery stores, and wonderful hiking and biking trails without the noise, pollution, and danger of golf carts.

I sometimes miss the "era" of things we loved back then, but they are only heartfelt memories now.
Gone, but not forgotten. Sadly, no generation will experience anything as wonderful as we had.

Many of the Depression and Post-War Institutions that made the City of Pittsburgh great are no longer.

Of the bygone days, those of us who enjoyed them KNEW they we're really special. We didn't take them for granted.
It was a big city, small town atmosphere where everyone was friendly, quite like TV.
(Of course, there's always Some!)

Tailgaiting before the Steeler games at Three Rivers Stadium, the Boys of Summer Pirate Games on a warm Spring nights and the Penguins at The Civic Arena.

The Pgh. MARATHON and the Great Race.
The 3 Rivers at Point State Park, visited as often, as North and South Parks.

HOT Mancini's Bread, Sunseri and Primanti Brothers in the Strip, Donahues on 5th Avenue. The Original Oyster House in Market Square (est. 1933) FOR THE BEST Chowder and Fish Sandwiches.

Shopping in Downtown Pittsburgh during Christmas Season and marveling at their mechanical window displays.

Carnegie Libraries, Museums and the Duquesne Incline all visited at least once a year, as a tradition.

The Original HotDog Shoppe near Pitt.
The Pittsburgh Press. (My Dad set Page One as a Printer and brought home a Free Paper every single day for 30 years.)

My Testimony-
It was the Best Of Times....
And
You Can't go home again, but if you were from there, may your Pittsburgese stays with yens forever!

Go Bucs.
Go Steelers.
MARIO, Franco, and Willie.

I miss walks in the woods, swimming in clear lakes, apples from the tree, and good seafood.

That's it, I'm going home! Actually, most of those things are still there, along with cleaner air and other improvements. The Strip, the Bucs, the Stillers, the Pens... (Our son, a mariner, has taken his Terrible Towel all over the world.) The inclines, the museums. Good restaurants, excellent family pizza places, not chains. Light Up Night. The people never changed, still friendly.


At least at the old Horne's they still put up the Christmas tree on the corner of the building. Kaufmann's clock is still there. I do miss the big three department stores, though.


But we can and have gone back.

Moved yo FL
 

Moved to Clearwater area in 93 and to Villages in 2020. Left CT and never looked back. When we visit it feels like that state is stuck in a time warp, people my age have aged more, I don't really miss the acreage and barn I had anymore because I just think of the work to maintain it would be. My wife misses the Tampa Bay area shopping but not the North. Surely don't miss the weather. FL is the best thing we did for our health and longevity.