Seems this time of the year

[Frenchy]

It seems to me this is the time of the year I feel home sick the most... Perhaps not having the snow, perhaps not being close to my Family… The French Heritage, I don’t quite know.


So I decided to go visit a Quebec radio station... Weather in Montréal +1c and expected high Thursday +11c (~52f) they obviously don’t have snow in Montreal... Figuring I would hear some old French music... I was listening to Bare Naked Ladies and other English artists... If the radio personality there was speaking English, I could have thought I was in any state in the US Finally after 11 songs, I get to hear a French song.. Shucks, I could have opened my CD case, it was from Notre Dame de Paris, I have the CD here, French and English… Also have the DVD of the concert.

Then it reminded me why there were no real pains to moving to the US for me. I speak English with almost no noticeable accent; I have lived nowhere more then 6 or 7 years, and was always surrounded by an English community… Even on the radio.

Some of the things I did find I missed while listening was the humor; CKOI has a humor section where they hit on people at work or in the media… The other thing I missed almost instantly, was the food, the lady radio announcer was talking about eating in old Montreal… Suddenly I was transported to my youth when at my Grandfather’s house I would open my Christmas gifts… There was always an Orange in the gifts… Oranges in my youth (before I was 7 and lived in Florida) was a rare luxury. So I reached in the box my wife’s uncle sent us and feverously pealed an orange from the fruit basket he sends us every year.

Then there came a commercial for a sports store. I suddenly remembered how stores here where so different in what they had. You don’t buy a gun over the counter in Quebec the way you do here, the process there can take quite a while, even if buying a shotgun for hunting.

People often ask me what the best place you lived at. I think where you call “Home” is probably the best place, generally where you where born but some times a mixture of what was and what is…

Home would not be Home with out my wife… Yet it is missing some thing with out my Daughter… Home is good food, being able to own a gun, 2 things I can’t seem to match together. Don’t get me wrong, Pittsburgh has some great foods, they just are not in my pallet… Even foods that one would think are the same, Steak, spaghetti.. Are so very different here. Dunn’s Smoked meats! Hmm Corned beef… Just not the same. Poutine! Some thing you can’t find in the US… Pastries… Dagobert! I’M dreaming here, but the best pastries I have had in PA I would exchange any day for a good old May West! You can’t compare what Quebec calls a pastry to anything here… But then again, you can’t carry a gun in Quebec unless you are a LEO or have a special purpose permit, some thing that most citizens can only dream about.

Montreal Bagels! Man New York talks about the Bagels you can buy in Montreal… Taking a stroll on the lake or roads in winter and leaving my foot prints in the snow, coming back a few days later and seeing them there untouched… Riding a snow mobile in Rimouski in 10 feet of snow with out a care of any fences under you, brushing the tree tops. Watching some one fight a salmon 3 hours to take a picture and let him go free!
There is no perfect place, In Canada you pay 50% tax right off the bat for medical and other things.. Yeah it’s free Medicare, but only after the people who work pay into it. I don’t miss the TPS and other taxes, yet I miss paying $225 to insure my car for the year full coverage… No I don’t miss paying $185 for a drivers permit, (it is a permit in Canada not a license) and an other $285 to license my car..(Yes you license your car in Canada) what Pennsylvanians call a tag… I wouldn’t miss state inspections where the mechanic decides what is safe and not, even if he has to tear into a perfectly good brake line to show you.

I think the perfect place is only in our minds, I am sure the people who come from New York claim the night life there is the best, unless they went to Montreal once And the people on the east coast claim there are no woman like Californians… Personally, I chose a Pittsburgher for a wife. Even if the song talks about all the girls in Montreal..
I miss going to a real sugar shack, I miss greasy spoons (a type of restaurant) I miss certain cultural events, the energy of the Carnival, the walks in the woods I know well, I miss St Hubert BBQ!

All the things I knew and loved about Quebec that I gave up to be with a woman I love… I don’t regret them, but I do miss them from time to time, and usually, winter and Christmas is when I miss them the most…

Sorry for the long post and the rants. OK time to turn off CKOI I have heard enough “disco” American music for one day!

How do you feel about this time of the year, where is Home to you?

[dgg9]

Originally Posted by Frenchy

Don’t get me wrong, Pittsburgh has some great foods, they just are not in my pallet…

All due respect to the 'burgh, but it's still essentially a Midwest city, with the cuisine preferences that implies.

[GRIZZLYBEAR]

What I consider my home region is the North West. Wyoming, Utah, Colorado, & Montana.

When do I miss it most during the hunting season.

grizz

[Mark]

I've lived hear most of my life. But i wish i lived in Montan, Colorado, Utah or Jacksonhole Wyomin.

Snow is my passion.

[SGTUSArmy]

I call home the Great State of Oklahoma. It is not quite the "south", definitely not the north, too close to the middle to be the "Midwest" (a misnomer if there ever was one).

There is nothing like waking up on a brisk winter morning, looking out across a field, and seeing frost as far as you can see, shining on the grass. Nothing like in the summertime, baling hay and fighting dust devils to keep the windrow together long enough to get the bales made.

I miss being able to drive less than 15 minutes to find a pond to go fishing in. This pond, having never been stocked, has bass that average 5 lbs, plus the perch to get your kids hooked on fishing with. Plus, unless it was going to be above about 8 lbs or so, people were more than happy to just catch and release.

Oh, and most of the farmers who own the ponds are more than happy to let you fish, as long as you keep your part of the bargain. I have spent more than my fair share of days cleaning out fence-lines, brush hogging, or just helping out a little bit here and there. One year, I woke up at 4 Am to go and feed a farmer's cows for two weeks. I already had fishing rights, but he asked me to. That is one thing I really miss. Community. Whether it was miles of farmland that shared a common road, or the intersparsing of farms with homes, people were not afraid to help each other out.

Deer season was another special time of the year. People would go to school when they had high fevers at other times of the year, just so they could take those days off for deer camp. Some school districts actually close for a full week, the opening week of gun deer season. Granted, you weren't allowed to kill but 4 deer a year, One buck with gun, one buck with muzzleloader, one deer with bow, and one on an anterless day. It was generally easy to find a place to deer hunt. A small doe would field dress at about 150lbs.

Quail hunting was great, and it was tradition for my dad and a friend of the family to load up and go hunting the day after Thanksgiving. We would usually get about 25 or so in half a day. Spend the other half day cleaning them, getting them ready to cook, and picking cockleburs out of our pants. Nothing like eating freshly killed bobwhite the day after Thanksgiving rather than leftover Turkey.

Our idea of a good nightlife was sitting out on the back porch, drinking a cold coke (I wasn't old enough to drink at the time) listening to the bull frogs and crickets. If it was raining, we would move inside. It almost sounds like something out of the Saturday Evening Post, but it was all true.

Another thing I miss about Oklahoma, the relaxed gun laws. Go into a store, spend 30 minutes parusing the store after you fill out the paperwork, and walk out with a new pistol. A new pistol that it is generally easy to get a permit to carry concealed. There are open carry laws, but with number of liberals moving into the state, who wants the undue attention.

Spring and Summer make me think of home more. The heat. The only thing missing is less humidity, and the smell of freshly cut hay. (it is way different than the smell of fresh cut grass). I actually miss helping to buck some hay. I miss calving season. Spending the afternoons driving around with one of my uncles, or my grandmother checking on the pregnant cows. If necessary getting down and helping to pull a calf.

Maybe I am just working on getting old, seeing my kids growing up at a frenzied pace, or the hatred of DPRM. Maybe it's the fact that I have been too far gone for too long. I love the military, love what I do, but I just miss home. Could also be the fact that I own land, and just need to build a house. Rather than renting from the government here. And no, I am sorry, I am not paying $450,000 for a 1900 square foot 3 bedroom 3-level townhouse with no land. My wife talked me into looking at houses when it looked like I was going to be medically seperated last year. My wife wants to live closer to town so I agreed to look at about the halfway point. 10 miles from the farm, 5 miles from town. We were on leave, and called up my dad's cousin. She gave us a few addresses. The one we liked was a 2400 square foot, single story, 4 bedroom, open kitchen on 3.5 acres with a small shop and pond, all for $225,000. Oh and it was a new build. The person who was having the house built passed away right after construction started.

One last thing I miss about home. 3 hours and I am at my mom's house. 2 hours at my uncle's. None of this 24 hour drive crap to get to my mom's, then additional driving. I miss taking weekend jaunts to have dinner with someone in the family. I miss only paying $35 to renew my tags. I miss only paying $5 for state inspection.

[LittleRedToyota]

I'm originally from PA.

Lately, the lack of winters reminds me of somewhere other than home.

[CavScout88]

I miss Colorado. While I was born in Delaware, it was in Colorado that as an adult I set out on my own and truly began to find my way. I miss the view from 14,000 feet and the soft powder snow. Like my guns I have multiple sets of skis. And like my guns I use my multiple sets of skis I also miss the summers there and it's complete lack of humidity. Its a good thing I take 2 trips a year back to Colorado.