Lately, instead of renting movies we’ve been watching ones we own and haven’t seen in a while (imagine that). Last night, we cracked out Apollo 13, and I must say, even though I’ve seen it probably about a dozen times—my parents bought it on VHS, and I was an only child, so I tended to watch and re-watch every movie we owned—I still think it’s a great movie. But what it really made me think about last night was Florida.
Recently, I’ve been downright homesick. Though, to be fair, I’m not sure whether I’m homesick for the actual place or for my childhood. The two are inextricable.
There were the space-themed exhibits at the National Air and Space Museum in DC, the lunar module and rover, the paintings of the lunar landings. There’s the talk of Marvin and Amie maybe visiting Florida next year to see a launch. And just today, I thought—homemade lemonade. How I would love to have some homemade lemonade.
So, the things I took for granted, growing up in Florida:
1. Launches. Rockets, space shuttles. We’d watch the countdown on TV and then if it was really going, we’d run outside to the front yard to watch. And there it would be, a big plume and a glowing ball at the top, rising above our house. I’d stand smack in the middle of our street and look up, and I can still feel the warm asphalt on my bare feet. I can still hear the rumble of the launches, the deep, almost crunchy sound. I remember waking up to that sound, the windows rattling, terrified for a split second, thinking we were having an earthquake or something, before realizing it was just a shuttle launch and going back to bed.
2. All the space stuff. I didn’t realize it was special to grow up a few miles from Kennedy Space Center. Space was so normal to us. Everybody’s dad worked at KSC or at Cape Canaveral. Our next-door neighbor was a retired NASA engineer; he helped me with math. My first official date with Jesse was to the KSC visitor’s center, and our first kiss was beneath a bright orange shuttle external tank. One of Jesse’s dad’s friends was an astronaut, and we got free tickets to see an IMAX movie he’d helped film at the International Space Station.
3. Fresh fruit. Dad’s thumb has always been impossibly green (I got my mom’s hands), so in our backyard we had quite the collection of fruit trees—oranges, grapefruits, lemons, limes, tangelos, starfruit. Bananas for a while, though I believe they were killed in one of our rare deep freezes. My childhood winters were full of oranges, the sounds of my mom making orange juice in the kitchen, picking bags of them to give away when someone visited from out of state. And when I was sick, Dad would make me limeade or lemonade, sometimes ice cold, sometimes heated up if I had a sore throat. The fruit I can get at Harris Teeter tastes nothing like the fruit that came out of our backyard.
4. All things tropical. I didn’t think I’d miss palm trees and the ability to take a day trip to Miami, but I do. I miss the colors of Florida, its neons, its flamingo pinks. I miss how gaudy it could be, how bright the sun was.
5. Theme parks. There, I said it. I miss Disney. I miss how just about every billboard advertised some new ride or attraction, how everything was geared toward tourists, how it felt like a perpetual vacation. When I lived in Orlando, I loved to roll my eyes at the constant barrage of theme park ads, but now I miss them. And though I was often bored, there was the sense that I never really had to be. There was always something wanting to entertain me.
There was just something fundamentally exciting about Florida, something I didn’t appreciate until leaving. The space stuff, being so close to something that represents what we can do with enough determination and brainpower and creativity. And all the rest, the excess of family fun and a growing season that never stopped, there is something wonderful about having grown up in such a place.
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Fl is unique, I’ll give you that. Seeing the shuttle launches is probably the coolest thing about living here. There are some things I definitely love about living here and might actually miss if I move, but there are plenty of other things that make me want to move away as soon as humanly possible.
1. It is hot and humid here ALL the time. There are no seasons.
2. With everything so spread out, there is no sense of community, no walkable downtowns. (FL has one of the highest pedestrian and cyclist death rates in the country).
3. All the crazies move to FL: child molesters, serial killers, gun lovers, people escaping from the law. I don’t have any statistics to back me up, but just watch the local news and you’ll see.
4. FL is right up there with CA for the highest foreclosure rates in the country. There is no industry here, no jobs, just empty homes and neighborhoods. All the land that was developed during the boom… what a waste.
5. Did I mention it was hot here? Um, it’s the end of November, Thanksgiving week, and it’s going to be 81 degrees today and humid. We had to turn on the AC last night because, even though the lows were in the 60s, the humidity was so high that the sheets on my bed were damp. Ew.
I don’t have central air, so I bought a dehumidifer and just roll it from room to room. It helps…a bit. (It’s also loud, so you can’t really run it and watch TV at the same time or anything.)
On the plus side, sales tax isn’t unreasonable. There’s no state income tax. We’re not required to get our vehicles inspected every six months. (That one might be considered both a plus and a minus.) We’re not landlocked. Orange juice not from concentrate is relatively cheap here. Then again, cocaine is relatively cheap here, if you’re into that sort of thing….
I think I’m really just saying that I can’t afford to leave Florida. Yet. Gotta kick the coke habit first! (kidding, kidding)
There are definitely parts of Florida I don’t miss, especially the heat, and I’m glad I’ve gotten a chance to live in another state. But I’m also glad I grew up in Florida, and if I could tweak a few things (said weather being one of them), it would certainly be an attractive place to live again. The longer I’m away, the more I appreciate it. Especially since where I live now also has no industry, no jobs, and lots more racism than Florida exhibited.
And yeah, the taxes up here are crazy! State income tax, a tax to own your car, a tax to drive your car, a tax to look at your car…inspections…blech. Our car insurance went down when we moved up here, but everything else seems to have gone up. I’m not sure of the price of drugs, but since we live in a port city we has a huge drug trafficking–and human trafficking–business here, so I hear drugs are pretty easy to come by.
Oh, and one more thing–flying out of Orlando is way cheaper than flying out of Raleigh.
I definitely don’t appreciate living in Florida the vast majority of the time. I guess one can only live in a flat land for so long before desiring a more mountainous terrain (I love mountains). That being said, the last time that I lived in another state was Texas, and I didn’t have my own bills at that age, so I guess I can’t really say if I’d enjoy living somewhere else. Florida is convenient. My parents are 30 minutes away; Ein’s parents are practically right down the road… when Ein and I start having babies, if we still live in Titusville, both sets of Grandparents are close by to baby-sit. However, I don’t really like Florida’s terrain or weather. I’m sure it could be worse, though. Our health benefit spokeswoman came down from Anchorage, Alaska to tell us about the changes in our insurance, and she said her husband told her that it was currently 10 below, and they got a foot of snow during the night. I don’t think I’d like to live in Alaska. So, who knows? I don’t know if my appreciation of being so close to rockets/shuttles has increased or decreased since I started working at KSC. Hard to say… I’ve noticed that whenever I miss somewhere other than where I am, it’s because I’m unhappy with something else. That unhappiness just drives my “anywhere but here” mentality. Currently I’m pretty happy where I am…just want a promotion.
I think you definitely appreciate the place where you grew up once you leave it. For some reason, I can’t imagine you guys ever living anywhere but Florida, but who knows what the future holds.
In the meantime, a promotion would certainly be nice!