If you've ever known anyone who used a lobster trap and a piece of glass to make a coffee table, this post is for you...
(Don't worry, I'll spare you all the "You know you're a New Englander when... " jokes.)
Maybe you were born and raised in New England as I was, or maybe you spent some college time in the great Northeast. Either way, you probably get pangs of homesickness every once in a while.
What do you miss?
I miss the ocean, most of all. I spent my teen years in an apartment that overlooked a cove off of Long Island Sound. I could sit in my window seat (yes, charming indeed) and watch the water for hours. When I was a kid, my friends and I didn't hang out in malls or in 7-11 parking lots; we hung out on the docks. (Hm. That sounds way more badass than it actually was.) I miss the sounds and smells of boats and seaweed and waves.
I miss lobster. When I was a kid, my grandparents lived next door to a lobster fisherman (who turned out to also be a coke dealer, but that's neither here nor there), so we had lobster a couple of times a week during the summer.
I'm not much of a Fribble person, but I do miss going to Friendly's and ordering a grilled blueberry muffin. Does ANYONE in Louisville put muffins on the grill? If not, why not?
I miss maze-y stone walls that lead nowhere and enclose nothing.
I miss my family's North-Shore-of-Boston accent, an accent that I escaped inheriting when I moved to Connecticut at age 13. Just a couple of days ago, I showed my students a video interview with someone from Braintree, MA (
a construction worker reading Whitman), and someone said, "Listen to that
ludicrous accent!" And I said, "Hey, be nice. 75% of my family sounds
just like that."
And although I'm not much of a donut-eater, I miss Dunks. Dunks = home.
In honor of the soon-to-open first stand-alone Dunkin' Donuts in the city, I'm putting together a New England Transplant mailing list with the expectation of future meet-ups and maybe even some contests and giveaways.
Do you want in? Miss the Northeast (I use the term "New England" loosely)? Just have a soft spot for clam chowdah and pahking your cah in Hahvahd Yahd? Dream about summering on the Vineyard?
Email me at Lou [at] loueyville.com with NETs in the subject line to be included on a mailing list for New England Transplants. Or DM me your email address on Twitter (@loueyville). I promise, cross-my-heart-hope-to-die, that I will ONLY use your email address to send you NETs updates.
I'll be posting any meet-ups or contests to Loueyville, but this mailing list will help keep y'all in the loop (and it will help me tell any potential sponsors/partners just how many of us there are!).
And while you're here-- tell me what YOU miss about the Northeast in the comments!
UPDATE: See Suzi's comments below... apparently this isn't the FIRST stand-alone DD to have opened in Louisville.
