Home Sweet Used to be Home

We're in Michigan.  My husband and I both grew up in the Detroit area and make our annual homage every summer to ensure our kids realize our family members are not just strangers in picture frames.

People are naturally curious about the differences in living in Michigan and then moving to Alabama.  I will tell you right off, it's taken about four years for us to get over culture shock.  When we come to visit I feel like even though we're in the same country, we've entered an alternate reality; when we're in Alabama we feel like we're at home yet somewhere in Kentucky I begin to transform into a true yankee all over again almost as natural as putting on a coat when it gets cold and by the time we've hit the Michigan border, it feels like home, too.  Here's some observations I have so far on this trip...

1. No one has used the phrases "y'all" or "bless your heart" or told me to "come back, now" since we got here.  Not once.
2. A stranger looked at my husband funny when he instinctively waved and smiled as we drove by her.
3. You can take the express way everywhere. 
4. It has rained multiple times since we've been here and it's July.
5. The fireflies actually come out here.
6. It takes about fifteen minutes to get to ten different cities no matter where you are downriver.
7. Having a bbq means putting hot dogs and hamburgers on a grill and then eating them with a large group of people.  It's a social event, not a religion of cooking.
8. People still talk like sailors and where in AL they say things like "the boy ain't right" or "I had a total come apart," the f bomb is a commonly used adjective up here.
9. I relax my controlling nature when I'm here.  I have yet to look at my planner, I lose track of what day it is, I have let my kids eat cheese puffs before 8:30 a.m. (at least they were organic right?  nope, still a weak parenting moment), go to bed as late as 11:30, and watch a firework show that didn't begin until 10 p.m.
10. Although it is still customary to not even notice another person walking within ten feet of you, it is absolute law to wave "thank you" when someone let's you in front of them on the road.  It is also assumed you'll greet family and friends with a hug and a kiss in a very Italian kinda way.
11. That being said, people are friendlier than I remember.  We were asked if we were finding everything okay in Meijer (ah, sweet, sweet Meijer) and talked to by two total strangers there, as well.
12. The news stations are still way better.
13. You are still your parents' child no matter how old you are.
14. My children are fascinated that they have Target, Kroger, and lego.com here, too.
15. It really does get harder to leave each year.

Three Little Fish