I guess we are all different and we experience pain differently. I probably will be making my yearly trip to Florida next month. This year its different because my Fibro and back issues have kicked it up a notch so it will be interesting to see how I feel down there. I know I have an issue because I feel like I'm addicted to the summer sun lolol I also have an obsession with salt water hence my love of the ocean. (although I fear and respect it also!) My daughter said to me the other day.."You have to find joy in every season." Although believe me I try ..but when that winter cold wind whips around, snow and ice on the ground and when I went to work driving in these conditions and on black ice..etc... I don't know but I think I was traumatized because now when I do drive on the parkway or major highways I get anxiety attacks.
Marc--I know Cherry Hill very very well! My friend and her BF used to live there many years ago and we would always hang out at the mall or around town. I have taken my daughters to that mall also. Traffic there is horrendous! lol but I think the entire state of New Jersey is a mess anyway.
My best friend just came back from Arizona and told me how nice it was there, hot and dry. I could never live there because no beach or ocean! I'm a beach bum....there I admitted it! LOL
Thanks for all the responses...very interesting. I like to hear where everyone is from. Hope each day brings everyone relief.
Although I no longer live in Cherry Hill (not since 1986), I feel the necessity to defend it. There is essentially two sections of Cherry Hill - East and West. The area you described near the Cherry Hill Mall is West Cherry Hill. That is the older section with bad traffic, older homes and a much lower standard of living (in terms of home costs, income levels, education, etc.,). The Eastern half of Cherry Hill was built through the 1970's on. That is where most of the athletes that play for Philadelphia sports teams live. that is where the bulk of doctors, lawyers and other high income people live. The houses in the neighborhood I grew up in (Woodcrest near the country club) would be million dollar homes in Md where I live today.
My family was lucky to have bought the right property in the right location at the right time. My parents paid $36,000 for their house in the early 1970's. We were not wealthy but I went to school with the children of the elite of the area. My first car was a POS 1977 Buick Regal that was beat to hell. Everyday, I parked next to kids driving new BMW's, Mercedes and Porsches. these were not their parents cars either. Every party I went to had alcohol, pot, cocaine and acid. I didn't drink or do drugs but my friends sure did. In fact, we had a real life 21 Jump Street undercover cop in our school posing as a student. One morning, he busted fifteen students in the school parking lot with a combined $100,000 of coke. That merited a full page article in Newsweek magazine (at our prom, I slipped the DJ $20 to play "Cocaine" by Clapton and "White Lines" - the administration was not pleased but they never found out who did it). One of my childhood friends was one of the fifteen kids arrested. He attempted to hang himself in jail with his shoelaces rather than have his folks knowing what he did.
I too live in Florida. Unfortunately we have all the rains and crazy storms that mess with our system. Hopefully you will even out. I keep saying I going to live on an island. Sending gentle hugs.
Scarlett
Well Marc..I guess I was hanging out on the wrong side of town! The same goes here the rich kids are the ones driving their fancy cars to high school and the drug situation is pretty bad there since they have the money to buy it. In this area, heroin is prevalent and many kids are dying from it. I grew up in a middle class neighborhood by strict Italian parents. I never had my own car and had to take a bus to wherever I wanted to go. I was not spoiled and worked P/T for some pocket change when I was a young teen. I did not know any rich kids but it sounds like your school was way more exciting than mine!
I'm sure it was exciting for some of the kids. It's funny, for me it was they way I think most people view high school - a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. It is a period of civil war being taught in history classes throughout the county. Rebel football teams, striking from a hidden restaurant where they eat their secret pre-game meals, have won their first victory against the evil and yearly homecoming opponents. During the battle, opponent spies managed to steal game plans and now know how to sack their opponent's ultimate weapon, the all-county quarterback headed to a division 1 college with a full athletic scholarship. Pursued by the defensive ends all-game, the all-county quarterback who the crowd is now chanting "Princess! Princess!" races home after the loss in his POS 1997 VW Bug, with proof his game plans have been stolen. This is his only way to save face and restore balance to next year's Homecoming Football Game...
Sorry about that. I guess I was think about Star Wars episode 4...
