Things I Miss About Maryland

I often - well not really often, but maybe sometimes - feel guilty about trash talking my temporary home state of Maryland. Temporary? Who am I kidding? I lived there for 2/5ths of my life. The fact is it's a perfectly lovely state: some mountains, some beaches, and the Chesapeake Bay are just a few of the beautiful places there. Another fact is that sadly, I never truly felt at home in Maryland. I think it was being so close to Washington, DC. So much traffic. So much crime. So very many people, all rushing around trying to get somewhere faster than the other guy. So many politicians. Nobody who said, 'Y'all!' Just not my cup of tea. Speaking of tea, they've never heard of sweet tea there. Want to get a funny look? Ask for sweet tea at a restaurant. But I'm going off on a tangent. I do miss some things about Maryland. And here, on the last day of 2010, the last year that any of my family lived there, I thought it would be nice to make a list. So, here you go: Things I Miss About Maryland:

1) No roaches. Maybe there are a few roaches there, but I never saw any. I hate roaches. Too bad they love SC so much.

2) Snow, predictably every winter. Some winters more than others. We've been lucky since we moved back - we saw a nice 8" of snow in Batesburg this past February and of course the rare White Christmas snow just last week. My children don't understand the significance of these snows. I tell them they may not see 8" of snow here again until they are grandparents, but they don't believe me. They will.

3) The Amish market. We lived near a community of Amish farmers. Um. Are there Amish who aren't farmers? Like Urban Amish? I don't know, but this group of Amish farmers set up a great farmer's market at the Charlotte Hall library. Absolutely delicious produce, baked, and canned good. Silver king and queen corn - just melted in your mouth. We froze tons of it every summer in hopes of making it through the winter with some yummy corn, but I don't think we ever made it past Christmas. Their tomatoes were excellent, too. And their plants. I never bought a plant from them that didn't do exceptionally well, especially their herbs. Unfortunately, word got out about the little Amish market and people started coming in droves from all over the area, DC, Virginia, northern Maryland suburbs. Our secret was out and it caused a lot of traffic problems at the poor little library. Last I heard, there was a possibility the market would be banned. Very sad.

4) My herb garden. (see last post) We had a great herb garden in our yard, shaped like a wagon wheel. In 6 years, it had really flourished. I hope that guy who bought our house appreciates our herb garden. I keep trying to check it out on Google Earth, but I can't really tell if it's still there.

5) Our church. We went to a great church, St. Paul's Episcopal - affectionately known as 'Piney'. Great people, thank goodness for Facebook so we can keep in touch easily.

6) Emma. If you know Emma, you know what I mean. If you don't know Emma, you need to meet her.

7) The Navy Rec Center at Solomon's. Our favorite place in Maryland, hands down. Right on the water, great camping, great cottages, great activities, great fun.

8) Our friends. Even though the area where we lived changed greatly the last few years that we were there, and many of our friends chose to move away, we still think of them as our Maryland friends and miss seeing them.

9) The golden retriever rescue of Southern Maryland. Absolutely wonderful group of kind, caring people, who save many goldens each year, including our Ranger. There are people in this world who are terribly cruel to animals - thank God there are people like Pat, Barb, Lori, and many others who work hard to find new homes for abandoned goldens.

So there you have it. My 'What I Miss About Maryland' list. Maybe one day I'll make a 'What I Don't Miss About Maryland' list. Mostly I'm just trying to forget that part, though! Happy New Year! To misquote a verse from the Bible: "May you be content, no matter what state you're in". Dang, I couldn't quite figure out how to not end that in a preposition.