Writing challenge, Day 24: something you miss

"Something you miss." Those three words could set off a firestorm of memories. There are so many things that are long gone, but I wish were still here. So I'm going to have to think about this for a bit. Since my dietitian commanded me to go out and walk, let me do that and come back to this.

OK, so two-and-a-half miles later, and I managed to think about everything but this. So I'll just choose something—and it won't be some kind of food.

I miss...the North Hollywood I grew up in. When I was a kid, we spent a lot of time driving up and down Lankershim Blvd. for a number of reasons: going to and from church, to visit our grandparents, to get to the El Portal theater to see movies. We did much of our clothes shopping at Penney's and Sears in the Valley Plaza. We went out for birthday dinners at Van de Kamp's or Rusty's Hacienda. We did our bowling at Starlite Lanes. We played miniature golf at Golfland or the little Bartmus course on Riverside Dr. I got many of my Hot Wheels cars at Rathbun's Toy Center on Lankershim in the area we called "uptown" (between Magnolia and Chandler). I don't know why we called it "uptown," but...whatever.

Going somewhere besides North Hollywood was rare, but if we did, it was over to Burbank or Van Nuys. It didn't matter where we went, coming back to North Hollywood meant that we were home.

Thriftimart. TG&Y. DeMayo's Italian grocery. Schaber's Cafeteria. Auditory Odyssey. All of these were places I went as a kid.

For many years, I figured that I would always live in North Hollywood. Sometime in the '80s, that feeling began to change. Little by little, the North Hollywood that I knew was beginning to disappear, bit by bit. The huge redevelopment of the center of town began to fall into place. Before long, places once familiar were being torn down and replaced. Sometimes places were torn down and left vacant. Even today there are scars of projects abandoned or delayed.

I could go on about where North Hollywood is today, but I prefer to remember the "good old days." What a great thing it would be to have a time machine so we could enter a year and transport ourselves and a few friends or loved ones to relive a day in our past; to experience a simpler time once again.

If you already think I'm a little over the edge, you might think I'm all the way over after tomorrow's post. Four weird traits of mine. Hmmm...think you can handle it? Stay tuned...