They keep tearing down buildings that have personal significance to me. My grade school, my first job, my favorite skate spots, teenage hangout spots, etc. Some spots became better things but most were turned into parking lots. I know Joni was singing about nature and whatnot, but Big Yellow Taxi hits me hard.

The forest near my childhood home. It's still there. I'm not.

Last summer I went there, and the place was so familiar to me that I recognized individual trees.

All the trees and groves around me to build yet another fucking gas station.

Dead pets. Miss em. Wish they could have stayed with me forever.

Playing in a band. It's never been easier to play on my own, and in some ways I think it's hard to be in a band since it involves a lot of compromise. But I do miss the feeling of regularly playing and making music with friends.

Mechanical fountain soda machines with free refills. This stuff costs like 2 cents and is always the best way to drink soda, but they seem to be dying out and disappearing.

Playing video games with friends. As I get older and tastes diverge it feels hard to get a group together to play games. It's even more rare to play games together in the same room, staying up late into the night.

Finally, I miss that feeling that life is ahead of me and the ability to focus on dreaming and thinking about the future. As I get older, a lot more stuff is in the rear view mirror, the possibilities of the future seem more limited, and it's easy to look back and question how you spent all that time in the past. I get more sad and scared thinking about the future, even though I'm sure that good things will happen too.

I used to have this yellow dress that I loved and I am pretty sure I accidentally donated it like 10 or 15 years ago, but every 6 to 10 months or so I still think about that dress.

I miss incandescent Christmas lights from the 70s.

the colors they had were warm and magical.

you could go down the street at night and the whole neighborhood was filled with this technicolor dream rainbow that you just can't make anymore.

The Choco Taco, rip

The city made my grandparents cut down their weeping willow because it was taller than the electrical lines. That tree was like 40 years old and massive. Then they cut down all of the willows at the city park to build in a stupid marina. We used to have willows.

This is just stupid of me, but I hate how they changed the grocery store I had been going to for a decade. Everything's there, just in a different place. It has been over a year and I'm still not over it.

Two things.

A specific spicy pepper pasta sauce from twenty years ago.

And my cat.

I wish we could roll back the last 30 years and have a do over. Everything is shit anymore.

Quiznos subs

I miss places that weren't overrun with traffic.

I lived in LA right at the end of "it's LA. Everything is 20 minutes from everything else." Which was mostly true other than a rush hour that politely lasted from 3:30 to 6:00pm. Only places like The Valley or Long Beach or Montebello/West Covina took 30+ minutes.

Every time I visit now, everything is stop and go traffic. Not just there, every major city. Road infrastructure hasn't, and can't realistically, keep up with basic population growth. Sprawl is a disease. It's urban planning cancer.

Inconsequential and deeply personal?

My happiness.

Many many moons ago (like quarter century+), Burger King had this thing where you could shake up fries in a baggie and make them cheesy. It was great because their fries are straight up bland ass so it was a perfect canvas.

Now it’s just bland ass again :(

The scent of my grandparents' house.

It had a very distinctive sweet aroma. I was never sure what is was, and I never asked. The scent followed them when they moved into a condo in a retirement facility. The last time I visited them in their condo was 2019, and they've both since passed away.

They gave me a book many years ago, the pages of which used to smell like their house. I know if I dig that book out of storage, it might still have a trace scent in it. But otherwise, it is now just a memory.

Seasons 2, 3, 4, 5, & 6 of Firefly.

I also miss Sobeys (Canadian grocery chain) Take n Bake pizza. They changed to a new recipe many years ago. I bought one of their new pizzas, it was very disappointing.

A certain stuffed animal I had when I was a kid. It got lost in one of the numerous moves in my life. It was worn and creased and it's eye were cracked but it was special.

McDonald's fruit & yogurt parfait. For $1. I loved those things. Yes, I can just get yogurt, granola, & fruit and make my own, but they're not the same. Haha.

Altoids Sours, specifically the mango ones. Those were my absolute jam. Probably for the best, in regards to the structural integrity of my hard palate.

My youth.

Taco Bell and the Quesarito.

Fuuuck, why did they remove it? It was the whole reason to go to Taco Bell!

Prank phone calls. Its still possible with enough dedication and effort, but between smart call ID, the phone boxes disappearing and 99.99% of incoming calls being scams its just not worth the effort.

Time was if you knew a phone number and 30p in your pocket you could pop into a phone box and get an expensive laugh.

I also kinda miss how they smell. It was awful mix of piss, cigarettes and burnt plastic, but it was a pretty unique sensation.

I've lost so much which would be considered deeply personal that none of it matters anymore, but you know what I don't miss? Fucking fast food. Sounds like a giant ad in here.

I miss del taco being in San Francisco

There was an helado shop very near where I live now, just a wonderland of flavors, nice lady with a hundred tubs of different interesting mostly fruit flavored ice creams. Not expensive. It's been gone for years and I still miss it.

Also there was this house I used to pass on my way home that had a crazy paint job, I think it had been orange and someone tried to cover that with green - the result was a house that looked like it was ripening and I just loved to see it. Eventually someone "fixed" it by making it gray, I miss it.

Lettuce.

Being able to eat peanuts. Developed an allergy 4 years ago.

The park in Oregon where I used to walk every day and see the most amazing water birds.

Any time I have enjoyed a sandwich at Panera, they have changed it or cancelled it. There was a cheddar roast beef sandwich which hit just right back in the day. Then they had an Italian sandwich with pickled vegetables that also slapped. They discontinued both and I'm so bitter about it I still refuse to eat there