"Home"-- inspired by Justin Rhodes' Great American Farm Tour

This post is 1 of 2 and may include spoilers of Justin Rhodes' Great American Farm Tour.  @Beau Davidson suggested I post my reacts to Justin Rhodes' Great American Farm Tour on the film's own page, so I started writing this there.  But then I decided to start a separate thread about "Home", and it made sense to me to keep it together with my response to the film.  So heads up, some possible spoilers...?

This isn't a review of the film so much as thoughts about "home" that I'm inspired to process because of it.

I see the Rhodes' adventure as first, on the surface, discovering "home" through many folks' eyes; secondly, "making home" on the road, but all the time searching for a deeper meaning of "home" and finding the answer most essentially in an attitude. At first the movie felt like a lighthearted travelogue and then for me it got really deep because of the process they go through as a family.  Sorry if this just sounds like a book report!  It really touched me and I appreciate all the videography and editing that are almost out-of-sight, out-of-mind in the 'real' feeling style.  I've tried to document some life experiences, and then worked on editing, and I know that to get from "the actual experience" to "a real-feeling presentation of the experience" takes a ton of work.

I wanted to write a react because it gave me such a "deep calls to deep" kind of feeling/homesickness from living overseas.  The movie was overall lighthearted, but it resonated at a deep level for me, in part because every stop on the journey was a window back into the broader American Farm culture I'm removed from and miss.  The Rhodes' journey takes them off their best-known turf and all over the USA.  My journey has taken me entirely out of my known turf of the US, and while I celebrate a number of features of my current location, the homesickness is real.  In my 'missing' I become conscious of fixtures in my homeland life that I never thought about before.  Now, ordinary things can hit me in the face with warmth and poignancy, because they're what I always knew, and now I'm somewhere different.

Thanks Rhodes family for going all in on the adventure and then sharing it.  

In my travelling days, I remember writing about the feeling that I think you're describing.  I stumbled upon a Welsh word, "Hiraeth," that came as close to the meaning as anything I found.  

Glad you liked the film.  Thanks for sharing.

So I'd like to make an invitation on this thread to talk about some most essential aspects of "home."  It might have been fun to post this around Thanksgiving

Do you have memories of a place that used to be home, different than where you live now?  I don't mean a move of houses (unless there is something really particular about a house you used to live in)-- so much as subtle changes of culture or climate.

What are some fixtures of home that seemed super mundane, but might inspire nostalgia now? (such as the Rhodes family's beloved tap water!).
What are some things you miss or appreciated newly when you returned?
Contentment-- what are some things you love about "home" now?


I'll answer my own questions as quite a list (not all very permaculture pure!)

What seemed mundane to me in the past that can seem nostalgic now?
The suspense/adrenaline surges with severe weather (though i don't miss it, there is a degree of nostalgia). -- tornado cellars.
A box full of winter weather gear; shoveling snow.
Bagels
Breakfast diners
Humidity.  Sometimes I go to the jungle, and a day or two in the humidity restores senses I didn't know I'd lost in the arid climate I call home now.
The sound of lawn mowers.
The sound of snowplows.
Thrift stores; garage sales.

Things I miss:
Driving in snow
Carpets.  I know.  They're so unhealthy.  But I grew up with them and I do miss them-- if I returned to the States I'd have to have a couple bedrooms paved with that cushy comfort.
US Highways and well-enforced traffic engineering in most places.  Can seem a pain, til you miss it!
Prewashed salad kits, freezer food, and (!) Wendy's!
Cookouts-- church events, community fish fries, family reunions.
In-home social gatherings.  Don't know what to call them.  Where I'm from it used to mean music jams, a lot of loud talking and interrupting (I moved to the margins) and pizza.
Church in English.
Swimming.  Beaches. Camping.
Here's one I can cry over if I wallow too much:  Those occasional MAGIC snowfalls of huge, slow flakes, at nighttime, in a smalltown area with streetlights, when the air is not terribly cold, but all sounds are muffled, and you go out walking in it with loved ones or good friends.  It sticks to your eyelashes and hair and hat.  Snow might get in your shoes because you didn't really plan for such a winsome snow that would draw you out into it.
Autumn leaves!!!

Contentment--
I love how virtually bug-free our zone is.
I MISS the four seasons of the US-Midwest.  But at the same time I LOVE the rainy season/dry season climate here.  After months and months of dry sunny weather, we forget there was ever a local waterfall, and we forget that the hills can turn Irish green.  Each year we freshly appreciate rain.
I designed our house, we built it, and never had to have any inspections.  I appreciate the basic purpose of inspections: safety.  If we built again, I'd put a higher priority on some safety features.  But pragmatically it was such a perk to not have to work endless particulars.
Our drinking water is wonderful.
Amazing view.
All the embankments and unworked areas of brushy weeds turn into patches of glorious wildflowers every year.