Kissy Lovestuff™

I belong to a group on Facebook that is all about the city I grew up in.  There are thousands of members who belong to this group who range in age from young to old and I wouldn't even know where to begin to describe to you the diversity of this group of people.  Somehow, though, we all come together to reminisce about this one place that most of us agree was the greatest place in the Universe to have grown up in.  The beauty of that is that why it was so great defies explanation. It is as if you had to have lived there and drank and bathed in its water to be privy to the magic of the place. 

You would think by the sound of it that I'm describing somewhere idyllic.  Like, Mayberry or something. You would be wrong.  This place where I grew up is a nitty gritty city.  We rode the city bus.  We ate hot dogs from places that you ordered from a walk-up window.  We had boundaries set by our parents so that we wouldn't wander into the really bad neighborhoods.  There were taverns everywhere that some of our parents or grandparents were regulars at.  The group of kids I hung out with in elementary school consisted of so many different nationalities When I was together with the little group of friends I hung out with in elementary school it looked like a United Colors of Benetton ad.