I was born and raised in Hollywood, Florida in Broward County -- just between Fort Lauderdale and Miami. I hated it for my first 18 years. Why?
You know how every town has that ugly patch of uncontrolled development, with fast food places, car dealerships, and slapdash strip malls? Well, that's what my entire county looked like.
Yes, it is nice to be in Florida in January when the rest of the country has snow. But in the Summer -- from April to November -- it is 90 degrees and 99 percent humidity and you don't dare go outside at night because of the mosquitos.
Growing up, my county had almost two million people but no art or cultural facilities. By the time I got to high school, they built a new library, but didn't have money for any books. The new art museum was a trailerhome.
In my high school, there was no requirement to study U.S. History. Instead, we were required to take a course called "Americanism versus Communism," which involved some cheesy civics lessons. I never learned about the Civil War.
But you know what? There's something about the warm breeze off the ocean and the relentless sun that just bakes all of your worries out of you. Between Fort Lauderdale and Miami, there's actually some culture around nowadays.
And my hometown of Hollywood has a relaxed, somewhat seedy stretch of wide beaches and little restaurants with a friendly mix of folks visiting from Quebec and Latin America. For all the problems associated with rapacious and uncontrolled development, it's still my hometown.
I still miss the thin, sandy soil and the sun beating down through the car window and the palm trees and good pastrami and resort architecture.
I miss the ocean.
