another Dela-weanie here!

so what i haven't actually lived in DE for a decade, i am sort of from there. i went to middle and high school in glorious Newark. That's New-Ark, NOT pronounced like that other city in New Jersey, thank you very much.

I spend three summers in Bethany Beach after high school. Most of my DE friends have moved out of there too and I get lost every time i go back to Newark because the roads have changed so much, thanks MBNA.

I know what you mean about MBNA. The apartment complex in "Ogletown" (land of Ogles--watch out!) that my boyfriend grew up in got swallowed up by them. They are EVERYWHERE!!!

As long as they don't try to renovate Towne Court, everything will be fine. I moved away in '93 and it seems like there have been HUGE changes since then. I think they have demolished almost every building on Main Street and built a mini mall in its place.

Remember Outer Limits? the homemade ice cream place (Patty's?), when Rainbow was in the old building? When the diner was still called Jimmy's. Maybe I am dating myself here. I don't even know what it is called now.

Maybe this thread should be called The Homogenization of Small Town America.

Anyway, I got out and went to school in NY, but at the poor man's NYU, SUNY Stony Brook. That and I probably know you, or people you know, so I will email you at the addy in your profile. We ARE talking about DE after all. I think there are only 2 degrees of seperation in THAT small a place. Of course, I moved there from Rhode Island, the only smaller state.

**edited to add that I was just talking to some of the girls at the DigsMeet in NYC about how I wanted to start a DE thread, but I would end up getting too depressed watching it sink lower and lower on the most recent update list.

Oh and The Family Thrift Center on Rt 4 in Newport. THE PREMIER THRIFT OUTLET.

Fatty Patty's got closed down b/c the building started falling apart...

Rainbow moves from building to building, can't make up their mind....

some things that have been there a while.... Stone Balloon, Newark Newsstand, Camera's Etc. (worked there for a while), Deer Park (now a nice clean place to eat over-priced bar food--WHO NEEDS IT?!), The East End (which I sorely miss)...

but the rest of the area has changed a lot. they've redone everything except the roads.

hee heee.

Went into Reho a few weeks ago and we TRULY STRUGGLED to find someplace to buy a funnel cake!!!! What is this world coming to?!

well, I'm in Philly at the moment and was in Newark Sunday. I'm heading down to Smyrna this afternoon to visit a friend. I think we are going to go to Bombay Hook.

I went to the Family Thrift, but I had to pee really bad so I didn't stay that long and I was grumpy so I decided not to buy that "Hootenanny" Folky music record.

Mmmmm, Smyrna DIner Garlicy, Cheesey Homefries.

My poor mother drives to Dover every day from Md. That, to me seems like the longest. drive. ever. Laurel, Harrison, Georgetown, Seaford, Milford. yuck, yuck, yuck.

If you are down here this week and have lots of free time to spend on the beach, you are VERY LUCKY, and I, sitting at my desk staring out the window at this beautiful day, am VERY JEALOUS.

I know the ferry goes from Cape May to Delaware, but is there one that goes across to MD or VA? A bridge? Some way of cutting the DC corner?

edited because I can't even spell the name of my town...oy

I lived off Kirkwood Hwy in Wilmington growing up, then moved about 5 min from MBNA in Newark (lovely traffic during rush hour).

I went to Padua lol

Everytime I drive through (my rents still live there) my chin's always hitting the floor. Cannot BELIEVE how built up it's gotten.

I hear ya on the property prices in Sussex. I remember when Middletown and Smyrna were considered No Man's Land.

Hmmm, more memories...how about the Big Kan-a-Tuna? lol

Of course, I spent my high school/ college summers in Betahny Beaach, "the quiet resorts". Consequently my friends would be followed around, search, and harrassed by the cops all day when they came to visit. I was once pointing out the planet Jupiter (Astronomy major) to my roomate when we were taking a walk and a cop told us: "likely story, you are obviously scoping out the open window on the third floor of that house." "Uh, no, officer, with all due respect, we are much more interested in the planets."

My friend (i think Polly knows him, Buzz) spent a night in the Betahny Police station basement for allegedly transporting my sister (who had no ID on her, so they assumed she was a minor) over state lines. She was actually 21 at the line. A few years earlier he was threatened with arrest for having those little firecrackers that PoP when you throw them on the sidewalk. My roomate and I had a race to see who would get more parking and other police fines throughout the summer. I was summoned for jay walking on several occasions, and proudly, for peeing in the street (TMI)

I haven't been to Dewey since I was 21 or so...