what do you miss

In the old pizza hut location - I peeked in the other day while they were laying the bamboo floor and it looks great!

The place looks real cool! Hope the food is as good as the place looks! :@)

First time posting on here & thought I'd add my "miss" list. I moved here from the Metro Atlanta, GA area & I've been living here in St. Thomas for 3 years this month. As lovely as it is here, there are things that are sorely missed:

Affordable electricity that hardly Never goes out
Never running out of water, even when the power is out
Every road/street having a clearly marked sign for directions
Home mail delivery & trash pickup
Driving on the RIGHT
Drivers that don't stop in the middle of the road to chat
A big, fenced yard that isn't overrun by wild chickens
Courteous Customer Service at the register, with a smile
24/7 Shopping
Going to just 1 store & getting everything you need
Super WalMart
Best Buys
Staples
Fully stocked Home Depot & Lowes
Burger King
Krystal's
Taco Bell
Chinese Food Home Delivery
Domino's, Papa John's & Pizza Hut Home Delivery
Drive-thru service that doesn't take 45 minutes
Fresh Krispy-Kreme Donuts
Fresh GA Peaches & home-grown tomatoes & watermelons
Well stocked grocery stores with affordable prices
Getting your purchases bagged at every checkout counter
Being recognized as living in the U.S. when paying shipping charges for on-line purchases

Mimi - Well if you have lived here for 3 years you must have have realized by now that although all those things are 'sorely missed' they are hardly needed to enjoy life.

exitzero you do "need" some of those things

Probably just me, but reading it again I don't see a thing I need to enjoy life here on that list - over 30 years here but, OK,-- maybe affordable Wapa would be nice.

Little judgmental to decide what someone else needs to enjoy life. Most of the things on the list sound good to me. I don't Need any of them but I do enjoy them. Grew up with warm weather so its no biggie to me, our beaches are flat out gorgeous. But other then that its more like what don't we have. The old timers get crusty and wear it like a badge of honor of what they have survived and what they can do without so don't take it personal Mimi. After nine years here I get like that sometimes too.

exit, my needs centered on the food items except taco bell cause del taco is better
and maybe target cause they dont deliver here.

Probably just me, but reading it again I don't see a thing I need to enjoy life here on that list - over 30 years here but, OK,-- maybe affordable Wapa would be nice.

Pardon me, but I do believe the subject is "what do you miss", not "what you need to enjoy life here". I can enjoy life here and still miss things from where I used to live.

When I moved here from Georgia 3 years ago, I had no idea just how different my life would be living here. I was given a wonderfully rosy review by relatives that own time shares here. They painted such a nice picture of the Islands that I wasn't prepared for the drastic changes that I would experience here, (the "culture shock" ). Their experiences here were as vacationers, not transplanted resident locals, and as such, were much different from my experiences here.

While I understand much of whats on my list is frivolous & insignificant to some, it's MY list and only reflects MY ideas of what I miss from the mainland. And that IS what the subject of this thread is about. And just to let you know, I have lived in Germany, TWICE in my lifetime, so I have actually experienced living in a culture other than my home state of the U.S. mainland.

If you've lived here for 30 years, then I would imagine you wouldn't understand my viewpoint at all. You wouldn't know of what I experienced living in a major big city of the mainland (Atlanta) in recent times, and all that comes with it. While there are certainly things about big city living that I don't miss at all, the conveniences of 24-hour shopping, home services such as mail delivery, trash pickup & home food deliveries, and not having to pay premium (international) shipping charges for things you can't get locally did make some things easier and more enjoyable for me.

Thanks for your comments Betty.:-)

speee1dy: It's been so long since I had Del Taco I forget if I liked them better than Taco Bell or not. We did have both in the Atlanta area some years back, but then the Del Taco's started disappearing & we only had Taco Bell. I just LOVED Taco Bells Big Beef Burrito Supreme, with extra sour cream! And I could eat their soft tacos all day. I'd better stop now, my mouth is watering & I just finished off 2 PB&J sandwiches lol!:D

exit just so you know i am funning with you

I miss a good Sunday Morning Newspaper.
Internet newspapers are the equivalent of fast food.

I hear ya Neil. I used to enjoy the Sunday paper as well. As the old song goes, "video killed the radio star", the Internet has killed the newspaper as we used to know it. Sadly, U.S. newspapers are going out of business left & right. They are rapidly on their way to becoming extinct. We won't be alone in missing those Sunday morning papers.:-(

I miss customer service, real roads to drive on, taco bell and whitecastle and not being able to go out at any time of the day to go get something.....however the tradeoff for not having these things is just fine with me 🙂

Some days I miss things that on most days just don't matter. I've always said you can live here just fine without ever ordering anything from off island or going to the states to shop, etc. But I do it. As my husband and I approach retirement (rapidly), we often ponder where we want to live, what services, etc. we want to have available and the cost of living. It's not exactly what we miss, but what is important to provide the quality of life we want.

Today, in particular, I am missing litter-free roadsides. Along with that goes missing living with people who care about their environment. Now I would bet that not one person reading this would ever just throw something down, but someone on STX sure as heck does!

I too miss those really hugh Sunday newspapers that you spread out all over the living room and take all day to read!
I miss changing seasons, too. Our recent "winter" type weather reminded me that cool isn't all bad.

cool weather, it was downright cold

I'll be back to STX in a few more weeks.
Want me to bring you some Mike Sells potato chips & Esther Price Candies? I grew up withing walking dist to Esther Price.
Might find some room in a checked bag.
Have a potato chip and chocolate party at RumRunners
When Vickie and the dogs come after it cools off might just ship a couple of cartons along with the other stuff 😉

No complaints agreed!
These are a few of our favorite things we "miss".
Just like when I lived in GA.............I missed things I could only get in Ohio..Mike Sells potato chips & Esther Price Candies..especially the choc covered strawberries!!! Did it mean I wanted to go back just for those reasons alone.......nay!
We've all sacrificed something to live here, Trade you???? Nay again! Tho we miss many things of comfort, nothing can replace the island life. (at least for me).

What do I miss...

Affordable groceries
A light bill that makes sense
3300 gallons of water on a monthly bill for $23.00 NOT $220.00
Curb side trash pick up that I don't have to pay for and monthly "heavy trash" pick up at the curb
Taco Bell
Whataburger
Shipley's Donuts (yum!)

Geesh, you pay 15 cents/gallon for water? I think I'd move.

Marco's Water prices as of 06/16/09:

5300 gallon truck $330
3300 gallon truck $220

What is everybody's else paying for water?

Forgot to add...that was WAPA water for the pool.

I pay $0 for water (large cistern + West End rain). Does it not rain where you are, or do you just use a lot of water?

I love living in the rain forest and our endless supply of water... When we lived in Little Princess, we had a landlord who refused to fix the leaky cistern.... we had to buy water three times in six months, then moved out.

I am still stateside so I am missing STX in general,I miss knep,roadside fruit stands,the beach,the ocean,snorkeling,sweating all the time,driving on the left,the smells of grocery stores,driving down that 90 degree road by the animal welfare-wweeee!! one thing I missed when I was there was afforable groceries,Taco Time,mexican food in general.

cheesesteaks and strombolis have'nt any grocery stores heard of steakumms?

Sorry, Luckygirl, I thought you meant metered water not a truckload.