I grew up in a little clutch of houses too small to even be called a town.
There was a gas station nearby, and a 12-room hotel, and 30 or 40 houses on the side of a seaside hill.
This locale was picturesque, quiet, and an amazing locale to grow up. I could see the ocean from our front yard, and a half mile up the road were a series of logging trails that led deep into the dense forest. When I was in middle school our dad got a new job and all of us had to transfer to the midwest, which was a shock to our system. This locale was so sizzling it felt appreciate I would melt whenever I left the safety of the air conditioner. It took a few afternoons before I adjusted the heat, at which point I realized there was something even worse – the air quality. The dry, dusty air was as thick as London fog, and all of us had to run the central Heating, Ventilation & A/C regularly just to make the air more breathable, and long before COVID people were wearing masks around here, just to serve as an air filter for the air they breathe, then every one of us went from decreasing the air filter in the central system once every many weeks, to once every many weeks! The air filters were constantly clogged up with dirt and dusty so abruptly, all of us had to start buying the 12- filter supersized pack. Every one of us thought about getting the HEPA air filters, but all of us went through them so abruptly they would be cost prohibitive.