Welcome back, Mavkatzer. I too started in the early 80s with Basic. Bounced around White Wolf in high school (of course) and a bunch of other systems, but D&D was always there. Having moved to Seattle I've been lucky enough to be part of the various devs' playtest groups for 3, 4, and 5. Each Edition is a clear creation of the culture/times in which it was wrought. 3E is a child of the late roaring 90s, 4E of that MMO era, and 5E evokes the current modern respect for what's come before + innovation. Hipster D&D, meant as a compliment.
Anyway: welcome back, roleplayer. Bust out those filled-in-with-crayon dice, and those Grenadier miniatures if minis are your thing, and throw some Led Zeppelin on Pandora.
EDIT: and holy cow, you're from Traverse City? I'm originally from Northville, MI. There's a nonzero chance we gamed together back in the day on 313 or 810 area code BBSs. Ha--small world.