Going back to visit places from the past (55, grandparents, spouse)

[MerriMAC]

I recently traveled back to where I grew up. Seeing the playgrounds, the primary school, the ball fields, the grocery store where I would buy candy, the places where I worked as a student, the streets where I walked, my childhood home, and my college campus.

So much time has passed and people have gone away. New people have taken over. Naturally, I got the stink eye from some of them thinking I was up to no good. I left after soaking in a few minutes of each place. Interestingly, some scents/smells were the same as decades ago.

Do you visit places from long ago to reminisce?

[DaveWA]

I like a nice bit of nostalgia so enjoy visiting places from my youth. However, got unsettled when I visited a place from early childhood (1958-60) a few years ago. The gap between my vivid 4 year old memories versus the reality was disconcerting. The long walk to pre-school was short, the river a dried up creek (;. One plus was the corner store was still there!

[Escort Rider]

I am the nostalgic type. The neighborhood where I lived from ages 7 to 14, now 2000 miles away, I have been back to visit three or four times since then, most recently eight years ago. It has changed relatively little, and I have really enjoyed the visits. But I would describe them as bitter-sweet because there is some longing and regret - longing for a life that is gone forever and regret for some, well, regrettable aspects of that life.

Sometimes you can't quite go back, though. The small house where my ex-wife and I lived from 1971 to 1976 has been demolished and a larger one built in its place. Memories do attach to that street, of course, but other houses have also been demolished and it's not the same.

[StealthRabbit]

I find it good for an attitude adjustment.

Interestingly, I still have night terrors from a dream about a Gymnasium where my mom coached before I was age 5 (We moved to another state at age 5).

The same gym, the same, mahogany trim and doors, and the same wire mesh gym room with the shelf that held the shot put, that rolled off and smacked my foot! (Not the dream BTW)

I have an uncle that lives across the street, I mow his grass, and still need to avoid the same rocks and stumps that were there when I mowed it 40 yrs ago..

My 37 yr old car still has it's same smell, just a bit more ripe!

I visit my old job sites where I built tall grain elevators and augers (in my teens) and the grain elevator that exploded and killed 3 of my co-workers while I was off for the morning registering for college.

I like to visit my favorite vacation spots like Sabba-day Falls in NH. Sabbaday Falls at the Kancamagus Highway: An NH Waterfall Beartooth...An All-American Road in Wyoming & Montana | Beartooth Highway | Montana & Wyoming Scenic Drives
America's Scenic Byways::Beartooth Highway - Montana

I do these frequently (Every chance I get). USA Scenic Drives- World I love to do on different motorcycles / vehicles.


Most emotional, is visiting the farm where I grew up with my grandparents. Probably due to the many painful departures I had to make to return to my parent's home (ranch) a few times / yrs.

Last trip to my childhood church, I noted that they had poured a concrete floor and got rid of the potbelly stove and wooden benches we used in Sunday School. (Basement of the little stone church on the hill...built in 1890). there were 6 short pews in the main hall, that was more than plenty. I still attend every year for the Bluegrass Gospel weekend.

Most depressing is Colorado Mtns where I spent many yrs hiking, motorcycle, horseback. Crowds of cocky trail runners and jerky greenies. Our previous ranch is now public lands, (a county park) herds of people, no cows / sheep. Everbrown forests (beetle kill) and the 'brown cloud' pollution from Denver to Ft Collins.

Same for many farm kids and those that grew up with parents in the Forest Service.

Where will I NEVER hope to go? Public schools beyond our ranch country elementary school.
These institutions represent the vile offense of USA edu system to decades of youth and were my most miserable yrs. I am fortunate. Many folks have much more depressing places / memories than a silly dysfunctional public institution that held you captive for 12 yrs. YMMV

Where do a Purpose to go back when ever I am near...
Samoa Cookhouse
Pioneer Village,
Wall Drug,
Little America
Drive-in theaters
and certain truck stops where my Grandpa bought me a Hot Beef Sandwich! (and a 7-up float) yum! And good for you (as a kid, anytime Grandpa had $2 to spend on just you was a good time!)

There is a theme here... a farm kid now enduring my first coup in Thailand and a tad homesick for the great summers and thunderstorms on the prairie. Thailand storms are pretty impressive too, got stuck in one last night (on my scooter). I will return to Thailand, but not in the SUMMER!!! Why waste a great summer, just to get healthcare for a sick spouse?... This too will pass.

[in_newengland]

A month ago, in early spring, I returned to my hometown. I'd been back once before--with expectations--and felt devastated by all the strangers and "new" people having taken over, no one who remembered what I remembered.

This time I went with zero expectations. The town has not changed. It is a gorgeous town with a long green and stately homes. My old house has been added onto, "my" big ol' tree has been cut down--but it looks better than it did when I lived there with my parents.

I went to my old elementary school--which looked exactly the same because it's on the National Historic Register--the inside has been gutted and changed, had to be careful of that, did not want to see the inside. Had my picture taken in front of the school.

It was a beautiful day and I made sure not to stay too long, just long enough. I was very impressed by the way the town is so well kept and I realized that it did feel somewhat like home, not the cute little hometown I would have in dreams, but that's where I grew up, snobby people and all. I made peace with it. In some ways I was lucky to have grown up in such a place and its school system was/is excellent, something I still benefit from.

[Pitt Chick]

Originally Posted by MerriMAC

Do you visit places from long ago to reminisce?

Not to reminisce, but to show the younger generation their roots.

[mlb]

I've been back many times to where I grew up. I left 38 years ago. Over the years it has changed - both for the good and for the bad.

I often went back wondering if I could ever live there. In the beginning - I was often homesick, so yeah - I could see it as a possibility. Other times - NOPE - and I went running for the airport back home to where I had moved.

The memories are wonderful - but the place will never be the same. I would have to make peace with the demons of change - and the history that repeatedly gets changed depending on who is telling the tale. My reality sometimes never jived with others.

It has become too expensive to live there. That's what you get when your hometown makes the "Best Places to Live" list. It's just a shame.

I've made alot more memories in those 38 years..... and we plan on banking on them for our retirement. It just won't be where I grew up.

[601halfdozen0theother]

My siblings and I just took a trip back to the family farm. I brought some trees to plant in the wood lot. When we got there I was astounded by how small the wood lot actually is. Growing up, it seemed like a huge wilderness - but it isn't, and really never was.

And when I went back to my home town that I grew up through age 17 I was depressed to see a lot of changes. The population has really boomed, and there's much more traffic. Where the boy scout camp was is now a huge ugly apartment complex. Housing costs have skyrocketed. You really can't "go home again" - change just happens.

I lived in NYC in 1984 - a very important year to me in every way. That's 30 years ago this year, and I hope to go back sometime in the fall. It was all so exotic to me then - I wonder if it will seem more or less exciting?

[AZDesertBrat]

Originally Posted by MerriMAC

I recently traveled back to where I grew up. Seeing the playgrounds, the primary school, the ball fields, the grocery store where I would buy candy, the places where I worked as a student, the streets where I walked, my childhood home, and my college campus.

So much time has passed and people have gone away. New people have taken over. Naturally, I got the stink eye from some of them thinking I was up to no good. I left after soaking in a few minutes of each place. Interestingly, some scents/smells were the same as decades ago.

Do you visit places from long ago to reminisce?

I 'grew up' in different places but I live in my 'hometown' now. My dad moved us fairly often for his job and schooling so I didn't grow up in my hometown but we moved back and forth a lot and our family was here so it was 'home'. I have visited some of the places I lived growing up though and enjoy those nostalgia trips. Every place has changed, including my hometown. I look around here and remember it just being...empty! The whole town was our 'playground'. I live three short blocks from my grandparents house that the family owned for 50 years. I am two short blocks from the area where my dad built a few of the homes there now. There was absolutely nothing where I live now except desert and Mesquite trees!

I've visited my old schools, my old homes and my old towns. It's fun to go see how things have changed but I wouldn't live in any of those towns again. Well, maybe Tucson. I still like it there.

I got a big surprise when I visited my old high school. It was a brand new, still under construction, school when I started there. One day the students were given some 'twigs' to plant. Last time I was there those trees were HUGE! Soooo tall and just beautiful. The school itself reminded me of a prison, fenced in and a 'guard gate'.

[jean_ji]

We visit our family every year which is where we both grew up. We don't often get to see things since it tends to be catching up with relatives and not much time to do anything else. Our high school is two blocks from my MIL's and it is more like a university campus now. The old building is still there at the core with new construction integrated into it.

I used to ride my bicycle to summer recreation at my elementary school, past two miles of corn/soy fields which are all now housing developments. It was all country and secondary roads where I grew up. Some of these are now major thoroughfares, one with a new hospital built out there. One road dead ended on a farm where some Catholic brothers worked. We went fishing and swimming in a pond/stream there unless they chased us off. That road goes all the way through now and is a major connector with the farm and brothers long gone.

Lots of changes. The house where I grew up was a new subdivision built on one of the cornfields. The trees planted 50 years ago are large and it looks wonderful to me now. Our first house we purchased as newly weds on a river was charming and beautiful in an older, small city neighborhood. That area has steadily deteriorated in the 35 years since we've been gone and the house was foreclosed on and found to have been a meth lab. So sad to see but there is always good and bad with changes.