Would you make a special trip to travel to places from your past?
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On "FACEBOOK" there are many "Hometown" and "Alumni" groups, for people to connect with others from their original hometowns, counties, or old schools, and reminisce about growing-up, or share good and bad personal news, class pictures, obituaries, etc. If you're on Facebook, type in your hometown, or old school, and see what pops up.
We still own the flat I grew up in (though not for much longer). My parents bought it in 1962 and my mother passed away just last year. Prior to that, we lived just round the corner in a rented flat and that is still there too.
The houses my grandparents lived in are still there too. Most summers we visited my grandmother in Manchester (UK) and I have been to see here house several times.
In a sense I am looking forward to selling my mother's flat. For the last 10-20 years, all visits to the UK have been to see her and in the last few years we have been in Glasgow maybe three or four times a year. Much as I love Glasgow, I now have a chance to visit all those other parts of the country that have always interested me.
I lived in several places as a child. The only one of real interest in my thoughts and memories of those days is the home I lived in until I was 10 years old. A lot happened in that house, and haunts me to a certain extent. The house is only 25 miles or so from where I live now, and I have visited a few times over the years. I had relatives who still lived in the town, which is Oldham, in Lancashire, northern England.
My relatives are deceased now, but I wanted to make one more visit. So, just over a year ago, I went over to Oldham. I walked up the street I lived on from 1954 till 1964. It is very recognizable from my childhood. A bit shabbier, and more cars on the streets. As I approached the house, I was shocked to see the windows had metal shutters on them. It was always occupied on previous visits.
I stood back, and took some photos, then looked around. My best friend lived in the house opposite. My father had an affair with his mother. All hell broke out in the street one night because of this. I vividly remember watching my father fight with her husband outside our house. I looked up at the bedroom window. My sister had been born in that room.
It suddenly dawned on me, I could go on the property. This had been impossible on previous visits. I pushed at the tall wooden gate next to the front door. It opened, and I walked in the yard. I stood looking at the side door. I remember sitting outside there with my dad as he whittled at a piece of wood. He carved it into the shape of a gun for me to play with. The concrete base was still there from our coal bunker. I used to stand on it to watch down the street for my dad coming home from work.
I was engulfed in memory standing there. I went round the back of the house, and looked up at what had been my bedroom window. I used to lie on my bed for hours reading my Superman comics. I glanced at the overgrown back garden. My mother used to have a herb garden in the corner. I knew while I stood there, this would be my last visit. I put my hand on the wall of the house, and said a prayer for my dead parents, and then I left. I will never go back again.
That was an excellent post.Very moving-I teared up.
I was a military brat growing up and there are many places and old connections I wish I could revisit today.Also the passage of time has torn down many places where I had great times with wonderful friends and lovers.I did visit one and I wish I had just kept my beautiful memories.
Now that I am unemployed, age nearing 60 years old, I am thinking a lot about the past. (THE GOOD OLD DAYS). People, places, things and jobs from my past.
I have not seen many places from my past for over 20 years. Previously I thought the past was the past, but now I have a different viewpoint. I am now fascinated by the past and places I used to live. I am planning a long trip to see all the places I used to live and work and live through the good old days.
Would a trip to see places from your past be of interest to you? (Especially if you are older, like me.)
I am 54 years old and have no interest in anything from the past.
It is the past, things change, life moves forward and so did I.
I have been back to a couple of places where I lived as a young kid.
The place where I lived in Wiltshire is very similar to how it probably was when I was born, amazingly enough.
When I was three, until eleven, we moved to Yorkshire and again the houses are similar but all 'tarted up'. The area has boomed mind you. The fields we played on are now full of 'executive houses'.
Back down south again, this time the Cotswolds, I drove down the lane on the edge of the small country town. It was so small, our telephone number was three digits. Milk was delivered by horse and cart along the unmade lane, and this was the 1970s!
Sadly, but inevitably, the lane had been developed. It is now a proper made up road and where our place was and I would look across an open field to the river Colne, there were houses all along and it felt absolutely nothing like when we were there.
I still see the big family house where we moved to after that, back in Wiltshire- my brother bought the house next door!
Things have changed so much in a short period of time in this country, so you have to be prepared for things when you go back.
I have been back to our place in Houston, and it's on an HOA controlled estate- so no changes there!
That was an excellent post.Very moving-I teared up.
I was a military brat growing up and there are many places and old connections I wish I could revisit today.Also the passage of time has torn down many places where I had great times with wonderful friends and lovers.I did visit one and I wish I had just kept my beautiful memories.
I grew up in a military family as well. We lived in Okinawa when I was pretty young and in Germany when I was in my teens.
I would love to go back to Okinawa someday. Since I was pretty young when I was there, I do not have a lot of strong memories, but I do have a few. I remember local rice farmers out in the fields, the Pacific ocean (my dad did some scuba diving) and going outside for a minute while the eye of a hurricane passed directly over the island. I have actually been in Japan a few times in the last few years, but have never had the chance to revisit Okinawa.
I have much stronger memories of Germany. My father was stationed in Wiesbaden in the 70s. We lived in a small town for about a year, then moved to a housing area. I had spent some time working with Google maps and had been able to find exactly where we lived. I printed out the maps and made a special trip to return there while on a vacation in Germany in 2006.
The small town has not had Americans living there since we left. While I was walking around there, I met a local man, who spoke some english. I showed him a picture of me, as a teen, standing outside our apartment building. At that point, he remembered the American family living in the town the year he moved there.
The housing unit was still in use, which surprised me. It was full of young Army couples, who were very nice. One of the couples let us into the refurbished apartment in the same building (not the same apartment) that I lived in some 30 years prior.
I found it very emotionally rewarding to return to where we lived in Germany. I would love to do it again someday, maybe even staying a day or two in the small town.
I have thought about it but never followed through. Nobody I knew would still be around there. So much would have changed I likely wouldn't recognize much. That said, I do plan to visit a place I was stationed 20 years ago since some friends have moved there.
I grew up in a military family as well. We lived in Okinawa when I was pretty young and in Germany when I was in my teens.
I would love to go back to Okinawa someday. Since I was pretty young when I was there, I do not have a lot of strong memories, but I do have a few. I remember local rice farmers out in the fields, the Pacific ocean (my dad did some scuba diving) and going outside for a minute while the eye of a hurricane passed directly over the island. I have actually been in Japan a few times in the last few years, but have never had the chance to revisit Okinawa.
I have much stronger memories of Germany. My father was stationed in Wiesbaden in the 70s. We lived in a small town for about a year, then moved to a housing area. I had spent some time working with Google maps and had been able to find exactly where we lived. I printed out the maps and made a special trip to return there while on a vacation in Germany in 2006.
The small town has not had Americans living there since we left. While I was walking around there, I met a local man, who spoke some english. I showed him a picture of me, as a teen, standing outside our apartment building. At that point, he remembered the American family living in the town the year he moved there.
The housing unit was still in use, which surprised me. It was full of young Army couples, who were very nice. One of the couples let us into the refurbished apartment in the same building (not the same apartment) that I lived in some 30 years prior.
I found it very emotionally rewarding to return to where we lived in Germany. I would love to do it again someday, maybe even staying a day or two in the small town.
That was great-Thanks for your post!
A military base is a safe place for kids to be "free range" as they call them now.I have such great memories of the freedom we had as children.The base was our frontier.Our parents were not involved in every little detail of our lives but we knew we had to be pretty good because any adult would feel free to correct us or our fathers would get in trouble if the base police caught us being bad.We would never dare talk back to an adult. Things have sure changed!
Anyone seen The Trip To Bountiful?It is about this topic.
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