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My childhood home that I remember first from age 2 through age 7 is largely the same. The street is much the same. Most of the houses have been kept up pretty well, though they are obviously much older now. When I was a child, I planted a tree in the front yard, I was 4 or 5. It was a tiny little 3 ft tree when I planted it, now it's a mature, 30+ ft shade tree. Overall, the house and neighbor homes hasn't changed much over the last 35 years.
One area that has become run down is my grandparents town. It was always a small town, less than 2k people. But that number has been dwindling over the years, as the kids don't want to stay there when they grow up anymore. It used to have a small downtown area with shops, a bar or two, couple restaurants, etc. Most are long gone and the buildings remain empty and are now dilapidated due to neglect. Most of the houses in the town are like that now too... it's rare to see a house there that has been kept up, I imagine most people there just don't see the point in it when the majority of houses look like they should be condemned.
It's pretty sad to see that, I had a lot of fond memories of the place when I would visit for the summer, playing with my cousins, etc. I was up there not too long ago for a funeral, and drove through the town (still no stoplights either.) On a whim, I looked up some of the housing values there on Zillow... I could literally buy whole city blocks of houses for the price of my current home. Not that anyone would want to make that trade. It's just a portrait of what a dying town looks like.
I have a theory that people think their old house or neighborhood got crummier over time
But really it was never that great to begin with
Mine was that great. The last time I lived there was a month or so in my parents' home after I returned overseas from the Army at almost age 23. It was 1969. Neighbors had moved over the years but the lovely homes were still the same and some people I'd grown up with were still there but as the island had become more upscale they'd changed and not for the better. Snobbery had set in as had the 60's disdain for us vets. What a pity! Many had known me since I was six and now had no time or regard for me.
I would hardly recognize my childhood home. From looking at google earth, I'd say there have been multiple additions, and the garage has been converted to living space. I believe the neighborhood has gotten more expensive, not more run down.
Neither would bother me, it's not my place any more.
The neighborhood of the first house my husband and I owned (and lived in for longer than my childhood home) seems really shabby. I'm not sure if it has gotten run down or it was always like that and I didn't see it. Prices are high, but that doesn't always mean much.
I do wonder if I just didn't notice how shabby it was, and why I'm pickier now...
I hate to see any old home rundown. We drive past old houses and a part of me wants to restore them. But, when it was a house, that had special meaning to me at one time, I am even sadder. My mother's house (where I lived for about a year & a half before I went out on my own) had been empty for about 5 years before the bank FINALLY foreclosed on it. (They kept trying to get either me or any of my sibs to take it over which none of us wanted it). Looking at the pics of the listing on-line really makes me very sad even though I hated the house for various reasons. I know my mother loved that house-but it makes me miss her even more.
My grandparents home was like a Garden of Eden - filled with fruit trees, flowers, and every kind of growing thing you can imagine. It was beautiful, and we loved to walk through the long tunnel-like grape arbor, check out the chicken coop, peer down the old stone well, and explore the wine cellar where my uncle made homemade wine.
Over the years, the trees got cut down because they were too much for my elderly uncle to maintain, nothing new was planted, and the place looked barren and incredibly small. So much different from my childhood memory. So yes, it was sad.
I don't really have a specific reason for asking, but have you ever experienced a situation where, years later, you happen to visit (even just driving by) the home you grew up in or lived in at an earlier time in your life....Either by being neglected and not maintained as well as you remember....
Any thoughts?
Editorial note: I wasn't sure if this would be better for the real estate, this sub-forum, or another sub-forum, but since it involves sentimental feelings and that being negatively threatened, I thought this would be a good place to ask the question.
Pictured below is the house in which I grew up. When I lived there it was well-maintained. The area over the garage had a picket-fence railing. I remember often climbing out the upstairs window and playing there.The front yard had two apple trees and a pear tree. All are gone. The terrace, pictured below was a neat flagstone, on which we grilled. My Bar Mitzvah pictures were shot on that terrace one sunny day in early May 1970.
In 1974 we sold to a nice couple from our town. They sold in 1984 to a family who let the place run down. I have heard from neighbors that the police were often there busting for drugs. The house now stands vacant and sad. I almost cried on that visit that raw day last March.
Behind the house in the bottom picture you can see a McManson that replaced the earlier house. Let's just say this house didn't have to run down. It is in one of the best school districts in the country. And unlike many Scarsdale neighborhoods it's affordable.
Truly sad.
My visit to my old home (1964-74) in Scarsdale reminded me of this song:
Place I grew up was hit hard economically. Jobs are gone, foreclosures went up, crime went up, quality of life has gone down. When I have the chance to go back, I just remember it how it was when I grew up. Everyone in that town thinks it can be great again but the reality is different.
Times change, people and places change.
I think in our youth, we look at things very idealistically. We didn't have the burden of adulthood over us when we viewed things.
Location: Huntersville/Charlotte, NC and Washington, DC
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Quote:
Originally Posted by The Dissenter
The apartments I spent some weekends with my father in Southern VA as a kid were already run down and when i went down there last, they looked even worse. It doesnt bother me because that is the expectation I have for that city and I've accepted it.
OP, I was actually referring to Hampton/Newport News but pretty much any place below I-64 in Virginia isn't doing great these days, especially the ones you mentioned.
For a semester when I lived in college, I lived in a 150 year old Victorian home in St. Matthews, South Carolina that was meticulously restored. I loved that house! It was about 5000 square feet with 2000 square feet of porch.
Coming home from a South Carolina football game about 15 years later I made my husband drive by and could not believe the state of abandonment. My husband called it 1313 Mockingbird Lane.
It broke my heart.
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