Did you ever ride through where you grew up after years away?

[hickman1937]

I got tired of being the black sheep/scape goat of my family and left for a few years. Just before my mom died she asked that her whole family come together again. I'm still the black sheep, but my siblings treat me with kid gloves at every gathering and I cringe. Every trip to my Dad's house is a trip thru childhood(he still lives in the home I grew up in) and every trip to my Aunt's home(next town over) is a trip through all the places my friends and I, in high school, had a hell of a good time. Coming back from seeing my Dad or my Aunt every week, I start crying. The memories, juxtaposed over what the area has become.

[ThoughtCriminal]

1. Yep - sure looked smaller

Everything - the town, the houses, the hills...

[hickman1937]

4. Were I grew up has become bigger.

It used to be a lot of blue collar familys, small business owners, living 25 miles north of detroit on lakes. In the 70's the rich people found our little towns and villages, and BINGO. My old home town is a rich ghetto that I can't afford to live in.

[Mabel Dodge]

2. Count yourself lucky...

I never left my little town.

[hickman1937]

7. I sometimes wish I hadn't. At the time it was expected.

I miss my home town.

[Droopy]

3. Call me weird

but I don't have any attachments to the places I grew up. Sentimental or otherwise.

I think it's because I had a serious upheaval in my brain when I was about 20 that I now take a lot of medication for. I think I know what you are talking about and it seems like I did have such feelings before the onset of my illness, but I don't feel that way anymore. It may be impossible for me to feel that way.

[hickman1937]

5. I envy you.

Are you the truck driver that I exchanged stories with a few months ago?

[Droopy]

6. I am a truck driver

And I have written a few stories on here, so that's probably me. But I don't recall swapping stories with you. Please forgive me.

[hickman1937]

9. I told you my story about following truck drivers

on my way to and from college in the 70's. I was a wind sucker, but those guys took care of me thru the 150 miles. Maybe it wasn't you I talked to. If not, let me tell you, I was out there in a pinto, and those guys let me follow them thru snowstorms, driving rain, sleet, etc. Every time they'd get to a drift in the xway they'd tap their brakes twice or 3 times to tell me to back off, then plow a track for me to follow. On clear roads, when I'd pass them they would put their brights on to let me know they saw me. I swear to God I never cut anyone of those guys off. They taught me courtesy well.

[Droopy]

10. Cool. I think I remember now.

Yeah it's good to follow a truck sometimes when the weather is bad. Most truckers have a lot of experience in driving in bad weather conditions and they will not steer you wrong.

[hickman1937]

11. Those guys weren't just experienced, they were kind.

I was a small blond in a pinto, but they did it for everyone. They were the best. I hope you guys are keeping up.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

8. I have been back through the town where I did several years of growing

up....and it was good to be there...

I actually reconnected to a family whose daughter I used to play with..

They were very glad to see me, and to see the adult I'd become...they had been worried about the way my parents were raising me...

I turned out pretty well, and they were glad to see that...

The town looked small and dirty when I visited it...very disillusioning!

:hi:

[hickman1937]

12. I really don't know what to say.

My little home town has been infested by rich people. Every thing has been dug up, roads changed to accommodate more Mc Mansions, public access to the lakes cut off, basically the whole place has been raped. I'll trade you your disillusionment for my grief.

[steely]

13. well, the old charm of childhood is certainly gone, but

since it's a row-home neighborhood (friendliness), and the area is seeing some evidence of people trying to keep the area "up", it makes me feel better. My mom still lives at home, so when I go see her I usually talk to a neighbor or 2, or sweep out front or work the small garden. Today I weedwacked the weeds from the cracks in the sidewalk - (not good if you have allergies). The trees seemed to provide more shade 40 yrs ago, and people used to put awnings up in the summer, it really dressed the place up back then. Now the street out front is busier since it feeds an on ramp to the interstate, but the people "feel" is still good.

[hickman1937]

14. Are any of the old neighbors still there?

The ones who still keep your childhood?

[friesianrider]

15. Funny you asked...I did so this week...

Everything looks so similar and yet so different. It was nice to go back and see the same people who were there when I left (but now, they are all grown up like me!), and I hope to do it more often.

[China_cat]

16. Wait till the day comes

that you pass the place you grew up in and see strangers living there.

[hickman1937]

17. It's comming fast.

My Dad is dying by inches every day. When he goes, the home goes. I'll never go back. It would hurt too much.

[China_cat]

18. I've already had that experience.

I wanted to bust down the door and say 'what the hell are you doing in MY house?' Makes it worse when you were born there and your mother died there.

I'd rather see the place burn to the ground. Good thing I live 700 miles away now.

[hfojvt]

19. I just drove by a couple weeks ago

It has been 20 years or so. Since I lived there, that is. I stayed there in 1990 for my 10 year reunion and saw it again in 2000. My parents moved in 1988 but did not get it sold until 1991. Mostly I notice how big the trees have gotten. It is not the same when you do not get to go inside, and it would not be the same without all of the old furniture. Of course, it never is the same, but it would not even be close to the same. People ask me if I went "home" for the holidays, but I cannot think of my parents retirement house and property as a "home". My "home" is where I live.

[NMMNG]

20. Yeah, it's still a crap hole

It has a few more fast food joints and a Dunkin Donuts now but it's still a crap hole.

[yellowdogintexas]

21. I get through there every couple of years normally but

last year (which was a rough year) I was there several times.

teeny tiny little country town in a rich green agricultural area of Kentucky, looks more like a ghost town every time I go there.

I grew up knowing everybody, and if I did something I shouldn't have, my parents knew about it in 5 minutes time.

We wandered the streets at will with no concern for our safety beyond not being hit by a car

Cokes were a dime from the cold water chiller, in returnable bottles

The farmers sat around the potbellied stove in my grandfather's hardware and grocery store in the winter.

We rode the bus for miles to school.

For more than basic groceries, we had to drive 10 or 20 miles and going "to town" was still a big deal.

There are still old friends in the area and my sister and her family are there. I have to get a sister fix every now and then.

I love to just drive around the rural roads, looking at the beautiful farms, esp in the spring when the wheat is still green, speculating over the sinkholes, enjoying the old homes, small streams, creeks, and rivers, boring my daughter and niece to death with stories of things my friends and I did growing up.

So I enjoy that. But I am and always was a city girl at heart, and prefer living in a large metropolitan area.

[Gormy Cuss]

22. I can't go home again

The area where I was raised was razed (eminent domain the old fashioned way, for public works.)Every building for three blocks was flattened. Houses, apartments, the corner store, all gone. The location of my old house is now a green space adjacent to the road.
There are other remnants of my childhood around in terms of parks, playgrounds, schools and the like, but gone is that whole comfort zone of the immediate community. It was quite disruptive at the time but as the years rolled by I realized there was some benefit, because I may never have mustered the courage to move out of state if my old comfort zone was still there. It is still a weird feeling when I find myself back there.

[skygazer]

23. I never stay away that long

I can't. I don't really miss the people so much as the place itself - Vermont is part of me and part of who I am. I need to go back at least once every year or two and it revitalizes me. And every time I receive my Vermont Life magazine, I look at the photos and cry because it's so damn beautiful and I know it so well. :cry: