Once upon a time I lived here
@JamesHxstatic (29410)
Eugene, Oregon
June 15, 2016 1:03pm CST
Back when I returned to Oregon after a brief year or so in San Diego, I rented a house on 24th Avenue. The store where I work part-time is in that neighborhood and I sometimes turn on 24th on my way to the store in order to find parking.
To my surprise last week, I found the house gone and the lot being prepared for new construction. Maybe it had been gone for a while and I was oblivious. I have no really fond memories of living there. It was an old damp place and in one bedroom, the wall grew mold and had to be cleaned with bleach. It did have a nice fireplace though. I was glad to move on to a nicer house.
Still, it was just a little disconcerting to be surprised by the bare ground.
Have you ever driven by houses where you formerly lived? I looked on Google Street View at some where I grew up.
22 people like this
22 responses
@hereandthere (45628)
• Philippines
16 Jun 16
@JamesHxstatic there's also the saying "you can't go home again" and i found out it came from a novel by thomas wolfe.
2 people like this
@JamesHxstatic (29410)
• Eugene, Oregon
16 Jun 16
A great singer named Lou Rawls (now deceased) recorded a song called "You can't go home no more" years ago and I am reminded of it with your comment.
4 people like this
@JudyEv (382412)
• Rockingham, Australia
16 Jun 16
@JamesHxstatic We have a vinyl LP of Lou Rawls. I thought he had a lovely voice.
1 person likes this
@RichardMeister (5328)
• Otis Orchards, Washington
15 Jun 16
On the farm where I grew up now has several houses on it. The old barn burned down just a few years after I moved into Spokane. The old house still stands but it's been totally remodeled.
When I was nine or 10 my brother and I used to go into town to visit our mother. She lived in an old mansion that was covered into apartments. She lived on the top floor. That place was torn down many years.
2 people like this
@JamesHxstatic (29410)
• Eugene, Oregon
22 Jun 16
It is strange to see those old memories, the physical part of them, disappear.
1 person likes this
@RichardMeister (5328)
• Otis Orchards, Washington
22 Jun 16
@JamesHxstatic This is true in many cases. In some cases, like in the old mobile home I used to live in. I was actually glad to see them haul it off.
@ElusiveButterfly (45941)
• United States
15 Jun 16
When I was a teenager we lived in a little 2 bedroom cottage. My 3 brothers slept in one room, my mother and sister in another, and I got to sleep in the living room. The door didn't lock so we wedged knives between the door and molding. Not very fond memories of living there either.
Years later I drove through the area and all of the cottages had been razed. Trees and grasses had grown in abundance. The road to the lake where we once swam was closed and no longer accessible.
2 people like this
@JamesHxstatic (29410)
• Eugene, Oregon
15 Jun 16
It is interesting to look back sometimes and to hear others as well.
1 person likes this
@divalounger (6182)
• United States
15 Jun 16
I was just home this past weekend and drove by our old house. It brought back such memories. It must be a bit disconcerting to see an empty lot!
2 people like this
@JamesHxstatic (29410)
• Eugene, Oregon
22 Jun 16
It was a surprise, even though I hold no great memories of that house.
1 person likes this
@JohnRoberts (109841)
• Los Angeles, California
15 Jun 16
Yes, it is a weird feeling because time has moved on and someone else occupies.
2 people like this
@JamesHxstatic (29410)
• Eugene, Oregon
22 Jun 16
Yes, you know every room and window, but someone else is in those rooms, looks out those windows.
@ElicBxn (64172)
• United States
25 Jul 16
When my folks first moved us to Texas, we lived in a house. Back in the early 2000 I drove by there and it was torn down and they were building a new place. I don't remember a lot about the house or living there, I was only 2 when we moved out. However, I did "waffle" my hand on a floor heating grill so I probably wasn't always happy there...
1 person likes this
@ElicBxn (64172)
• United States
25 Jul 16
@JamesHxstatic now that's sad... there was a vacant lot down the street from me zoned for duplexes, but there is a school on it now - bit of a pain when its time to go to school or get out, but at least its only at certain times not all the time.
1 person likes this
@JamesHxstatic (29410)
• Eugene, Oregon
25 Jul 16
Thanks for reading. I hapened to drive by this week and they are putting two duplexes on the lot now.
1 person likes this
@41CombedaleRoad (5966)
• Greece
20 Jun 16
I went to my grandmother's house a few years ago, and not only had the house gone but the road had gone too. Making way for a motorway I'm afraid. I saw only one reminder of the road, a building named after it. Everything else had gone. I felt quite disorientated by the changes.
1 person likes this
@LadyDuck (502729)
• Italy
16 Jun 16
When I go to visit my Mother in Milan (Italy) I sometimes walk by the apartment complex where I was born and the other where we lived when I got married. I have looked at the apartment where I lived in Monte-Carlo using street view and it's still there.
1 person likes this
@LadyDuck (502729)
• Italy
16 Jun 16
@JamesHxstatic I was born in the center of Milan, the house where I was born is part of those that cannot be demolished to build new buildings.
1 person likes this
@JamesHxstatic (29410)
• Eugene, Oregon
16 Jun 16
It is sometimes nice to know that places that we were once a part of still exist.
1 person likes this
@JamesHxstatic (29410)
• Eugene, Oregon
16 Jun 16
@LadyDuck that is a good thing Anna
1 person likes this
@jillybean1222 (6406)
•
17 Jun 16
I understand that! I've had a few homes disappear! One were some apartments that were right behind barnes and noble. Loved living there. The location was fantastic, but.... there were crazy roaches. They had to exterminate the whole building once a month... and it still did no good. So i'm guessing, that was part of it. Though they did end up putting some parking back there. (it's a busy shopping/dining district). Also, I had 2 old homes burn down years after we moved out
1 person likes this
@JamesHxstatic (29410)
• Eugene, Oregon
17 Jun 16
Nice to be so close to a book store that serves coffee too. Roaches are awful, we had them bad in San Antonio when I was a kid.
@ElizabethWallace (12069)
• United States
16 Jun 16
It never ends well. We should be warned to never go home again. Wait, we already have been warned. Okay, I designed and planted a heavenly front and back yard (1/2 acre in Rancho Cucamonga). Everyone who saw it asked if it had been photographed for Better Homes and Garden magazine. I planted lots of wildflowers and bulbs. Lots of trees, beautiful ground cover and brick work, a giant rose garden too. I even built a huge koi pond with a small bridge and waterfall.
The new owners have destroyed everything. The flowers and magnificent trees are either dirt now, or so overgrown and ratty looking that it tore my heart out. Never look back.
1 person likes this
@JamesHxstatic (29410)
• Eugene, Oregon
17 Jun 16
Those last three lines are a good motto to live by, it seems to me.
1 person likes this
@ElizabethWallace (12069)
• United States
18 Jun 16
@JamesHxstatic Me too. Just take photos and keep the memories.
1 person likes this
@CRK109 (14556)
• United States
17 Jun 16
When my husband was alive and we still had a car, we used to often drive around so I could show him places where I lived and grew up. I took him by the tenement house where my parents lived when I was born, and where their grocery store used to be (it was torn down years ago). I drove him by houses where my sister used to live at different stages of her family size. And we even drove out to Connecticut so I could show him the apartment building where I lived when I first moved out there, then the house where I'd lived for about 10 years and then the apartment I moved into before coming back to RI. It was fun for him to see some of the places he'd heard about and for me, seeing changes to the places where I'd lived was sometimes eye opening!
1 person likes this
@JamesHxstatic (29410)
• Eugene, Oregon
22 Jun 16
@CRK109 Now I am curious about what little town in Texas that was. I spent a lot of summers in the little town of Merkel, 16 miles from Abilene, with my dad when I was a kid.
1 person likes this
@JamesHxstatic (29410)
• Eugene, Oregon
17 Jun 16
I am sure it was interesting for him after hearing about those places.
1 person likes this
@CRK109 (14556)
• United States
18 Jun 16
@JamesHxstatic Same as it was for me the first time he took me to his little town in Texas and took me by all of the places dear to him. It's always nice to see pieces of the history of the one you love.
1 person likes this
@JamesHxstatic (29410)
• Eugene, Oregon
16 Jun 16
It is too bad that it was not kept in good repair.
1 person likes this
@Lucky15 (37391)
• Philippines
16 Jun 16
@JamesHxstatic to think my aunt just live next door ;
1 person likes this
@suziecat7 (3349)
• Asheville, North Carolina
17 Jun 16
When my husband was living, we rented a house on a mountain cattle farm. I loved it there and imagined that was what heaven would be like for me. We later purchased the house that I now live in. I took a drive by the farmhouse some years ago. It was still beautiful but not the same.
1 person likes this
@JamesHxstatic (29410)
• Eugene, Oregon
17 Jun 16
As is always the case. The weeping willow tree had disappeared from the back yard of this house long before it was torn down. I liked that tree.
@Tampa_girl7 (54730)
• United States
20 Jun 16
Yes, I love to visit places where I once lived.
1 person likes this
@PainsOnSlate (21845)
• Canada
16 Jun 16
In our marriage we have moved over 25 times, maybe 30. Can't remember. we rented because we knew we would be moving again soon. Hubby was a coach and wanted to make it to the pros...every move was a good one. Most of those homes were in Kansas but I've not been back since we left. The homes we have lived in here in Canada are all still here. I see them once in a while while going somewhere else. When we bought our home we swore we would have to be carried out and I think that is the truth!
1 person likes this
@JamesHxstatic (29410)
• Eugene, Oregon
16 Jun 16
We moved a lot (each of us) before we got together, and three times locally together. We are sure the move into this home is our last too.
1 person likes this
@JamesHxstatic (29410)
• Eugene, Oregon
17 Jun 16
I'm sure there are many memories there when you think about it.
