Google Maps trip down memory lane.

[Bowyn Aerrow]

So I got bored and thought I would look around and visit a few of my old haunts virtually.

The house I recall most living with mother in California is gone. Its an empty lot. Where did that house go? Which is strange, 18 years ago I went there and it was for sale.

But good riddance, lots of bad things happened within those walls - perhaps that is the reason why its gone.

The house I lived with my father on the stately side of Milwaukee is now in a slum, I swear there is a drug deal going down on the corner. The house is battered and worn, maybe even listing to one side. Cardboard for the upstairs window that used to be my bedroom. That lovely giant tree I used to climb in, its a stump about 4 feet tall now

The elementary school I went to down the street from that house is now a parking lot.

Ok, I will admit its been a few summers, it was the 1970's so I guess I should expect some change there.

The last house I lived in with my mother (before she moved to her last home) - gone. Now there is just the foundation and part of the slab and the drive way.

The school I went to - it looked boarded up... Maybe they are remodeling? Ok that was in the late 1970's... Maybe if I look at Kentucky.

My fathers place is still standing. And that high school is still there. But the fields were I planted, topped, cut, staked and loaded tobacco three long hard years are now a suburb!

Wee early 80's... so I guess a little population growth.

My University still stands. Yay - but the place I rented an apartment has been replaced with modern looking row houses.

The construction company I worked for and hated every single day - gone with the wind. There is a gas station conveniently there now.

Off to Nevada, Las Vegas. I'm skipping only 4-5 years here. The hotel I worked at and discovered I was gay - gone. The apartment I lived in, gone and replaced by a tall multilevel apartment building. The Church I ministered in - gone replaced by a casino (Somebody's going to hell).

The house I lived in with my second is still standing - completely overhauled, I had to look carefully to see any remnant of the old house. But the store I worked at - gone, its now a shopping mall.

Ok this is Vegas, Vegas is always changing. Lets go to San Francisco the more recent years.


The apartments that caught on fire while I lived there - well yes I expected them to be gone. They are.

The second apartment I moved to on 9th street - Its gone, replaced by some modern super structure in the SOMA district.

The office building I worked at still stands - but I know that that business went tits up in the 1990's - I was present for that.

The hole in the wall (a bar) I don't see it anywhere - heck a majority of my old stomping grounds and watering holes appear to have dried up.

Most of the places I ever lived or worked at are gone. Wiped clean off the face of the world.

The few that remains are a bit worse for wear... just a bit.

I guess 46 years is a long time when it comes to structures... Heck, it appears that 15 years is a long time .

[Blue]

Well, my "hell house" with the mulberry tree is still there, still white with a green porch. That's the one I was born in and it hasn't changed much but, it looks like the land has been sectioned of and parts of it sold. The barn is gone and there is a fancy house where Grandma Shar's cottage used to be.

On To California: The first house there is gone, a shopping center is there now and, where "Uncle" Kenny lived is just gone. I wasn't allowed to go there, but father always pointed it out when we drove by because Kenny was his best friend and, they liked to target practice together.

The next place in Cali is still there, but it's changed a lot, still the camp but very much more modern than I remember it being, more of a resort now than a camp.

So North to Chico, my fist apartment is now a car dealer lot, the homeless shelter I ultimately landed in after my divorce is a vacant lot now. Not much of that town I even recognize anymore.

Uncle Gary's house is still there, pretty much the same as ever - that isn't good but, I guess some things will never change.

The first trucking company I worked for is still there, updated buildings but not too different. The next two are both gone, but I knew they went under not long after I took better paying jobs.

Of course the last company I was leased to is there, and still the same, but that's recent history.

Most of the other places I favored in my younger years are gone, or changed a lot. Cherry Ave and Milleken haven't much though, nicer looking bars, cleaner looking truck stops but, still in the same places and that motel is still blue and white. Wouldn't surprise me if Gypsy and Foxy Lady still had permanent rooms there.

The Weed Patch and Santa Nella are still the same trash holes they always have been, I imagine if I looked, I could find Angel Eyes lurking about one of them even today. Three Sisters in Barstow is still the place to go for some things. The old Triple T is still in Tuscon, still advertizing jacuzzi tubs for drivers - and likely still overrun by lizards.

As much as some things have changed, just as much has stayed the same over the years. Just enough the same to tempt me to get back out there and go back to the life that led me to those places to begin with.

[LateBloomer]

Interesting idea.

I'm gonna check it out.
Thanks.

[Nick9]

Interesting, I am almost the same age you are, but all places I know are intact. Perhaps because I live in a very old city, and it's not easy to tear something down. And the suburb where I grew up is 40-45 years old and well planned, so no need to demolish that either.

When I had been living in Beijing, a whole historic part of the city was razed to the ground and within three years they also managed to build a huge "highway" in the outer part of the city, both on the ground level and elevated above the ground. I bet I wouldn't recognize the city now.

[Bowyn Aerrow]

Nick, you do live in a part of the world that has history and the locals like to keep that.

Americans don't have much history, so we readily bulldoze and replace much of our landscape, bowing down to that thing call progress. :biggrin:

[Mrmatty77]

I do that from time to time. Especially now that I'm a million miles away from home. Not much has changed for me though. I haven't been around for too long and I've always lived in the same town in the relatively new areas.

[Nick9]

one more thing is different here. We don't have so much free land. When I was in Canada I was in awe at the vast land... Free space from horizon to horizon. You can't see that here. Here, you basically drive several miles and you are in another small village or a town.
Maybe the notion that you can easily build a new town almost anywhere (ok, I get it, the North of Canada may be a bit extreme example :biggrin maybe that possibility makes developers in your country think different.