For Those Who Live Far From Where You Grew Up

[pastafreak]

Have you ever googled your home town/village...and been dumbfounded/saddened by the changes you see? I'm not sure why,but I just had a look at real estate in the village i grew up in...about 30 miles east of NYC.Jeeezzzz...$600,000...on up to $1,500,000...and way more. I guess the village bears no resemblance whatsoever to when I last saw it, about 7 years ago.. Sad...all those way too large,over done houses...not homes. There was one for the street I grew up on- originally very tiny homes built in the late '40s....$900,000 and still to be built.
The only one I'd buy was the oldest house in the village a 1740 homestead,on the historic register...and the CHEAPEST!!!...only $389,000 I think. And small by today's standards( in America). :-(
It does make me wonder in an odd way if I'd ever go back...

[jno]

didn't Martin Amis have a character called Lorne Guyland in one of his books?

[Caran]

Many years ago I lived in a 300 year old mid terraced house that used to be one long house. It was divided up into I think 6 houses. This was done a long time ago and they had the most fabulous ingle nook fireplaces, so big you could sit in them. The fire place wall was made of stones and at the top was an ammonite about 15 inches round.
The people we bought it off had made a lot of changes to the property.
One day, knock at the door, little old lady who said she used to live here years ago and could she have a look round. No problem said I so let her in. She looked at the fireplace and nearly burst into tears. Where is my beautiful tiled fireplace? We bricked up this horrible thing and built a "modern" fire place and hearth out of cream tiles. She was really upset. She wasn't impressed with the rest of the house either and soon left.
Amazing the different tastes people have.
The house was also haunted but that's another tale!

[zebo]

We made a trip back to Gibraltar where we'd lived til 36 years ago, the door of the courtyard where our flat was hadn't even been painted! Having seen the awful programme on TV had made us apprehensive but once we ignored the Essex-sur-mer, it was the same old place. we had some great chats with people, one lunch place was run by a couple who seemed to have known everyone we'd known, caught up on many people.

[Peter Pedant]

I went back to Shoreham to see where I had spent summer holidays with my school best friend. The house was up for £750k - over priced somewhat by a successor whom I did not recognise - but clearly he had bought it from my frenz father

I was able to tell the fella this and that about events in 1962
and how the house looked then

and once wee-wifey learnt I wasnt an interested buyer she couldnt wait to kick me around, cutting me dead , telling me not to come in and dirty her house calling out to the husband : your lunch is on the table and it is getting cold !

( a bit like AB on a frisky day ! )

and I walked back the mile or so to the bus stop

[tonyav]

telling me not to come in and dirty her house

Peter, you should have wiped your feet before you went in ;-)

[Mamyalynne]

My Sister in Law lives in Fleischmanns NY State in a very similar wooden framed house, her son has moved on and up in the world to The Hamptons on Long Island (sure the prices are higher there).


I am a homebody and have lived all my life in the same town, though have witnessed many changes.

[DaisyNonna]

So happy that I no longer live where I was brought up from age 3 to 10 and probably where I lived from 10 to 18

[tonyav]

You'd be right to, Daisy.

[DaisyNonna]

Thought so Tony
Was really happy in both places at the time

[tonyav]

Certain areas of my home town have changed ( since my childhood ) in a similar way, Daisy.

[jno]

PP, if you're selling your house it needs to be sparkling clean all the time. It's hard enough work cleaning up after genuine inquirers without having to cater for tourists too.

[woofgang]

If someone turned up at my house and asked to come in on the pretext that they had lived there I would tell them to be off in no short order...and I wouldn't go back to any of the houses I have lived in either. Houses are just bricks and stuff, you live in them, you leave, you move on.