# What do you feel when you go back to a place you left years ago?



## fuzzybuddy (Nov 29, 2017)

I hadn't been back to my childhood home for a while. When I was there, I had this feeling of how much smaller things were. Yeah, I was a small kid, but the houses, streets had to be the same size. But yet, they seemed so much shorter, smaller. The long trudge to school was a lot shorter than I remembered. Things like that.


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## RadishRose (Nov 29, 2017)

I feel nostalgic and a bit sad. I don't do it but very rarely and I always wonder why do I subject myself to that.

Yes, Fuzzy, the first time I went to one place, I realized that huge hill we sledded down was really so small!


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## Falcon (Nov 29, 2017)

Nobody could pay me enough to move back to Detroit,  Michigan  where I was born and raised.

It looks like a typical street in Haiti.


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## Pappy (Nov 29, 2017)

Sad...my little hometown has been taken over by Walmart, Lowe’s and a couple more big box stores. Nothing like I remember. In the area I lived in, a couple years, has turned into a drug neighborhood.


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## Ruth n Jersey (Nov 29, 2017)

Fuzzybuddy, I felt the same way about the size of the houses and what was our property,it all seems so small. I still go back home to the cemetary twice a year. It is about 50 miles away. One time I parked my car in a little park in our neighborhood and walked the way I use to go to school,then I walked past my house and what was my Grandparents house it had burned down. I went to the little general store that was still open and got ice cream,different owners though. A real trip down memory lane but very sad at the same time. I have nothing but wonderful memories growing up. I doubt I'll do that again it made me cry.


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## hollydolly (Nov 29, 2017)

My childhood home was a Large city....so lots of changes had taken place the first time I visited after being away for a long time... Much more traffic for example, and as you say fuzzy..the distance to school seemed much shorter...although to be fair, I was driving, and it took about 5 minutes...and as a kid I walked the 2 miles so, it would seem a lot shorter as an adult lol..

The actual road where I lived was a very busy (probably the busiest main road) in the whole city albeit out in the suburbs..... but my house is still standing and in very good condition, along with the whole neighbourhood...but just* sooo much more traffic*, and traffic lights  where there had been none when I was growing up (lights that is)..,


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## Capt Lightning (Nov 29, 2017)

Like RadishRose, I often feel sad.  I once looked on 'Streetview' at my old family home.  It looked sad and pathetic and I felt really depressed.  But somehow in that small street, in the 1950s & 60s many of the boys went  to university and on to professional careers.  In those days we felt  that education was the key to a better life.   Now that we have retired, we try to see new places and  I think we are a bit afraid of disappointment if we visit places from our past.


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## jujube (Nov 29, 2017)

I've done some "sentimental journeys" back to places I've lived in or visited.  Everything has shrunk....must be something in the water.

The huuuuuge stream on my great-grandparent's farm that we swam in is just a tiny trickle of water.

The tree house incredibly high up in the tree in my childhood yard?  I can reach up and touch it.

The large boulder that we used to play "king of the hill" on is only about 2 1/2 feet high.  

The hill we sledded down every winter....the REALLY big one?  Pshaw, I've seen steeper handicap ramps.  

It's really best not to go back; just keep your memories.


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## NancyNGA (Nov 29, 2017)

Same here, fuzzy.  I didn't leave home _permanently_ until I was 24, and when I went back years later, the house *still* looked like it shrank.  And I had been living in a place much smaller after I left.  Really weird.


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## Don M. (Nov 29, 2017)

I still miss Denver, to some extent, after 50+ years.  That city has changed much, since I left, but the view of the beautiful Rocky Mountains nearby will always be the same.  We get back there every 3 or 4 years, and my Sister always hosts a nice party for us and all the cousins who still live there.  The house I grew up in is still there, and the neighborhood has become quite expensive since it is near the downtown area.  What my folks bought for $25K in the early 1950's would now sell for way over $500K.  I attended the 50th HS reunion in 2010, and almost 200 of the old class were there....luckily, I took the old HS yearbook along, or I wouldn't have recognized most of them.  I tried a couple of times to get a work transfer back to Denver, but no luck.  Now, after putting down roots in Missouri for the past 50 years, Denver is just a fond memory.


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## Camper6 (Nov 29, 2017)

I don't go back because I get too many dreams about it.


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## Lon (Nov 29, 2017)

I feel grateful that I don't live there any more and left Paterson New Jersey at age 12.


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## CindyLouWho (Nov 29, 2017)

I guess I'm feeling differently than most, I would go back in a heartbeat if I could. I'm in my mid-50's and as the years go by I feel a longing to go back. Afterall, it is the place I was born, grew up, and shaped who I am in my heart. Structurally, things have changed here and there but "as much as things change they stay the same".


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## Camper6 (Nov 29, 2017)

My name is Ozymandius. Remember that sonnet by Shelley.

Look on ye mighty and despair.

Nothing besides remains.

That's what going back seems like to me.


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## JaniceM (Nov 29, 2017)

CindyLouWho said:


> I guess I'm feeling differently than most, I would go back in a heartbeat if I could. I'm in my mid-50's and as the years go by I feel a longing to go back. Afterall, it is the place I was born, grew up, and shaped who I am in my heart. Structurally, things have changed here and there but "as much as things change they stay the same".



I have the same viewpoint as you expressed.  
Unfortunately, my old hometown no longer exists-  everything from its name to its zip code has changed.  
I'm at quite a distance, but wonder if I'd recognize my old home if I were to see it.


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## chic (Dec 1, 2017)

The interiors of places seem very small. I hate to see industrialization taking place of wilderness, homes and old fashioned neighborhoods.


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## Camper6 (Dec 1, 2017)

The younger generations decide. Right now everything white.

My old home. Drove by. They painted the brick purple. Took out the fireplace. Replaced a beautiful rug. The only thing they kept was the window curtains and drapes.

I try my best not to drive by there. It depresses me.


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## Getyoung (Dec 4, 2017)

I am still in the city I grew up in. Parents and us 3 kids lived in a 1,100 sqft house. It seemed to have lots of room, none of us ever complained it was too small. That house is still standing, looks pretty good, a few renovations here and there. But now, couples have one child and they need a big house, second child comes around and they upgrade. I don't get it. Once a year I walk around the old neighborhood and silently reminisce to myself about who lived where and the walk to school, the old food store that isn't there anymore, where I rode my bike, etc. I enjoy doing that, and I also enjoy "today's" world. Luckily, most times, I tend to remember the good times.


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## C'est Moi (Jan 3, 2018)

Getyoung said:


> I am still in the city I grew up in. Parents and us 3 kids lived in a 1,100 sqft house. It seemed to have lots of room, none of us ever complained it was too small. ...



Ditto on growing up in the small house with three kids... and ONE bathroom.  :gasp:    Somehow we made it.      And no central a/c or heat; just the big ole' Dearborn gas heater and a window unit that barely got turned on.   

It does make me sad to see that house now.   It has not had any care in the many years since my parents moved from there and looks forlorn and rundown.


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