I can imagine how you must have felt to see the home of your memories in such disrepair. A year ago for the first time in about fifty years I visited the house in which I was born. The house seemed quite non-descript from what I had remembered, but was reasonably well kept. The other houses on our street seemed far less impressive, too -- small in size and unattractive. I prefer to remember the house and neighborhood as I've held it in my memory all these years.

Ronnie, once again you bring back memories. My childhood home looks exactly like this and my much loved grandmother's home. In my child eyes they were so much grander then they appear now. My childhood home was in Michigan and I now live in Nashville where my grandmothers home is located. When I made a special trip to see it I could not believe they way it looked. So small and shabby. I remember the flowers, hedge around the front, large tree in front where I had a swing, the small vegetable garden.
I remember the swing on the front porch where she would brush my hair and we would hear the night sounds before we went to bed. My happiest childhood memories were in this little home. My parents were teenagers and my grandmother worried about me and would make a special trip to Detroit to bring me back to her home in Tennessee. Thanks for the trip down memory lane. Have a wonderful day.

Thomas Wolfe said you cannot go back. I should have listened. I grew up in an unconventional home. It was the living quarters at the end of a big lodge building which served as the office of a very large cottage court and trailer park. There were also four houses in our property at the back of the court and the whole acreage was at the mouth of Red Rock Canyon. At various times in my life I lived in 3 of the houses. When I returned to Colorado Springs for my High School's 50th reunion my friend drove me past it. All but a front strip of ground was buried under tons of dirt that was now the freeway going up Ute Pass. A Safeway store now stands where the Lodge was. It was horribly depressing to see. I felt like my childhood had been buried.

Because I still live in the area I grew up in, I can visit old home places and towns of my childhood.

A few months ago on a warm Sunday morning, Kman and I drove to the little sleepy town of Poolvile, about 50 miles west of Cowtown. My mother taught school there and we lived in the teacherage. The house is still there, right across the street from the very old Baptist Church where I attended Girl's Auxillary and took piano lessons from the preacher's wife - Mrs. Redwine.

We parked the car and in the quiet of the summer morning breeze, we could hear the church congregation singing a hymn. For a few minutes, I could easily pretend it was 1963.

Such a strange feeling it always is, trying to reconcile our special places in the heart to present day realities and change.

I was so happy to see your post today. I wondered if you went back to Lake Grove on your recent trip. I grew up in Lake Grove as well. What street was your house on? Our first house was on Burma Road and our second house was on Douglas Circle. It looks just like your house. Did you enjoy your visit that day, or did it break your heart? What grade school did you go to?

I just love little houses. They were comfortable and though me and my siblings had to (gasp) share a room and sometimes a bed, it was fine for our needs. I remember driving past large houses and my parents saying how expensive they must be to heat. Well, now that heating fuel has gone through the roof, lovely little houses might just come back into fashion.

The same think has happened in my old neighborhood. Our cottage looks about the same from the front, but I could see that there has been an addition on the back of the house. The thing that struck me was that the house seemed so much smaller than it did when I was a child. lol

I grew up in a similar house in Toledo. I was 4 when my parents built it in 1951. Funny thing is the owners now still paint it the the way my mother did love gardening as much as she did because her flower beds were still a riot of color. I wanted to knock on the door to see if they'd send me to my room.

For us life has come full circle. I grew up in a one bedroom apartment in Chicago, my partner in a house in Wisconsin very similar to yours, Ronni. Now, in our 70's, we moved to a small house in a neighborhood of small houses in Columbus, Ohio. There are many young singles, people just starting families and some of us Elders. It is plenty for us again.

Our first house was on Buena Vista Street in Detroit. The road was shaded by arching elms and every house on the block was a different style. Ours was a miniature Tudor.
Quite a while back the trees were all cut down because of elm disease. But the biggest shock came just a few years ago when I was on a nostalgia tour. Every single house on the street was covered with aluminum siding. Must have been one heck of a salesman working there.

I live just up the street from (I've lived here for over thirty-five years) your former residence and wanted to let you know about some of the changes taking place in our neighborhood. There was an older couple that lived in the house for many years until the wife passed away. Within the last year the husband moved into an assisted living establishment and the home was purchased by a younger couple. They have freshened up the interior of the home, cleaned the yard, and have painted it. Unfortunately, I have not met them yet and give you no new additional information about them.