Tuesday, September 18, 2018

Nostalgia


I just found out that the home I grew up in will be for sale soon. It's not listed yet, but I learned through a friend of a friend of my SiL that it will be within a month or so, and I am curious. The photo above is what it looked like when we sold it in 2009 and my father moved into assisted living. I've only driven past it once in the last nine years, but I've often wondered if the new owners tore down the shed and play house that my grandfather built? Did they replace the carpeting in the dining room that my mother accused me of slopping "pea juice" all over? (She always served peas in milk and butter, and I did drip a bit of it onto the floor one Thanksgiving, but my mother seemed to be holding me responsible for every old stain on the white carpet.) Do they know that my mother loved the house that she and my father designed so much that one of her last wishes was to stay in her home with hospice care and not be taken to the hospital at the end of her life?

My mother and father built the house in 1963. I remember being there when we bought the lot from my uncle, the well-drilling, cement pouring, and then the building.






We moved in the day before I started first grade, and lived there relatively happily until my sister and I grew up and moved out on our own.

So I'm fairly sure that the playhouse and shed are gone,


but I know that this rock right next to the driveway remains,


along with plenty of lovely memories of growing up here.


I think I might go rekindle those memories when the realtor holds an open house.

17 comments:

  1. oh my goodness, Bonny - what a trip down memory lane! It certainly looks like that house holds many wonderful memories ... I hope you get to visit and that you find at least a few of the things you remember :-)

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  2. Oh yes, do that!! There's only one house (of many) from my childhood that I'd be interested in revisiting -- the first house that my parents owned. I remember visiting my maternal grandparents' house years ago (they died when I was 6 & 8) and it STILL had the very distinctive (not unpleasant) smell that I remembered. I wonder if it still does...

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  3. What amazing memories! I love the "in progress" photos! Wow! And, that playhouse! How magical! I went to visit my nana's house when it went up for sale about a dozen years after her death. It was so changed and barely recognizable! I guess they did not like that orange shag carpet in the living room. Ha!

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  4. What memories! I've driven past the house I grew up in only several times...trees have been removed, an addition added on, etc., etc. It just was not the same for me. We will be in Vermont in a little over a week and I'm debating if I want to go past my grandparents' home or not (my brother owned it until about 5-6 years ago).

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  5. Oh yes! What a trip that will be for you! Even more wonderful is the photos you have of the progress during building. That's the real treasure, the memory triggers that make the house so real.

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  6. Wow, you are like my husband who only ever lived in one house while growing up. I would just be afraid to go and have it changed, you are braver than I am.

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  7. Oh I hope you get to go! When I was in the hospital at 21 the woman in the bed next to me lived in my grandmothers house (talk about freaky). I was horrified to hear the things she'd done as my grandmother hadn't been out of it that long and was still alive! Fortunately my cousin bought my parents house and made nice improvements. I love that I get to go back there all the time!

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  8. What a great story, and so nice that you have all those pictures!

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  9. You must go see!!!

    The house I was born in has been total renovated and is on sale now. The house my dad built (our 2nd house) --- my how IT has changed. I'd love to see inside. The man that bought it in 1965 still owns it.

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  10. What great memories (and photos!). I hope you have a chance to go back and take a look! I lived in 4 different houses during my growing up years. My sister currently lives a block away from one of them, so I see that one whenever I visit her. I "visited" my Illinois house (my "true" childhood home) via Google Street View a couple of years ago. Amazing to see how it looks now, from the outside. XO

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  11. This post is wonderful and the nostalgia - oh my goodness! Thanks for sharing your photos and memories.

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  12. Yes, you must go to the open house, Bonny! I did not grow up in a new house, I grew up in an old house, but I truly loved that place. My mother and I were sick when my dad insisted they move after my brother and I moved out. It was far from perfect, but it was a great house to grow up in. I drove by it not too long ago, and the "RR shack" that my dad built in the backyard for tool storage was still there and still looked good. For some reason, I dream about that house.

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  13. I concur with everybody, you must go . . . and tell the people/realtor you had lived there before then they will tell more info about it, and go with someone else who knows the house, like a relative. Memories will abound.
    I did that, and to see the inside and outside of the property I had lived in until I was married was nice - though changes were made that surprised and saddened me but the memories came flooding back in the most nicest ways.

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    1. You're so right. I hope it gets listed and they have an open house soon. Change is inevitable, and I'm very curious to see what they've done with the house (and hope they've replaced the blue shag carpeting in the bedroom my sister and I shared). I hope to see that these owners have kept it up and made improvements, and hope that new owners will also take good care of it. Mainly, I hope that the memories come back in the nicest ways, just like you said!

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  14. Oh bittersweet! I drive by my childhood home in the city (Pittsburgh) and my suburb house is three houses down from my Aunt. I see that house all the time! Love the photos!!

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  15. I love the photos and the story of your home. If walls could talk - right? The playhouse looks like so much fun for two little girls and their friends.

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  16. what magnificent memories!
    i would also go to the show house if it were my old home! x

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