50+ community Weekend Check-in July 10-12, 2020
I wish you all a wonderful Friday and a great weekend 
What is the nicest thing you remember about the place you grew up? Do you still live there, or have you visited recently? If so, how has it changed?
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@amiablePeace77 there were lots of trees and we had heirloom tomatoes in the garden that were just so delicious. The bread man came around in his truck and the milk man. That was a time before computers. I used to read a lot.
Thanks for this thread!
@soulsings
Soul, you just brought a nice memory back to me too by what you said. That was a great time, when you got fresh milk from the milk man and it tasted so good!
@amiablePeace77
I grew up in Liverpool in the sixties, when the Mersey sound was famous all over the world. I was always a little out of step though. I was interested in classical music, for instance, always way out of step with my peer group! Interrested in rugby, not soccer.
A lot of what I loved about the city has changed - the Everyman bistro has changed, parking charges are extraordinary, and most of the people who I knew there I've well lost touch with by now.
But it remains a nice place to visit, and I'm only an hour away.
@DavidEss
The mersey beat was and still is really catching, did not know actually that it was called mersey (had to google) but I know the beat.
Have you ever considered to call your friends or find out by social media where they are?
@amiablePeace77
My personal preference would be for antisocial media! Of the childhood friends who come to mind, only one is still in Liverpool. We keep in occasional touch, but he likes splashing money about and I don't - we've grown apart really.
I'm in occasional contact with others, too.
My work and music keep me pretty busy, and satisfy most of my sociability needs. I guess I'm very fortunate at nearly 70 to have a rich and satisfying life, and the ability at the moment to keep up with it.
What is the nicest thing you remember about the place you grew up? It was a victorian house, the only one on the block. It had bedrooms for everyone (5 kids) and a big backyard where we had lots of fun, particularly on the Fourth of July.
Do you still live there, or have you visited recently? If so, how has it changed? No, My wife and I moved away in 1980. My fiance and my daughter and I visited it last year, it changed so much I could hardly recognize it. Major plants had been removed, the dombeya tree had been cut way back. It still looked nice though. We walked to the lagoon where I learned to swim. It was a really nice visit.
@Offmytrack wow isn't it amazing how what seems so solid in our memory can change so quickly. Thanks for sharing.
No good memories come to mind, I suppose there are some but the bad memories are overwhelming enough that nothing makes me feel worse than thinking about "home". I haven't been back since my father's funeral over a decade ago and have no desire to return. When my mom passes I intend to decline attending anything. I'm certain it will go over poorly but I doubt any serious above board conversation will occur, have to keep them feelings under wrap.
@ruffneckred
Hugs ruff, sorry that thinking about the place you grew up brings up just bad memories.
@amiablePeace77
Thanks, I try not to dwell on it, sucks to have no "home" to cherish
@ruffneckred
Hugs ruff, I hear you.
I still live there, it's a city that the hapitants in the capitak city refised to admid that it's a city and they exist to call it a village, and my street is just for residential activity and refuses to accept any activity that not serve the residential activity.
@DinaElwy wow that sounds like a quaint place. How do you find its uniqueness?
There were hills. Thats what I remember that was nice. There was hilly geography. That's very sad. We were poor and it was a dismal steel town.
No, I dont live there anymore, nor have I visited recently. The last time I was there was about 15 years ago. The house I grew up in, which had been vandalized and graffitied, had been knocked down by the city, like many of the houses in the area that had fallen into ruin. Because of the steel mills shutting down the area has not had that pollution for decades now, so the greenery has begun to come back. That's all I can tell you because I was there just to take pictures and drove on through. Oh my gosh, how depressing.
@purpleTree4652
Sorry to hear you grew up under such harsh conditions, hope things are much better for you now.
It's amazing how fast sometimes nature starts to recover when there is no pollution anymore
@amiablePeace77, Things are only slightly better. I'm fighting to make it better, but damn that is exhausting.
I grew up on a farm. The good thing was all the space and all the trees there were for climbing. The farm is gone. There are apartment buildings and a strip mall, among other things, on that land now.
@WharfRat
Growing up on a farm must have been fun, did you have a rooster too to wake you up in the morning?
@amiablePeace77
No, we had no animals except for a dog and various cats who came and went. We grew crops on 181 acres of land - field corn (used as livestock feed), wheat, and soybeans, mainly.
@amiablePeace77
What is the nicest thing you remember about the place you grew up?
The apple tree out back where we could pick loads of apples for pie. The quince tree up front we would pick quince and add loads of sugar for jam. The wilderness area on the side which was my private house I could get away from brothers.
Do you still live there, or have you visited recently?
I don't live there and just recently had to sell my parents' home of over forty years. I don't plan on visiting again.
If so, how has it changed?
If you call recently recent enough, then it has changed a bit in that I became an adult since living there. Construction has gone up. Some places have gone down or become run down. I was a frequent visitor to there, so nothing came as much of a shock. Most shocking was living there while my dad went on hospice. That was difficult. Felt like a teenager again. All the feels. Glad we could move both of them with us to our home. The trees here are healing. They did well here.
@PatienceImpatiens
It's sad to see places we know from young age now being run down or been "overbuild". How is your dad doing now?
There were lots of kids where I lived. We were never bored. We were outside as much as we could be in the summer, and even in the winter after school. This was before most of the gadget we have now.
@Lauren63
Lauren, I hear you. In those days it was about fun outside, exploring nature not sitting and playing video games.
@amiablePeace77 thanks ami, glad someone else remembers those days,
@amiablePeace77
The nicest thing about the place I grew up was the friends I had in school. They have all moved away; which was the goal of most everyone. So, other than missing a couple of the old food haunts, there is nothing to draw me back.
@Justme1225
I wonder how it could be meeting them again after such a long time and seeing how everyone is doing, what life they are living. Have you ever thought of contacting them?
@amiablePeace77
I found one a few years ago. She lives many states away, and not so much in common anymore. There was an unspoken agreement to a Christmas greeting each year; nothing more. She didn't know where anyone else was in our old circle was either ... so no luck there. I did try.