google street view of the first home you remember living in.

[dolf]

post it, or don't post it, but look it up.

is it still there? is it how you remember it?
does it bring up any memories or emotions?

 

[dolf]

there's a kid sitting where I used to sit. there used to be lawn, with a gravel pathway. there were wallflowers planted along the front of the house, and roses beside the path. there was a sycamore beside the garden wall, which seemed huge to me at the time. a gate, metal bars with scrolls, painted black. I remember the year there was a plague of ladybirds, standing by the gateposts and counting the little, red beetles. we had a black poodle, a white Alsatian, a mongrel mix of the two, and a black & white cat.

living there, from my earliest memories until I was around 7, was the only happy period of my childhood. there always seemed to be people visiting and the summers lasted forever.

seeing the house, still standing, barely changed, gave me tingles and smiles.

 

[bronzeage]

I did this a few years ago. It was a duplex not far from North Carolina State University. I was amazed to find it was much as I remembered from the years I was 4 and 5 years old. I was able to retrace the path I took every morning when my father and I walked to my kindergarten, which was also much as I remembered it.

 

[JohnnySavage]

I don't think the google car can get down into the hollar with it's camera.

 

[Not Normal]

My folks still live in the house where I grew up. They moved in 2 years before I was born. In '86 they put a large 2 room addition. What used to be the TV room is now a guest room, as is my brother's old room. My old room is supposedly my Dad's office, but all that meas is there is a desk and a lot of other not used crap. They've had new carpets and paint done in the last year, probably the second time since I moved out.

 

[dolf]

I did this a few years ago. It was a duplex not far from North Carolina State University. I was amazed to find it was much as I remembered from the years I was 4 and 5 years old. I was able to retrace the path I took every morning when my father and I walked to my kindergarten, which was also much as I remembered it.

wow

how long ago would that have been? mine hasn't changed much in 32 years.

 

[Wat_Tyler]

I don't live very far from the first three houses I lived in when I was small. I can visit them any time I like, and do sometimes.


So I Googled the one we lived in when we were down the road for a few years. I haven't been to see it in over 30 years, or maybe closer to 40. I lived there from ages 5 to 9. I was struck by the term "barely changed" in your opening post, and that's what this house is. It still has the boring builder-planted foundation shrubs - the originals, it looks like. The maple tree my parents planted in the front yard is gone poof. They have added street lights. But the yard is so . . . boringly plain.


Of course, the house I live in now is much older, and no one ever planted diddly squat here. I did. When the azaleas and the dogwood are blooming, my lot is the most striking one for blocks.

 

[Que]

Not my first, but this English Tudor was my favorite.

It is bounded by three streets so you can "walk" all around it on Google. Pretty cool service.

 

[pointless]

ahhh, they put a basketball hoop up! lucky fuckers.

and, goddamn do i miss that evil driveway. thank god it wasn't a busy street. i could've died so many times riding the skateboard down that steep slope. also, my dukes of hazzard big wheel. a wore a hole into the back wheel of that fucker. still rode the hell out of it.

also, i like the blue paint on the doors.

 

[dolf]

I don't think the google car can get down into the hollar with it's camera.

what's the google earth view like?

My folks still live in the house where I grew up. They moved in 2 years before I was born. In '86 they put a large 2 room addition. What used to be the TV room is now a guest room, as is my brother's old room. My old room is supposedly my Dad's office, but all that meas is there is a desk and a lot of other not used crap. They've had new carpets and paint done in the last year, probably the second time since I moved out.

was it weird when it stopped being your room? the first time you walk in and it's his office?

 

[Not Normal]

what's the google earth view like?

was it weird when it stopped being your room? the first time you walk in and it's his office?

A little. It seems so small now, it's hard to believe I had a bed, dresser AND a set of drums in that room.

 

[JohnnySavage]

what's the google earth view like?

Trees. Can't even see the still.

 

[bronzeage]

wow

how long ago would that have been? mine hasn't changed much in 32 years.

1959 and 1960. I was very surprised to see my little neighborhood was so stable over the past 50 years. I expected the whole area to be modern apartment blocks.

I onced lived off the LSU campus in a quiet neighborhood of frame houses. In the past 20 years, all are gone and replaced with 5 story apartment buildings. There are stores and other shops on the ground floor and apartments above.

 

[domroger]

Sad to say mine was demolished years ago ,as well as the third one .The second is still there but seems much smaller than I remembered .

 

[about_average]

I don't think the google car can get down into the hollar with it's camera.

Same here.

I could see the entrance road which, sadly, has been paved and a bunch of houses built. Depressing to look at now.

Surprisingly the little store is still on the main road, where I used to walk up to, or go across the creek on the rope bridge. I'd buy a Coke or RC Cola out of the cooler that looked like this.
http://crochetrising.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/glasco-starlet-cooler-slider-vendingmachine-e1384678971925.jpg

 

[doowdniw]

Wow. Have to say that was a bit disappointing. Looks nothing like the old place. Single story ranch with a one-car garage has been replaced with a two story, with a two car garage. Looks almost like they scraped it off and started over. About the only thing familiar is the placement of the front door and the driveway. The tree in the back yard that I used to climb to the top of to see over the rooftops is gone. The only thing that looks the same is the row of Christmas trees along the back property line that our backyard neighbor planted one by one. They used to get a live Christmas tree that was about four feet tall every year and plant it after the holiday.

 

[warrior queen]

Great thread idea

The house is still very much as I remember it, and you can clearly see a depression in the yard where my Father dug the pit that held the steel cradle as the yacht was being built.
The lemongrass hedge my Mother planted is also still there, as is the giant gum tree that demolished our pool during Cyclone Joan in 1976(?).
Even the ugly breeze-block privacy wall is still standing.

Strange, sad, nostalgic memories after seeing it again....

 

[Wrong Element]

The first place I ever lived, not a house, is about 3 miles away from where I live now.

The first house I have a strong memory of is on a military base, and I suspect it's been replaced by now if it's even still a residential neighborhood.

This is the house that came after that, where we moved when I was 7. I think the residence is substantially the same, bu there's a lot more vegetation now, especially on the left side of the picture, where we used to have a huge lawn (or so it seemed then) that was the perfect size for neighborhood football.

 

[RedAllan]

Front garden is overgrown, porch looks tatty, who ever has it now certainly doesn't care much for it.

 

[pointless]

heh. the very first house i lived in was a fricking trailer out in the middle of nowhere indiana. i honestly couldn't hope to find it because i don't have a clue where it is beyond the county. i also wouldn't be surprised if it's gone by now. same for the second at least thirty six year old trailer. the first house i lived in is gone and i understand why. i was in it long, long after my family moved out and it was a shit hole.

but i don't remember living in any of those, so fuck them.

 

[RobDownSouth]

Hey! They paved the driveway!

Wonder if the Furnace Monster still lives in the basement?

 

[FullyLoadedUK]

Driveway looks like it hasn't been renewed since I lived there, rose garden removed but mostly the front is as I remember it.

The back however is gone, the took two thirds of the garden and the whole field behind us for a bypass.

 

[JohnnySavage]

Driveway looks like it hasn't been renewed since I lived there, rose garden removed but mostly the front is as I remember it.

The back however is gone, the took two thirds of the garden and the whole field behind us for a bypass.

Onslow, is that you?

 

[duranman]

http://repository.omegaholidays.net/Product/Tours/buckpal12.jpg

 

[FullyLoadedUK]

Onslow, is that you?

Nope. House seems familiar I take it?