# So, have you ever re-visited your childhood home... **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [December 21, 2003, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-have-you-ever-re-visited-your-childhood-home/220255 "2003-12-21T02:56:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2013, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-have-you-ever-re-visited-your-childhood-home/220255/41 "2013-10-07T20:10:49Z")
My grandmothers house burned down six months after she sold it. Supposedly an electrical fire. They had left Christmas lights on. I drove by and it really bothered me seeing it gone. By granddad’s shed was still there untouched. A shame. My parent’s old house got painted. The idiots actually painted my mom’s aluminum siding. Otherwise it looks the same on the outside. I’m not sure that I’d want to see inside. Too many memories. ---
**Author:** ![Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/prof.pepperwinkle/32/13627_2.png) [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Prof.Pepperwinkle)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2013, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-have-you-ever-re-visited-your-childhood-home/220255/42 "2013-10-07T20:16:30Z")
The little white house I grew up in is now painted brown, and is missing its porch. The junior high and the high school I attended have been torn down, as has the public library (all rebuilt elsewhere). The city hall is closed, empty, and scheduled for demolition. The drive-in theater is a wreck of weeds. But the downtown drug store’s still in business and doing fine. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2013, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-have-you-ever-re-visited-your-childhood-home/220255/43 "2013-10-07T20:17:07Z")
When we moved to Spirit Lake, Idaho at the far end of town, there was this old oak tree towering(and leaning dangerously) over the house. My father wanted to cut it down, but Mom wouldn’t let him touch it. About a year after I left home for the U.S.A.F. the inevitable finally happened. The house burned to the ground, and that damn tree stands to this day. ---
**Author:** ![Ulfreida](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ulfreida/32/8014_2.png) [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2013, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-have-you-ever-re-visited-your-childhood-home/220255/44 "2013-10-07T20:54:00Z")
The cheesy tract house my parents felt lucky to afford in 1958 is still there and is cared for at least on the outside. The only thing I recognize (we moved out when I was 10) is the Modesto Ash tree in the front yard, now enormous. The Hetch Hetchy Aquaduct that was laid behind our house when I was six or seven (my friends and I played inside the gigantic concrete pipe sections) is now underneath a park path. The back yard used to look out on nothing but pasture and range land for twenty or thirty miles is now separated from that view by an interstate. On the other hand, the house on three acres that my grandfather built a few miles away, where I lived from age 10 to 17, is still in the family and is ferociously gardened, just as in my grandmother’s day, by my sister and her partner. Maybe someday they’ll even get rid of that rust colored shag rug my mother installed in the 1970’s. ---
**Author:** ![suranyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@suranyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/suranyi)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2013, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-have-you-ever-re-visited-your-childhood-home/220255/45 "2013-10-08T00:49:36Z")
I lived in eight houses between the time I was born and I went off to college. I’ve been back to see the four most recent several times within the past ten years; they are mostly unchanged. I saw the one before that once about fifteen years ago. It also looked unchanged but it was hard to recognize because I was only ten years old when I last lived there. I’ve never gone back to see the ones I lived in before that; it’s unlikely I’d recognize them because I really was small when I lived there. ---
**Author:** ![anya\_marie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ebca7d/32.png) [@anya\_marie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anya_marie)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2013, 8:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-have-you-ever-re-visited-your-childhood-home/220255/46 "2013-10-08T08:10:42Z")
I drove by my grandparents house, and a duplex i lived in as a kndergardner; but didn’t go inside either house, nor have I asked to be let inside. I just saw that the houses were there, and apparently occupied. I don’t know that it is a brilliant idea for me to ask to be let into a stranger’s home. I loved my grandparent’s house when they were there, but now I realize how it was tiny, and only one person could cook in the kitchen at any time. I am not sure what is inconvienent about the duplex we had but it probably need some work and I KNOW that its street does not have enough parking space. This house we’re in has way more space and a bigger kitchen and I like that space even though we’ll needd work done to fix the wiring, and new carpet. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2013, 9:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-have-you-ever-re-visited-your-childhood-home/220255/47 "2013-10-08T09:30:20Z")
Never, _ever_ go back. Nothing lives there but Loss and Unhappiness. I’ve visited several former homes… ---
**Author:** ![Hypno-Toad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b2d939/32.png) [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2013, 12:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-have-you-ever-re-visited-your-childhood-home/220255/48 "2013-10-08T12:24:09Z")
The house I lived in until I was 14 has been changed. The big-ass window on the kitchen has been replaced with an inferior smaller bay window. But worse is the absence of the two huge weeping cherry trees, one in front and one in back. They were awesome and unique to the neighborhood. In spring, they were magnificent. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2013, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-have-you-ever-re-visited-your-childhood-home/220255/49 "2013-10-08T14:12:18Z")
I’ve driven past a couple of them without going in - they somehow all got a lot smaller since I was a kid. ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2013, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-have-you-ever-re-visited-your-childhood-home/220255/50 "2013-10-08T14:25:07Z")
Yes, we lived out in the country in DeLand, Florida in a house surrounded by citrus groves and lakes. The house itself wasn’t that special, probably cinder block and we had those glass shutter windows you could crank and about 25 rectangular panes would open in unison. It was small, a gravel driveway and heavily wooded and to a 7 year old it was paradise. About 5 years ago we took my daughter to Disney and decided to revisit that old place when we were that close. Although I’d not been there in 40 years I was able to find it easily and to my relief it was in wonderful shape. While most of the groves are gone it’s still relatively undeveloped and out in the country. The owners were in the driveway, I stopped and we talked for about 20 minutes, me sharing the oldest memories and them relating what had happened since. It’s been renovated, enlarged, paved, etc and really is just in fantastic shape. It was a very nice visit and I’m so glad my kid, as old then as I was when I lived there, could see where I’d grown up. Now grandmom’s old home where I did a lot of growing up is a different story. Once a palatial place in rural Ft. Worth, when she got old and moved into the city the hobos from the RR nearby moved in, tore it apart and when we caught them they burned most of it to the ground. We had to bulldoze it and now it’s just a wooded lot with no suggestion a beautiful home for many generations ever existed there. ---
**Author:** ![lost4life](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c4cdca/32.png) [@lost4life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lost4life)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2013, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-have-you-ever-re-visited-your-childhood-home/220255/51 "2013-10-08T15:41:12Z")
Despite this being a zombie, all the houses I grew up in have been torn down. I think my hometown is trying to send a message. ---
**Author:** ![gotpasswords](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c57346/32.png) [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2013, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-have-you-ever-re-visited-your-childhood-home/220255/52 "2013-10-08T16:12:45Z")
My childhood home is a time capsule. Mom still lives there, and AFAIK, she still has the same earth tones color scheme that was there when I moved out 30 years ago. Other than having the roof re-shingled a few years back, I think the only changes she’s made were to buy a new TV and maybe a new microwave. ---
**Author:** ![picunurse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7bcc69/32.png) [@picunurse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/picunurse)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2013, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-have-you-ever-re-visited-your-childhood-home/220255/53 "2013-10-08T16:41:28Z")
I went back a few years ago. There had been a kitchen fire. The inside was gutted. My cousins live in a trailer parked next to the old house. The house was so very small. It was a sad day. ---
**Author:** ![elmwood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmwood/32/3060_2.png) [@elmwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elmwood)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2013, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-have-you-ever-re-visited-your-childhood-home/220255/54 "2013-10-08T16:44:19Z")
Yes. My parents left in 1992, after it was evident the neighborhood was on a permanent downward trajectory. Today, the area is a ghetto. My childhood house is in disrepair; weeds along the foundation and poking through the driveway and sidewalk joints, a satellite dish danging from a cable off the roof, the lawn dead. My grandmother’s former house isn’t far away. Last time I drove by, it was painted in a garish green and yellow scheme, and it was boarded up. ---
**Author:** ![StGermain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stgermain/32/2868_2.png) [@StGermain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StGermain)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2013, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-have-you-ever-re-visited-your-childhood-home/220255/55 "2013-10-08T17:03:54Z")
Not my childhood house, but my current house. I’ve kept in touch with the granddaughter of the woman who lived and died here, at 99 years old. When I [painted my house](http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j127/StG61/SouthHouse.jpg) last year I sent the granddaughter pics. These are the letters she sent: > [@](#): > > Such a coincidence that you e-mailed me today b/c I was going to e-mail you this evening when we got home from bowling. We were in Murfreesboro on Friday, visiting Brenda and David down by the creek and I came to a dead stop when we passed your house. It took my breathe away, it was so stunning. I even took a picture of it with my cell phone but your pictures do it much better justice. I absolutely LOVE it in every way and you could not have chosen a better color. You didn’t do it all yourself, did you? Brenda and David also brought it up and were so impressed with how amazing it looked. Brenda said she bet Granny was kicking up her heels in Heaven and shouting her approval. I also think my mom is in total agreement with your choice! How is the roof planning going? Have you found anyone to tackle Mt. Everest? Again, I applaud your creativity and I thank you for keeping me involved. That means more than you could ever imagine!I would love to see the inside changes as well when you get it the way you want it. I have no doubt that it will be as beautiful as the outside is now. Well done, my friend! > > I wrote the granddaughter back after her lovely letter and got a response that was even nicer. My email to her: > > Cheryl - > > I’m so glad you approve, and that you think Miss Mattie would’ve liked it. I actually think of her often and wish I could’ve known her. > > My handyman and I painted it. Do you remember a year or two ago when I asked you about the unemployed guy picking the scrap metal out of the pile across the road? That day I hired him to help me with some fencing I needed doing, and since then I’ve had him do lots of work around the farm. He now has a more-than-fulltime job and helps out when he has time and I have money. I haven’t gotten any further on the roof yet. I’m mulling over the idea of replacing it altogether. It would last me the rest of my life. > > The interior hasn’t been changed as much as I’d like. Time and money and lack of inspiration. The kitchen is redone, and the bathroom ripped down to the studs and rebuilt. I sleep in the front room and I’ve removed the wallpaper from those walls. Under the paper was dark unfinished beadboard. I hate to paint over it, but I just don’t know what to do. I’ve stripped the paper from the hall, it’s the same beadboard, but the top two feet were painted. A decorator I am not. > > My goal is to try to have central heat and air installed in 6 years, when the house is paid for. I’m not sure how I’ll do it, because there’s so little crawlspace. And I’ll probably have to upgrade the electrical before I can do the heat and air. Some day I’d like to put in a bathroom and master suite upstairs. I don’t plan on selling, but it would make the house a lot more salable if I had to. Lots of work, and it’s often easier to save the money than spend it. > > I’ll send more pics when I get the roof done. I also plan on painting the old kitchen to match, but I’m running out of good weather for that. > > Her response to me: > > I totally love that you are putting your heart and soul into this house that is yours. It is exactly what my Grandma did in the time she had with the money she had! It was 1st my Grandad’s house that she made her own in time, and you are definitely doing that as well. You are a thoughtful, pensive, strong person and so was my Grandma, so it is almost as if it was meant to be. This house needed new life to be breathed into it, and that is what you are doing, and you are doing an incredible job! I love seeing the transformation, and I am so sure my mom and Grandma feel the same way. All things happen in good time and the choices you are making are right for you and also for your home. Again, thanks for involving me and I look forward to seeing the transformation!!! Love, Cheryl It makes me feel good that I’ve preserved and enhanced her childhood memories. StG ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2013, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-have-you-ever-re-visited-your-childhood-home/220255/56 "2013-10-08T20:28:37Z")
I bought my childhood home off my parents and still live in it. I sleep in the same bedroom I did throughout my childhood, and my two-year-old daughter has what used to be my mum and dad’s room. I enjoy seeing her playing in the same rooms where I have photos of me playing at her age. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2013, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-have-you-ever-re-visited-your-childhood-home/220255/57 "2013-10-08T20:45:02Z")
Visited the town and got the front of the house on tape but didn’t go inside. Probably should have 'cause I really had to piss and ended up going in the woods around the now-closed quarry. Some (all?) of my sisters _have_ been inside at various times. ---
**Author:** ![Capt\_Kirk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/779978/32.png) [@Capt\_Kirk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capt_Kirk)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2013, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-have-you-ever-re-visited-your-childhood-home/220255/58 "2013-10-08T20:56:36Z")
> [@StGermain](#): > > Not my childhood house, but my current house. I’ve kept in touch with the granddaughter of the woman who lived and died here, at 99 years old. When I [painted my house](http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j127/StG61/SouthHouse.jpg) last year I sent the granddaughter pics. These are the letters she sent: > > It makes me feel good that I’ve preserved and enhanced her childhood memories. > > StG I love the red. Great job. **Capt** ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2013, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-have-you-ever-re-visited-your-childhood-home/220255/59 "2013-10-08T21:05:32Z")
> [@Lute Skywatcher](#): > > Visited the town and got the front of the house on tape but didn’t go inside. Probably should have 'cause I really had to piss and ended up going in the woods around the now-closed quarry. That made me LGDTTQAPII! ---
**Author:** ![SerafinaPekala](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecae2f/32.png) [@SerafinaPekala](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SerafinaPekala)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2013, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-have-you-ever-re-visited-your-childhood-home/220255/60 "2013-10-08T21:09:47Z")
Childhood memories? Nightmares, you mean. Every piece of paper she ever scribbled on was saved in my mother’s house. She was a hoarder extraordinaire. When she was hospitalized, my sister and I spent $4000 to have 6 large dumpsters of trash, filth and whatnot hauled away. When she saw the nice clean inside of the house she was so shocked she couldnt speak except to squeak, “Alll my treaaaassssurrrrressss…” (Precioussss…) It didnt take her long to amass a shitload of Treasures in it again and when she passed, we just turned it over to Habitat for Humanity as a donation (crap and all). Ill never go back there. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-have-you-ever-re-visited-your-childhood-home/220255.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-have-you-ever-re-visited-your-childhood-home/220255.md?page=4)