I grew up in Epsom, in the late 70s and early 80s. At that time it was a small town and you could ride your bike for 10 minutes and be out in the countryside; the Epsom Downs were just out of town. I went to Stamford Green primary/middle school, the first few years taken there on the back of my mum’s bike. Later I would ride my bike all day, covering tens of miles down to the coast in Brighton or around Devil’s Dyke.
I’d ride down roads near Box Hill alongside cars that were supposed to observe the 70mph speed limit, but rarely did as it was before the advent of cameras and that road was awesome for speeding. Or I’d visit friends and, as long as I was home by dinner, would be away from my house all of the day. As long as I was back before nightfall everything was good. My mum would ask where I’d been; “Oh, just to Dorking and Guildford” “Did you have a good time?” “Yeah, it was great.”
Sometimes I and some friends would be taken up to the heath to explore, throw rocks and enjoy the nature. We would walk for 5 or 6 hours but always be back to the car park in time to meet up with our parents. We only swam in pools as there weren’t any reservoirs local.
Reading this thread I see many other SD members had an equal advantage when growing up.
I wouldn’t even know where to start! I was born in Paris, France, then moved to Lima, Perú at 6 months of age. Then to Barcelona at age 5, and while in Europe traveled to Germany and lived part of the summers in Cologne. Left Barcelona at age 7 and lived in Bogotá, Colombia until age 9…then back to Lima for a year…then back to Bogotá until age 12. From there to Toronto, Canada, where I learned English and went to school until I finished high school. I left Toronto at age 20, and moved to Houston - whoa! Culture shock!!
I’m at work and don’t have the time to elaborate on everywhere I have lived in the United States. This may have to be a…“to be continued…” if anyone is interested.
What I did learn from all that moving is that there are pros and cons to everything and that for me (for much of my childhhood and adult life) it has been hard to feel a sense of security, and this reaches many areas of my life. I did have two favorite neighborhoods - they were in Lima and Barcelona. It was wonderful to experience different cultures and countries, but I do wish sometimes I had had a more stable childhood. I said good bye to many friends. I am grounded now. I have lived in the same state for 14 years.
In February of 2014, I am traveling back to my roots - Lima, Perú. It will be the first time I have been back in 40 years. My guy is buying tickets and we’ll stay for 10 days. It is possibly the nicest thing anyone has done for me… ever.
I grew up in Toledo, and parts of the neighborhood were somewhat similar to Walt Kowalski’s neighborhood in “Gran Torino” (Toledo is a AAA affiliate of Detroit in more ways than just baseball). It was also the 70s and the neighborhood was for less dangerous than it is now. I was one block away from a large chain of city parks that now includes 5 miles of paved bike path, 6 miles of backwoods mountain biking trail, the USA’s oldest municipal golf course west of Baltimore, and other natural areas. I feel like I got the best of a gritty city and wild nature and I wouldn’t trade growing up there for anything.
West Texas. A typical middle-class neighborhood. My elementary and junior-high schools were half a mile or less away, so I could walk or bike. High school was a couple miles away, so I would bike that. It was a new part of town, and ours was the second house built on the block. It eventually filled up with houses, and since everyone was the original owner, and new owners as well, it had a fresh, new feeling. However, we did not interact much with any of the neighbors, as my shrew of a mother had lost no time in alienating everyone on the block. She was definitely the “neighborhood crazy lady.”
