Your past slipping away

[low-key]

They are tearing down my Elementary School this summer, wow, so many good memories its sad, when I think of some times there its almost like Im watching a tape of the event its so clear in my head. What piece of your past has slipped away ?

 

[bcla]

I don't recognize most of my home town now. However, there are a few landmarks that have been there forever. My old high school was rebuilt. My old junior high school is no longer open. The most popular supermarket in town closed in favor of a bigger location.

Still - I can look around and there are things that don't look much different than when I was a kid. There are some businesses that have been remodeled several times, but I can still see the features of them I remember.

 

[kimblebee]

I feel like this thread needs the song 'Seasons in the sun' playing quietly in the background.

I can't think of anything from my youth that isn't around anymore. My elementary and high school are still being used. No favourite hangouts have been torn down.

 

[low-key]

I feel like this thread needs the song 'Seasons in the sun' playing quietly in the background.

 

[macraven]

What saddens me the most when thinking back of happy times in my life has not been my old stomping grounds of school buildings gone but the tearing down the local drive in movie theaters

My parents would pile my brothers and me in the car and go to the drive ins

Are popcorn and had soda or koolaide from home and watched the movies intil we fell asleep

Would play on the swings under the big outdoor screen at intermission time

In my previous town in Illinois, I would pile my kids in the car and did Friday night movies

Two years, the drive in was torn down for building a strip mall

Boo hoo

 

[tvguy]

The hospital were I was born, where my mom worked for many years.....where both my kids were born......where my mom was a patient when she had a stroke.....was torn down last year.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

They are tearing down my Elementary School this summer, wow, so many good memories its sad, when I think of some times there its almost like Im watching a tape of the event its so clear in my head. What piece of your past has slipped away ?

When they tore down the hospital where all my kids were born.

 

[Moxiepup]

Up until 4 years ago, my mother and sister still lived in the house I grew up in from the age of 10 on. In 2012, my mother unexpectedly passed away. Shortly after that, my sister lost her job to a company take over that decided they didn't need a research department. Because it was a foreign company that took over, they had to pay for retraining employees who were let go. My sister went back to college to study optics, as that was supposed to be an industry with projected job growth in her area. During that time, funds were tight and repairs to the house slid. She was so focused on school that she also ignored some health issues that I think she normally would have had checked out by a doctor before they progressed so far. She was under so much stress because of the fear of losing the house, plus still grieving the loss of our mom. She passed away from ovarian cancer just weeks after graduating, on July 4th, 2016. She pulled good grades in spite of feeling so ill the last several months.
The roof of the house was in such a bad state that the insurance company said they were not going to cover the house after September, prompting my other sister to want to sell the house asap. She was the executor, and let the house go to someone who would buy it cheap and flip it. During that summer, my other sister and I went through the house, trying to sort through a lifetime. I salvaged as many heirlooms and mementos as I could, but much had to be given away or left behind. Things belonging to my Mom and sister, things that held so many memories. I was bawling all summer. I lost two of the most important people in the world to me, and my childhood home. My past didn't slip away... it was ripped.

 

[loves to dive]

My grandmother's house was sold to the church behind it, torn down and a garden planted there. My great grandmother bought it when my Daddy was around 8 and it was there his whole life, thankfully he died before they tore it down.

 

[low-key]

Up until 4 years ago, my mother and sister still lived in the house I grew up in from the age of 10 on. In 2012, my mother unexpectedly passed away. Shortly after that, my sister lost her job to a company take over that decided they didn't need a research department. Because it was a foreign company that took over, they had to pay for retraining employees who were let go. My sister went back to college to study optics, as that was supposed to be an industry with projected job growth in her area. During that time, funds were tight and repairs to the house slid. She was so focused on school that she also ignored some health issues that I think she normally would have had checked out by a doctor before they progressed so far. She was under so much stress because of the fear of losing the house, plus still grieving the loss of our mom. She passed away from ovarian cancer just weeks after graduating, on July 4th, 2016. She pulled good grades in spite of feeling so ill the last several months.
The roof of the house was in such a bad state that the insurance company said they were not going to cover the house after September, prompting my other sister to want to sell the house asap. She was the executor, and let the house go to someone who would buy it cheap and flip it. During that summer, my other sister and I went through the house, trying to sort through a lifetime. I salvaged as many heirlooms and mementos as I could, but much had to be given away or left behind. Things belonging to my Mom and sister, things that held so many memories. I was bawling all summer. I lost two of the most important people in the world to me, and my childhood home. My past didn't slip away... it was ripped.

hey

 

[bcla]

What saddens me the most when thinking back of happy times in my life has not been my old stomping grounds of school buildings gone but the tearing down the local drive in movie theaters

I think I started a topic on drive in movie theaters. I'd actually attended my first one about a month ago in one of the last ones left around here. I never attended an actual drive-in movie in my childhood, but many were used as flea markets during the day. Quite a few of them still exist solely as flea markets, including the old screens. This old screen in Oakland, California is still useful for holding up a sign:

 

[Neesy228]

Up until 4 years ago, my mother and sister still lived in the house I grew up in from the age of 10 on. In 2012, my mother unexpectedly passed away. Shortly after that, my sister lost her job to a company take over that decided they didn't need a research department. Because it was a foreign company that took over, they had to pay for retraining employees who were let go. My sister went back to college to study optics, as that was supposed to be an industry with projected job growth in her area. During that time, funds were tight and repairs to the house slid. She was so focused on school that she also ignored some health issues that I think she normally would have had checked out by a doctor before they progressed so far. She was under so much stress because of the fear of losing the house, plus still grieving the loss of our mom. She passed away from ovarian cancer just weeks after graduating, on July 4th, 2016. She pulled good grades in spite of feeling so ill the last several months.
The roof of the house was in such a bad state that the insurance company said they were not going to cover the house after September, prompting my other sister to want to sell the house asap. She was the executor, and let the house go to someone who would buy it cheap and flip it. During that summer, my other sister and I went through the house, trying to sort through a lifetime. I salvaged as many heirlooms and mementos as I could, but much had to be given away or left behind. Things belonging to my Mom and sister, things that held so many memories. I was bawling all summer. I lost two of the most important people in the world to me, and my childhood home. My past didn't slip away... it was ripped.

I'm so sorry.

 

[Neesy228]

They tore down the church we got married in...to build a bigger church and a parking lot. That was seriously sad.

 

[John VN]

My 50th birthday brought an "in the present and think of the future mindset" since I realized that the odds favored my time remaining was less than what had been, especially since much memory and physical existence of the past had indeed slipped away.

Thread title brought this to my mind.....

 

[leebee]

My grandparents' house is gone now. It was an amazing old house, and my grandfather had is medical office in it. I loved that house. Yes, it was sold when he passed away, but at least it was THERE, so when we went back to the town we could drive by and reminisce. Then, on a trip after several years' absence, it was gone. The whole block had been torn down for new roadways, a "skyscraper" apartment building, and a parking lot. Streets were rerouted and it felt like a large chunk of my childhood was gone. Although we are not religious, I was thankful that the church across the street from the house was still standing. It's where my parents met and were married, where we attended and went to Sunday School for years, where we were all baptized (including DD and my nieces), and where all my relatives were buried from. Still a touchpoint to childhood, even though everything else is mostly gone.

 

[rastahomie]

The neighborhood where I grew up was on its way to becoming a ghetto when I grew up there. Now it's unquestionably a ghetto. I drove through there just last weekend and it was just sad.

Parts of the city where I grew up are unrecognizable. There are business, workplaces, restaurants, and busy roads where twenty years ago there were fields. That's true of any city, I suppose. But still.

 

[NFLDERS]

Too many places to mention. Alas, we still have our memories!

 

[manning]

Oh, they showed movies?

 

[Lilacs4Me]

My elementary school, which went from k-8th grade, closed their doors about 10 years ago. It's still there, so I pass by about once a year when I go visit my dad.

But now he just retired at the end of April, and moved to Arizona. He sold his house - the house he's lived in since I was 4 years old - and there is no reason to go back there anymore. Not to mention it's in Detroit, and our pretty little, safe, fun neighborhood where we rode bikes, ran around with the neighbor kids, and lived carefree like most children of the 80's, literally looks like a war zone. It's awful.

My sister's and i took one last slow walk through the house and we just stood in each room and let the memories wash over us. I remembered things that I hadn't thought about in years. I could hear our laughter, our fights, our squabbles over the one bathroom for 5 girls...the good times, the bad times like the spot on the stairs that I sat as I overheard my parents discussing how they were going to tell us they were divorcing...the places I cried, the places I hid, my favorite spot to read a book, the places my friends and sisters and I played games and created haunted houses in the basement with our friends. The talent shows on the front lawn and the games like ghost in the grave yard at dusk that were so spooky when I was 7!

And then, just like that, my own son just finished his last day as a high school Junior and will graduate and go to college in one year. I sometimes truly feel like I cannot comprehend time - how I can so clearly remember what it felt like to be a 10 year old little girl in my memories one day, and then be be the 40- something year old mother of an incoming senior in HS a few weeks later.

WHERE does the time GO!!!?!?!?