Revisiting places you once lived?

Graces7

I am never sure about this. About looking backwards...

Then when I moved here, I realised I was within easy reach of t he place where i lived when I first came to ireland, nearly 20 years ago
It was a mixed time for me, a new country with all that that entails. Mixed memories..and I mortally offended my landlady by leaving :eek:

But I decided to go back. To visit especially the neighbours who I had known so well.

Have to admit a certain edginess as I drove along the top roads... Memories, thoughts,,,

I drove down the back lane and stopped at the neighbours, The lady at the local
shop had assured me they were still there although my friend was "failing a bit" The brght active lady was now suffering from dementia. She knew me! Lovely lady... but she even calls her sons by the wrong names. And she is so unhappy. Lonely, "for what i had" .. husband gone now

But we chatted and lovely to see light come and go in her face/

And huge hug as I left..

Then I drove further up the lane

And everything was... longer and bigger. Thought it was the opposite ..thought these things seemed smaller..

The house I rented.... the ghost house.. All further then I remembered when I walked that valley every day.. the other house i tried to buy... All bigger and wider. And just as lovely as they were then, in my first weeks in this country.
i will go again... but it has eased the memories and settled me more, this circle closed and competed... So many other folk I would like to seek out.

Smiling at it all ; needed to do that.

JupiterKid

Sometimes it's better not to look back and just move forward with your life. I suppose if a place you once lived in is full of happy memories, it's nice to revisit it but places can change so much over a relatively short space of time.

Your experiences there are in your memories and the past is gone. I've not been able to muster up the courage to go back and visit my old family home ever since it was sold after my Dad passed three and a half years ago. According to the neighbours I'm still in touch with, it's been totally changed and it would probably upset me to see the house all different to what I remember of it. My sister saw the house when she was last over from Canada and got a bit emotional.

I did revisit the place I lived in with friends in San Francisco about 5 years after I lived there, but just stood outside the house for a few mins. I didn't bother calling on the new occupants. I had some great times there but when I went back to see it I didn't feel much.

ArchXStanton

Everywhere Changes OP

Lorelli!

Pass by the house I grew up in the odd time and I've had dreams that were set in the present but I was in the old house.

I was only talking about this with my dad a while ago and I said "I wonder if my name is still carved in the windowsill of my old bedroom" and he was was like "WHAT? You carved your name in the windowsill!!!"

This is something I can't do. Years ago when I was studying for my degree I lived in the typical student house share. It was some of the best years of my life. I have never even set foot in the estate never mind look at the house. It's the same with another place I lived in. I was very happy there and so I don't go back.

Strange that where I was happiest is no longer accessible to me because of my funny auld mind. Memories can really knock the wind out of me and all these years later fill me with a longing that hurts because the past is gone. I don't want to be reminded of the before.

Rubberlegs

I lived my first 8 yrs in London. About ten years ago we all went over for a family occasion and we walked past the school I attended and up the street where we used to live. I only have vague memories of that time so it was nice to see it all but didn"t stir up any emotions.
I briefly lived at my grandparents, the house is now derelict and I have been back for a poke around a few yrs ago but doubt I ever will again.
I regularly go back to the house I lived in from 8 till leaving home at 21. Very mixed emotions there as the house is empty a year now and in the process of being sold. At the moment there is the feeling of just wanting all the hassle over with and burying my head in the sand at the thoughts of it being gone and how will I feel when it is completed. Very weird and numb filling a skip and only going through Dad's shed now with his work clothes still hanging where he left them 8 yrs ago. But you have to be practical ,you can't hang onto everything.
The first house I lived in when I moved out is on a nearby estate that I walk through regularly, all I think of when I see it is the amount of woodlice that were in the place

Graces7

JupiterKid wrote: »

Sometimes it's better not to look back and just mive forward with your life. I suppose if a place you once lived in is full of happy memories, it's nice to revisit it but places can change so much over a relatively short space of time.
Your experiences there are in your memories and the past is gone. I've n[/B
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I had very mixed feelings before I went and on the way, But the lady had made my coming to Ireland such a kindness and sense of humour . It was the least i could do
And her son also. Nothing was too much trouble
And be living so near; they taught me to love Mayo and to rejoice than I am back here.
And these experiences become a part of us and shape us.
I was amazed and grateful that there were no negative elements. I just knocked at the door and when she came , watched her face light up.
Her hands are
bad with arthritis so i knitted her a pair of soft gloves and sent them. With a promise of another visit
Just was the size of the valley. The story I put on the thread re creepy things: that was there. And I remembered later that a third death came from that, as the mother of the lady who was killed was pregnant and miscarried

The people there took me, a strange,into their hearts and homes.

Graces7

Deleted User wrote: »

This is something I can't do. Years ago when I was studying for my degree I lived in the typical student house share. It was some of the best years of my life. I have never even set foot in the estate never mind look at the house. It's the same with another place I lived in. I was very happy there and so I don't go back.

Strange that where I was happiest is no longer accessible to me because of my funny auld mind. Memories can really knock the wind out of me and all these years later fill me with a longing that hurts because the past is gone. I don't want to be reminded of the before.

Oh I COULD NOT EVER go back to the house i grew up in. Horrors no.. Shudders. But this like your student place, was home in a different way.. Cannot even think of that house!

Mayo is Irish in a very special and different way.

I have no regrets, and this visit showed me that and I am so thankful . But age is a giver often. To me anyways.

Graces7

ArchXStanton wrote: »

Everywhere Changes OP

Odd thing was it did not. it was even better in so many ways than before. They remembered me and welocmed me

I had in fact tried to get the old house to rent a few years ago, but THAT may have been a mistake

Graces7

Graces7 wrote: »

Oh I COULD NOT EVER go back to the house i grew up in. Horrors no.. Shudders. But this like your student place, was home in a different way.. Cannot even think of that house!

Mayo is Irish in a very special and different way.

I have no regrets, and this visit showed me that and I am so thankful . But age is a giver often. To me anyways.

I loved that house and that's what makes it strange. The places I was happiest in are the ones I can't return to.

SharpshooterTom

I grew up in 4 different towns, lived in 6 different houses by the time I was 14.

I live in Omagh at the moment (moved here from England at 14, i.e. the 4th place), the 3 previous places were all in England and I haven't returned to any of them in nearly 18 years.

Graces7

Deleted User wrote: »

I loved that house and that's what makes it strange. The places I was happiest in are the ones I can't return to.

Maybe if you are not happy now where you are? and I was very surprised at my own reaction to my first Irish rental. VERY! I expected it to be hard. emotional.

Graces7

Graces7 wrote: »

Maybe if you are not happy now where you are? and I was very surprised at my own reaction to my first Irish rental. VERY! I expected it to be hard. emotional.

I'm not unhappy with my physical surroundings, my home, but something about those earlier houses and the experiences I had, the hopes and excitement. Or. I really don't know.

This thread needs some music

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-eCh3y5VROM