I think Thomas Wolfe may have been right, you can never go home again. Still in shock after sending a few days in Denver over how much it has changed since we lived there. The wife and I have often talked of moving back someday if we're ever in the position to. After this weekend, I think we both agreed that won't happen.

We've had the same thought when we retire. I lived in Colorado for 18 years and my wife grew up there. It's not the same.

Though, I am interested in checking out Grand Junction for retirement as it was a great retirement place when I lived there. It was the mid 90's when I left and didn't kiss the base of Mt. Garfield on my way out.

My wife and I grew up in California when it was the best place in the world. Best schools, best roads, best government....

I came home and I do mean home a few years ago.
I bought the house I grew up in after my Dad, who's going to be 75, decided to move to a ranch style home so he doesn't have to climb stairs anymore.
I have lived in Utah, Georgia and Michigan before finally coming home.
It has changed but this is where I grew up.

Nearly everyone dislikes San Francisco politics but they'd go absolutely apeshit if they had to live here in my hometown. My mother tells me it's always been like this, so I guess I was oblivious before I moved away twenty years ago. Now, I try to avoid going into town if I can avoid it and just stay holed up at home when I'm not working. People here are full on batshit libtard crazy. San Francisco seems moderate in comparison.

I have lived in twelve states, two countries, and about twenty-five cities. I am not sure which home I would return to again.

We looked at moving back to Cols, OH. I grew up in Columbus and she grew up in Mentor.

I think about it, but there is nothing left for me there. So much has changed, it has grown and I really don't speak with the crew I run around with.

Plus my sister moved to outside of St. Petersburg, FL and pretty soon my parents will be moving to their place a couple of miles from The Villages.

Now, I can see my home being in Ocala, Lakeland, or the outskirts of Tampa.

quote:

Originally posted by sjtill:
My wife and I grew up in California when it was the best place in the world. Best schools, best roads, best government....

Wow! Do I know that feeling!
You couldn't pay me enough to move back there!

Don

quote:

Originally posted by sjtill:
My wife and I grew up in California when it was the best place in the world. Best schools, best roads, best government....

I was stationed at Ft Ord in 1970. It indeed was the Garden of Eden then. 17 Mile drive, Big Sur, Carmel by the Sea, etc.

The area of East Tennessee where I spent my summers as a little kid (early 1950's) was all functioning farms of 200-300 acres. My grandfather still had a pair of mules and occasionally used them. The other farmers had been there for generations and most of them were relatives. This is now all completely gone. There are zero farms there now.

https://youtu.be/wxs3Ls_u9_0

Related we find the 1959 twilight zone "walking distance." It speaks of the impossibility of returning to a happy time.

I grew up in Alexandria/Springfield VA. I would never even consider moving back. I do miss my mountains though!

quote:

Originally posted by sjtill:
My wife and I grew up in California when it was the best place in the world. Best schools, best roads, best government....

Yeah, life was good in CA during the 60s and 70s. I tell people that CA back then was literally like the Brady Bunch. Then Moonbeam became governor...

My hometown is now an overdeveloped, hipster place with stupid vacuous people. I went back this summer and my wife and I pretty much knew it was for the last time. You can never go back home again.

When did you leave Denver?

I'm actually a Denver native but left there because of work in 1989. When I go back, it's generally to see my Mom who lives near Cherry Creek Dam.

I agree, I don't like the way the city (or the state) has changed.

Moved enough there's no home to go back to.

Yes. I grew up on the outskirts of Littleton. It was idyllic back in the 1960s. Why did everything have to get so screwed up? Mankind seems proficient at that.

"But at least you can shop there..." Martin Blank, from the movie Grosse Pointe Blank.

I want to leave my hometown as it's not the same. I can't imagine leaving and coming back 20 years later. I can deal with it now but probably not if I came back. It's still a decent place though.

quote:

Originally posted by SR:
When did you leave Denver?

I'm actually a Denver native but left there because of work in 1989. When I go back, it's generally to see my Mom who lives near Cherry Creek Dam.

I agree, I don't like the way the city (or the state) has changed.

I grew up in Parker in the 70's and 80's when it was a little town that no one knew about. Now it's just another suburb. Moved back there after college and the wife and I lived there until 2003 when we moved to Phoenix.

We usually make it up at least every other year to visit with friends there the live way the hell out on the northeast side of town. Driving in on Friday along I-25 it looks like Castle Rock has just exploded and become the poster child for urban sprawl. No longer the cool little town that it used to be. The I-25 corridor from Lone Tree up through downtown is almost unrecognizable to me now. Traffic in the early afternoon on a weekday was worse than any rush hour that I remember there. The worst was being downtown on Sunday, it's become a lot seedier than usual. Couldn't believe the lineup of homeless bums outside the Denver library waiting for it to open.

I was born in Detroit.

It's weird but I don't necessarily have a sense of "home"


I was third generation military, so my family hasn't lived where it's "from" since the 30s

For me, I did "go home" at least to the last home I knew

My dad retired out of the pentagon, so my family settled in Northern Virginia, where I lived for the last part of middle school and high school

When I got hurt in the Army, I didn't really have any place else to go, so I went home to my parents house. And although I've moved around a lot since, for the last 11 years I have lived 10 miles from the last home my parents lived in

This area has changed a ton, but it's less stark because I have been here regularly throughout the course of that change


The shock to me, I think, will be when I finally get back to Hawaii next year

I lived there for nearly 5 years in elementary school, and I still think of it as the place "where I grew up". But I haven't really been back since 1984...I know it's changed a ton....I'm sure that will be my shock

I think most of us would be shocked if we could time-travel back to our childhoods and live in our home as an adult.

A lot of our fond memories are because we were children, and clueless. We had no idea of the stresses our parents had to put up with.

The last time I drove by the farm I grew up on, it was barely recognizable. I decided right then and there that I'd rather remember it the way it was when I grew up than see it as it is now.

I've been back to Michigan to visit family (and I'm planning to go again this Fall) but I've never been back by the farm.