Has the town where you were raised changed since you were young?

Question

Was it Thomas Wolfe who said "You can't go home again"? Maybe he should have said to your home town. Mine has changed too. Thanks all.

Answer 1

Yes. The downtown street (small place) has changed a lot. Many of the stores that I remember are not there (gone out of business, or fires brought down the buildings). When I take a walk down the street it brings a sense of sadness, remembering the places that are not there, but moreso remembering my departed loved ones who walked those streets.

Answer 2

No the town hasn't changed. Well the town hasn't grown or expanded, only a new post office and a gigantic HUD senior citizen high rise. A lot of the people we went to high school with still live in the area. The town is 45 minutes away from Pittsburgh, Pa. The homes, fresh looking when we lived there as teens, now are dilapidated. Used to be a booming steel town, upper middle class. The other astounding statistic, there are no people of any flavor but white and that's what I disliked most about growing up there.
We don't get depressed to go home because we were glad to leave so long ago and have never regretted it. Spouse and I grew up in same town.

Answer 3

It has changed - but not much. The biggest changes took place when they ran the Interstate highway just to the east of town. That brought in all the highway junk, gas stations, hotels, fast food joints, etc. The development was to the east of the Interstate.

The west side, including the main streets, haven't changed much at all.

Population has only increase about 15,000 people over what it was when I left there in 1958.

I get back there at least once a year to visit friends and to touch base with my roots. It is in the Rogue River Valley in Southern Oregon and is still the most beautiful place with the Cascade and Siskiyou mountains...... I could never live there again, though....

Answer 4

It has changed and grown so much. Back when I was going to school here, there was only one school for all the kids to go to. Now it has 4 big school buildings to go to, plus a few across the river for the ones on that side to go to.

From our town to the next town used to have lots of land in between the 2, now you can't tell where one ends and the other starts. They are still building more malls and stores. There are taking out a lot of farm land to put these stores in as well. Makes me wonder where they are going to grow the crops at now.

But yes what use to be our little town is growing very very fast.

Answer 5

Since I was a military brat, I wasn't raised in any one town - however, my birth town of Cincinnati, Ohio where for years my grandparents etc still lived, changed drastically over the decades.

The first time I noticed it was in '79 when I flew home to escort my great uncle back to this area.....while in town I drove by my grandparents old homestead...the street, once bordered by beautiful frame/brick homes was now a street of rundown houses.....'bout broke my heart.

Although I was able to find my way around town, so many things of childhood memories were gone!

Now suburbs have cropped up that I never heard of and they rebuilt the 'west end' from what was once a poverty laden area into a riverfront replete with fancy places.

Answer 6

It's funny (peculiar) that you asked this question coz we had a look on the site for our local newspaper and we clicked onto the newspaper for the area where I was born and raised until I was 11yrs of age.....Lancing in Sussex. What a shock I got! There was an article about the police raiding cannabis cafes! I haven't been "home" for over 30yrs and although I didn't expect it to still be the same as when I was a child, it came as a huge shock that drugs has taken over there too. I've had pangs of wanting to take my family down south to show them where I was raised as a child but I don't think we'll be going anytime soon. It's very rundown and battered by the sounds of things. I've got my memories though.

Answer 7

The town I grew up in was swallowed up by another small town. Where we lived is much the same, except the little market and post office are gone. The town that took it over now has more houses, a stop light, Rite Aid drug store, a bank, two dollar stores, a few restaurants instead of the Dairy Bar and the drive-in movie is closed.

Answer 8

There have been many changes. For the most part though, it is still very much the same small town atmosphere as when I grew up. I guess that is one of the reasons I've not strayed far from my home town.
Utah is a great place to live!

Answer 9

It is so changed, it is shocking, and very depressing to me. I was raised in a wonderful neiborhood and all the stores are gone, torn down, empty lots, I cry when I see our old home. It s so changed, and I can not bear to go there any more, although A lot of my family do live in the other part of town out in the country. It just hurt too, to look at the old photos..

Answer 10

I left my hometown when I was 21 and returned to the area for good when I was 33.

By that time, the city was in lockdown on elections and annexations. Now there is a moratorium on annexation and the city council has been run by buffoons and criminals since 1977. The city recently held its first mayoral election in several decades (council had appointed the mayor before).

The new mayor is a strong personality, and he has ruffled quite a few feathers. Now business leaders are saying we should go back to having an appointed mayor.

I guess they like having the town run by the crooks and clowns.

In the meantime, the population has increased to exceed a million in the city and immediate surrounding counties.

There are those who think the counties should join the city to form one regional metropolis, but the counties are being run better and are wary of joining with the city's C&C. Those suggesting the regional metropolis are, of course, looking for a larger tax base for the city.