I heard the new owners also took his stapler.

I guess it really burned him to know someone else was living there.


/got nuthin'

My childhood home was torn down to build a bunch of yuppie condos.

/fark you, West Vancouver
//and your yuppie-ized "Evelyn Place"
///that was MY childhood home you bulldozed
//and it was "Evelyn Drive"
/*sniff*

Hold tight wait till the partys over
Hold tight were in for nasty weather
There has got to be a way

Man, fark is making me put some really weird shiat on my playlist tonight. First Blind Melon and now Barenaked Ladies.

Trashcan man, obviously.

All wet
Hey you might need a raincoat

Did they take old lady Semple's pension check?

Three hun-dred six-ty five de-grees

I went back to the house I grew up in and it was strange. I have 3 brothers and a sister and all of us at one time or another went back to check it out. My Mom always thought the front door was on the wrong side of the house. Last time there they remodeled and moved the door. Freaky. They also took out the picture window. My younger brother and I bounced many a baseball off of it and it never broke. I will always remember how the neighborhood kids would press their face to the window while I was practicing violin or piano in the living room.

Mostly what is different is the landscaping. The magnolia tree is gone. We had a big Tulip tree that got hit by lightning then grew out not up like a big canopy. The little saplings they made us plant years ago are now enormous. It doesn't look like the same street.

Lots of good memories. Surreal to visit later in your life especially since I have moved around so much and traveled extensively in US cities.

Fun to visit my home town via google earth which I do once in a while.

I only hit you because I love you, baby!

"Broke into the old apartment...."

My childhood home is still standing. I got to visit it about 10 years ago when I found out one of my co-workers lived in the house (tenant, not owner). The new owner had torn out the knotty pine cabinets that my grandfather, a master carpenter, had painstakingly installed. The hardwood floors were covered with cheap carpet. It was a most disappointing visit.

SF_iris: Did they take old lady Semple's pension check?

I spurted beer. And when I say that, I mean I spurted beer.

/It's the next level above YOMANK.

He's the trouble starter, farkin instigator.
He's the fear addicted, danger illustrated.

He's the biatch you hated, filth infatuated.
He's the pain you tasted, felt intoxicated.

He's the self inflicted, mind detonator.
He's the one infected, twisted animator.

Bathia_Mapes: My childhood home is still standing. I got to visit it about 10 years ago when I found out one of my co-workers lived in the house (tenant, not owner). The new owner had torn out the knotty pine cabinets that my grandfather, a master carpenter, had painstakingly installed. The hardwood floors were covered with cheap carpet. It was a most disappointing visit.

If I was renting out a house, I definitely would protect my nice floors with cheap carpet.

The cabinets suck, though, I agree.

Frank settled down in the Valley,
and he hung his wild years on a
nail that he drove through his
wife's forehead.

Link (new window)

...BURNING DOWN THE HOUSE

daychilde: "Broke into the old apartment...."

DAMN YOU.

/why did you plaster over
//the hole I punched in the door?

At least they didn't build a convenience store on top of it. Then he'd have to blow it up.

He gets out right away on a signature bond for arson? That is a bunch of damn BS right there. The a-hole should be sitting until trial. Lighting vehicles on fire that are in an attached part of the residence is highly reckless of human safety.

This isn't a situation for a signature bond.

Fano: At least they didn't build a convenience store on top of it. Then he'd have to blow it up.

Or a tire store.

carnifderome: Fano: At least they didn't build a convenience store on top of it. Then he'd have to blow it up.

Or a tire store.


Ok, where's your reference from?

never could stand that dog...

Fano: At least they didn't build a convenience store on top of it. Then he'd have to blow it up.

It's not me.

That's a shame. It really held the neighborhood together.

Wodan11: Bathia_Mapes: My childhood home is still standing. I got to visit it about 10 years ago when I found out one of my co-workers lived in the house (tenant, not owner). The new owner had torn out the knotty pine cabinets that my grandfather, a master carpenter, had painstakingly installed. The hardwood floors were covered with cheap carpet. It was a most disappointing visit.

If I was renting out a house, I definitely would protect my nice floors with cheap carpet.

The cabinets suck, though, I agree.

When we were growing up, my sister and I had to regularly sweep and dust the floors and assist in the yearly application of new floor varnish.

That being said, the new owner may have been able to ask for a higher rent if he had left the hardwood floors intact. I consider them a plus, as do many other people. Hardwood floors are actually easier to keep clean than carpet and are a bonus if you have family members with allergies & asthma.

bustle in my hedgerow: I went back to the house I grew up in and it was strange. I have 3 brothers and a sister and all of us at one time or another went back to check it out. My Mom always thought the front door was on the wrong side of the house. Last time there they remodeled and moved the door. Freaky. They also took out the picture window. My younger brother and I bounced many a baseball off of it and it never broke. I will always remember how the neighborhood kids would press their face to the window while I was practicing violin or piano in the living room.

Mostly what is different is the landscaping. The magnolia tree is gone. We had a big Tulip tree that got hit by lightning then grew out not up like a big canopy. The little saplings they made us plant years ago are now enormous. It doesn't look like the same street.

Lots of good memories. Surreal to visit later in your life especially since I have moved around so much and traveled extensively in US cities.

Fun to visit my home town via google earth which I do once in a while.


Just last month I drove from Denver to OKC to help move my father into assisted living after being in the same house for 36 years. I don't think I'll ever be able to go into my old neighborhood again.



/google earth searched it about two hours ago
//was hoping to see my dad's car in the driveway

Shades of "you can't go home again."

Last summer, I went to visit where I lived until just shy of my tenth birthday. Back then, it was very rural Illinois. Now it is an incorporated viliage, Glendale Heights, IL. The site of my childhood home is now a veterans' memorial park.

I wandered about that park for a bit, sad that almost all of my childhood memories from then were gone. But then I saw something. I got closer and I suddenly felt a lot better.

So, what was it?

It was this:



It was actually at the back of our next door neighbor's yard, in a grove of small trees. My brother and I liked to hang out there and dream up stuff. To us, this medium sized hunk of granite was "Big Rock" (well it was big to a seven year old and a four year old!) and it is still there, almost fifty years after we left. That kinda made me feel good. So, my kids, son-in-law and granddaughter posed with Dad/Grandpa, who was now feeling a lot better:



So, I wandered through the park, and looked around. It's a nice place, peaceful and quiet, despite now being on the corner of a busy intersection and a big water park in what was, in my time, nothing but a corn field. It's a nice place to wander about and remember a time when two little boys once watched their dad mow the lawn,



and a big brother got to be Davey Crockett to his brother and sister as Indians,



and the best Cub Scout Den ever, got to hang out and do stuff:



(just after the old henhouse, in the background, had been torn down)

So, maybe you can go home again, as home isn't so much a place, but memories, friends and family

Aulus:


Well fark me, I dont wanna grow up

He probably laughed, watching it burn, all Halloween orange and chimney red.

Aulus: Shades of "you can't go home again."

You just blew my mind man.. I hope that trip down memory lane was as good for you as it was for me.

I happen to live in one of the towns I was a child in... it's been a weird circuit. When I drive by the house I was a boy in, it makes me soooo.. I don't want to say sad, because that's irrational. But there is definite memories that come flooding back and when reality doesn't match what is there it can, well it can make you reflect harder than you were prepared to reflect.

It's so cool that you're big rock survived the development. My childhood is so full of fields and trees and wild things that were my playground... and they are all gone for the most part. The fact that your rock persisted is awesome, and you have a snapshot of 3 generations on it to remember it :) Awesome. How many of us could wish for so much and just be wishing?

Aulus

Great story, beautiful post, thanks.

not_an_indigo: My childhood home was torn down to build a bunch of yuppie condos.

My favorite childhood home (I had several) was torn down to expand a parking lot for a church. Another one burned to the ground three years after we moved out. I don't know about any of the others.

Aulus: Shades of "you can't go home again."

I think I got some dust in my eyes or somethin'...

/thanks for the great story...

Ed Grubermann: not_an_indigo: My childhood home was torn down to build a bunch of yuppie condos.

My favorite childhood home (I had several) was torn down to expand a parking lot for a church. Another one burned to the ground three years after we moved out. I don't know about any of the others.

I am so very tempted to burn down one of the churches here - completely bulldozed the only orange grove in the city to add ONE more LDS chapel despite the farking city already has 30+ of them.

(I kid you not. There is LDS chapels every couple blocks!)

Thanks Forrest!

/he sure loved Jenny
//even though she was a whore

daychilde: "Broke into the old apartment...."

This is the second thread today where I've come in to see you've already posted what was running through my head... are you me, only a few hours earlier??

/love BNL...

We moved around a lot because my dad was Army. I drive by our old houses when I'm in those towns. I would love to knock on the door and tour.

Tell them which walls I left dead animals behind.

Was that wrong, should I not have done that?

Fano: At least they didn't build a convenience store on top of it. Then he'd have to blow it up.

Thanks... I came in here for the "Martin Blank approves" pic. Close enough.

His name was Hightower?

Hightower was charged with arson. He was released on a signature bond after a court appearance Thursday.

wtf is a signature bond? Does that mean he didn't have to put up mega bucks for bail? Seems pretty lenient for a serious crime, and the last time I checked, arson is considered serious.

Never mind, I looked it up:

A signature bond is where you are allowed to be released from jail on your signature only. Many states also refer to this as a P.R. bond. Personal Recognizance. These are for very low risk offenders that usually have jobs and steady places to live.The same rules apply as with any other bond posted to release you from jail while awaiting trial. And if you break the bond rules, you will have a warrant issued for your arrest and will not be eligible for another PR bond.

The guy burned down someones home. He should be locked up if only for a psych exam.

fizzygillespie: Frank settled down in the Valley,
and he hung his wild years on a
nail that he drove through his
wife's forehead.

THIS

/that album rules

Aulus: Shades of "you can't go home again."

Thank you for that post. Very nice.

/Also had a rock in his back yard. Pretty sure it is still there.

schlepp: never could stand that dog...

Since I'm arriving late, I figured someone would beat me too it. Keep up the good work.

Fano: At least they didn't build a convenience store on top of it. Then he'd have to blow it up.

Came for this reference.

/good movie/