Have You Ever Gone Back To A Place You Remember From Your Childhood?
By sksongwriter
@sksongwriter (200)
United States
October 16, 2008 10:37pm CST
Here's my story.
I am in Richond, Virginia this week for management training. Richmond is about an hour and a half from Washington D.C.
When I was 11, my parents moved to Washington for a year so that my dad could do management training with the company he worked for. During that time, we frequented the capitol and visited the Smithsonian, etc. Outside of Washington D.C., in Bethesda, Maryland, is a little restaurant called "The Pines of Rome", which we ate at on many occassions when we lived in D.C.
Now, at 33, I decided to make the 90 minute commute to Washington D.C., and after visiting the capitol and taking in the sheer beauty and majesty of my country's capitol, I decided I would try and find the "Pines of Rome" again. Thanks to the miracle of GPS, I had little trouble and I went back to a restaurant I hadn't been to in 22 years. Here's the best part...it was almost exactly like I remembered it...the food was excellent and the restaurant looked and felt like it did when I was 11.
It's amazing to me that this restaurant was still there. It was equally amazing to go back to a place I remembered with such fondness from my childhood and still find it there. Now you have to understand that I live in Tennessee and probably won't get back here for a long time to come, so making the drive and enjoying the capitol and my restaurant was worth it.
Now what about you? Have you ever had an experience like this? Have you ever gone back as an adult to a place you had special memories of when you were a kid? Please share your story...I would love to hear it.
5 people like this
16 responses
@jb_vete (323)
• Philippines
18 Oct 08
hi sksongwriter! It's nice to here your story. It's really good that you have been back to a place where on;y good memories give to you. For me, i haven't experienced like you yet because when i got back to the place where i had been during my childhood, it's no longer the same...
@Celanith (2327)
• United States
18 Oct 08
I did this a couple of times and places. One place, Bellfountain, Oregon had not changed much the old store was still there. Trout Lake, Washington has had some changes but the Old store and Old post office are still there though a new post office was built and the Old Grange is still there and gas stations.
@underdogtoo (9579)
• Philippines
17 Oct 08
It's good to visit places you've been when you were little. I have made a journey of this sort last year and I totally enjoyed the feeling of nostalgia while seeing how much has changed. Not everything changed for the better but maybe it's just my nostalgia talking. Cheers!!
1 person likes this
@coffeebreak (17798)
• United States
17 Oct 08
Yes. Knott's Berry Farm - before it was an amuzement park - was where we spent our sunday afternoons. Ate at the Grill and ordered a "Burger in a Basket" thought it was the greatest thing in the world ot be abel to eat out of a "basket"! That was back in the 60's before Knotts went amuzement park.
They have been havong a craft fair between T-day and Xmas and you can get into the ghost town part and see that and hte crafts. I couldcare less about hte crafts but it lets me for $5 go back to my happy years and relive my memories. I take my kids and tell them the stories and they both enjoyed it and now they take their kids. I have pictures of me, my kids and my grand kids all posing in the same train engine, covered wagon and at other certain places. Knott's through the generations kind fo thing! IT is owned at least partly by a japanese company and slowly but surly they are dumping the original theme of knotts. THe 3 minute covered wagon show was a favaorite and it is gone. LIterally a part of history is destroyed everytime they trash a part of Knotts.
Couple other places I go, and all the same - my memories are strong and in tact cause the site is now so changed, it is hardly the same. Sad when that happens.
1 person likes this
@TessWhite (3146)
• United States
17 Oct 08
Ok, my story will be a little different I guess. You see I moved away from my home town in 1978. I do go back to see my father, but other than that I don't see much of the town. There is a beautiful park there though that I remember having camp outs at and playing on the playground equipment there. We'd have picnics or go swimming too.
Now I am in the process of packing to move. And although it still seems a little unreal to me, I am moving back to my hometown, 30 years later. So once I get settled in my new-to-me little house I plan to have my son and my granddaughters visit me often. And then I will take them to my favorite park for picnics or to watch them play on that same playground. I'm hoping once I get settled I find that some of the other places I remember are still there for me to enjoy once again.
1 person likes this
@daydreamer20 (1688)
• Malaysia
17 Oct 08
It happened to me few years ago when I returned to my primary and secondary school (which is elementary and high school in the US). Both the schools looked so different as many things have changed after all these years. I didn't step into the primary school due to the security, but I entered the secondary (high school) school. What happened next, was a very heartwarming feeling. I met some of my teachers. They're quite old now and somehow, they still remember me. I'll always remember my moments with my beloved teachers. I am who I am today because of my family, friends AND my teachers. :)
1 person likes this
@lilaclady (28207)
• Australia
17 Oct 08
I often have to go past the street that I was brough up in and sometimes I pull over to the side of the road and just think about those good times, the street now looks so small and you know i wish i could buy that little old house back again...but because the area is now classed as trendy and close to the city way way out of my price range.
@Qaeyious (2357)
• United States
17 Oct 08
I was born in Laurel, Maryland (about halfway between Washington DC and Baltimore) but my earliest memories are in my grandparents' house in Salinas, California. My mother now lives a number of blocks from there (we lost it when she got divorced) and there have been a number of renovations (including they painted it in an off-green, instead of the original white - and the garage is some other room) -
My mother married an army sergeant when I was nine, and we were off to see the world. When he went to Vietnam, we went back to Salinas for a year when I was 12-13. That house is exactly the same today as it was back in 1971. At least from the outside.
1 person likes this
@nice030481 (1109)
• Philippines
17 Oct 08
when i was younger than today at the age of 15, our house and lot was bought by a developer to develop. and we have no choice but to sold it. but we bought a parcel of lot on the side. but until now when i was dreaming our house is still at that site, it is clear in my dream, our house made of sawali and bamboo. maybe i was so attach in our previous house that i cant forget everything there.
my mother was grow in the province, she was on that province when she was at leas 6 or seven years old as a maid in one of the resident in that area who send her to school for two and half years but his father get her and leave the place and go to different place then go back to the place when she was born. its been 37 years before she go back on that province, and this time not as a maid, but she buy a parcel of land on that province, she says when she retired as gardener she will leave there, coz she really love that place thats makes a lot of memories on her life.
@ella1bella (839)
•
18 Oct 08
Yes I have ,as a child we lived in a small welsh community and it was a very closely knit community too.We went to a school that we loved and my sister and I took part in village life.We both used to go to the church and we sang in the choir,the weddings were good as we got paid a small amount of money,and the harvest festivals were a good time too.We made lots of school friends and we had lots of sleepovers ,if not at our home then we slept at a friends home.I have revisited this village a few times as an adult,the memories are so precious,it was times of happiness,and times when my parents were happy together too.The village looked the very same the last time that I went there,the churchyard was still as I remembered it,the sugar loaf hill where we used to skate down in the snow.The house where we lived still stood and looked no different,but it was a magical place to me,and the only one regret I have is that we moved away from there.
@rubired (78)
• United States
17 Oct 08
I just had one of those feelings a couple of days ago.
I went to sit outside at night for a while. I hadn't done that in quite a while.
I was looking around. There was nobody in sight. The moon was full, and there were beautiful white clouds passing by. I can hear the crickets and the wind blowing.
And that first air blow I got just made me go back to the past.
There was this one time when the sun was going down, and my dad had barely bought us a basketball hoop. Once we finished putting up, we all gathered around in the backyard by our tree.
My sister and I sat on top of the tree while the rest were sitting/laying in the grass or sitting in the chair. No one was talking. We were just enjoying the time being.
But what made it feel even better was the air outside. It was a summer day. And once it starts getting dark, the air starts feeling so nice.
That was a perfect moment for me, and it made me smile when that wind passed by me last night :)
1 person likes this
@deathvans (301)
• Philippines
17 Oct 08
well for me, yes, I really wanted to go back there.. Cause it brings back memories when I am young.. Love to go back to the places I usually play, go to school, road that taking me for a walk, the breeze of the air, the weather, the people.. and so on.. wish I'm still that young.. I really miss such a place.. well then.. have a nice day.. ^_^
@goodcharlotte (65)
• United States
17 Oct 08
I love going back to places that I once knew about. I love my own country. I just don't have the money to go yet. I love going back to old and familiar places and see how things have changed and how I have changed over all. I really need some funding to go.
@princejayevents (1245)
• Philippines
18 Oct 08
yes i do. when i was 8 years old, me and my brother always go to our favorite place, SIBUL SPRING, where we start to learn how to swim and became a competitive swimmer. and now at the age 20, we do rally love to go there and remember all the beautiful days that we have done in the past few years.
@beautygunk (203)
• Philippines
18 Oct 08
I do not specifically crave for going to places I went to as a kid but I sure love encountering scents from my childhood or food from my childhood even music from my childhood. My childhood was not spectacular but it was not that bad either. :) I have my parents to thank for this. :)
