The "then" versus the "now".

I went back to the town where I grew up after a very long absence. The house I lived in looked exactly the same, even the privet bush was still growing and the road looked much the same too. The difference was when I walked down the road into the main street and saw the shops where I had run errands for my mother. They were all closed and boarded up. The little ironmongers was no more, no smell of distemper and oil anymore. The butchers and sweet shop had also gone. The saddest thing was that the library had closed. It all looked very depressing and this was before the financial crises had begun. The street where I lived was quiet, whereas before it had been busy with shoppers with their baskets walking down to the shops and children playing in the street. I will not bother to go back again, better to keep the old memories alive.

Kids grow up in the blink of an eye. I was just telling hubby yesterday how smart the youngest is getting.. they get to a certain stage where they honestly start amazing you with how much they know about!

She is so cute! Babies are suppose to get bigger. Is she happy? That is all that matters. I guess biggest change is in me. Without trying I have lost weight. I look far different than a few years ago.

I had to go and look but what a huge difference!!! She's grown so much and is so adorable!! It looks as though she was maybe on oxygen in the "Then" photo?? What happened to her natural parents? She sure looks happy now.

They can and do change in the blink of an eye. I think that I have changed in many ways since being widowed. I suddenly realised that I was responsible to keep my family together and get my daughter through school. It was scary stuff - making decisions on things when before it was the two of us. I have to tell you that my day was made today as when I stopped by the Post Office there was a beautiful card from you. I will treasure it my dear and thank you so very much. It must have been sent around the world before it arrived here Our postal system is not good at all. Thank you again and I so apprciate your good thoughts and kindeness

My 'then' and 'now' is like black and white. Be it relationships, the city were I spent my prime life or even me, everything has changed in totality - unrecognisable. Family has drifted apart having no time for each other unlike the good old days where we used to visit each other on regular basis. No hand written letters - only emails and may be phone calls but not with the sincerity that used to be The city where we lived now has bridges and traffic congestions that take hours to move. The prices of every single items have gone up hundred fold. I could go on and on...........

When my folks moved us to Austin, it was primarily a university and government town. Now its called "Silicon Hills". IBM, Texas Instruments, Tracor were early ones, now its a real software hub and many companies have branches here... and, of course, there is Dell Computers... My mother said in the late 1990's that Austin was now as big as Houston was when we moved to Texas. In 1950 Travis County had a population of 160,000 or there about, most of that was probably Austin with a few smaller towns. Harris County (the main one Houston is in) was 806,000. In 2000 Travis, now predominately the City of Austin, was 812,000... its over a million at the last census.

She is a keeper! I have had a few things.....I used to live in a different town. After I was divorced I thought about moving back...well I went back and visited. The Town seemed dumpy compared to when I lived there..I had some fond memories but when I went back it was totally different.

I experienced that too when I went back to my hometown after 4 years of working in a different city. There were many more business establishments. When I left again to work in another country and didn't go back after 2 years I noticed also the same progress. As with my 4-year-old niece, we stumble upon her much younger baby pics and we kinda miss that baby. It's because we see her everyday and how she's growing and soon she'll be in nursery school.

I went back to my hometown last Christmas. Although it's only been 4 years since I last visited, it's been really more than 10 years since I've stayed there for more than a couple of days. There's a big contrast between the 'then' and 'now'. While it was a nice little city back then, it's trying to become a big progressive metropolis now. I would say though that my hometown has turned for the better. It's become a much cleaner city, with almost zero crime.

I think I know what you're saying because I do feel the same whenever I see my home place. The place become different, the way going inside our place become less spacious, all covered with cements, blocks, and yards. They also cut many trees there that bear many fruits, when I was young I enjoy eating fruits with all that trees. Time really passes quickly and it will change everything around you whether we like the outcome or not, but of course we still love how we enjoy things from the old days. :)

Yes of course things do not stand still in time. It could be good changes though not just bad. I went back to my childhood neighbourhood and looked at the long hugh hill that went down to the street where my friends played and remember the hard climb back up to get home after. It was nothing a small little incline and I know they did not change the land just some of the houses looked different and the trees and bushes had grown. Yet the hill in my memory was huge. Why at the bottom it seemed like my house disappeared but it was only 3 houses away.

I have had that happen I always went back to my home town when i was young to vist one of my grandmothers then I moved across the us to married to my wife and it was 10 years before I had returned I know the city like the back of my hand when I got there I could not drive to where i needed to go the town and routes had changed that much

Well thing like that always happen with the passage of time. Since time is absolutely change everything. None are stay the same under the exposure of time. I used to remember this town where I have been living now have cleaner air than now. When I go to college I was outside of this town. When I finished the college and back several years ago, I see some drastic changes in building, peoples life style and of course the environment it self. Some say it's for the good of life but for me somehow the thing changes for the worse direction.

The San Fernando Valley then vs now. Vacant lots - no vacant lots...