Subj : Re: tempted to knock on t
To   : AUGUST ABOLINS
From : NANCY BACKUS
Date : Sun Jul 07 2019 19:36:00

-=> Quoting August Abolins to Nancy Backus on 07-01-19  01:08 <=-

 NB>> My experience has been that most people are quite willing to let a
 NB>> former resident, or descendent of a former owner/resident, see what
 NB>> it's become.... they like the connection to the past through a real
 NB>> person, too...  ;)
 AA> One time, (about 20 years ago now) my mother and I drove by her first 
 AA> family home, the home were I was raised up until age 9.  We stopped
 AA> along the side of the street to have a good look at the house.  We
 AA> sat silently as many memories flooded back. Then she suggested we
 AA> knock on the door and see if we can get a look inside.  I thought
 AA> this idea was a bit untoward or a weird idea to say the least. 

It is a sort of weird idea, in some ways.... but quite understandable in
other ways... :)

 AA> I resisted, but she decided to go for it.  I stayed in the car, but
 AA> she stepped out to see if anyone was home and would let her in for a
 AA> tour.  About thirty minutes later, she came back with quite a story
 AA> of a wonderful visit. 
 AA> I regretted not going along when I had the chance!

I'm glad I didn't resist my mother-in-law's suggestion to knock on the
door of a house that had been built by my great-grandfather for his
family (eight daughters, the oldest of which was my grandmother)... it
had been turned into a duplex, but we were able to see the inside of the
one half... truly a remarkable experience....  :)  Mom and I were doing
a genealogy trip together, this time focusing on where my grandmother's
line had lived, worked and died... :)

More recently, my sister knocked on the door of the house that we had
grown up in... after my parents moved in with another sister, someone in
the neighborhood had offered to buy it... and he'd fixed it up and sold
it.... She was invited in, and had a lovely time seeing how the house
had been fixed up... and there on the mantlepiece, was a picture of our
family, put there by the guy that had first bought the house, and kept
there by the second family... They thought it was wonderful to meet
someone from the picture...  Daddy had bought the house in 1965, my
parents moved out about 40 years later.... 

 AA> A few years after that, I was able to "visit" the house with google  
 AA> street-view and noticed how it had changed once again.

That happens....  

 AA> And now only a few weeks ago, google street-view revealed that the
 AA> house does not exist anymore.   But I digress..

That's sad, though.... 

ttyl      neb

.... If all is not lost, then where is it?

___ Blue Wave/QWK v2.20
--- Platinum Xpress/Win/WINServer v3.0pr5
 * Origin: Fido Since 1991 | QWK by Web | BBS.FIDOSYSOP.ORG (1:123/140)

.