Broke into the old apartment...

[octothorp]

While I haven't had that experience, we did have the awesome experience of meeting someone who, 50 years ago, grew up in our house, and we arranged for her and a couple siblings to come over and wander through and tell us their stories, including raising horses in the back yard (in the middle of Sunnyside!) and riding them in the stampede parade. Pretty cool to be able to get some connection to what the house was long before we lived here.

[tvp2003]

Originally Posted by DoubleF

What happens when you guys look at the old place? Do you remember both the old memories/updated memories? Or do you toss away the updated one after you look at it to avoid "tainting" the original memory?

I occasionally drive by where I lived before and look at the outside/back yard. I usually delete the updated memory of it afterwards though. It's weird enough seeing other people's stuff and the trees much bigger than I remember it. I think it would be absolutely jarring to wander into a home and see things completely different with completely different furnishings inside. I wonder if that's a glimpse into the mind frame of someone with Alzheimers.

I don't have any memories of the "new place" -- just of the "old place" -- so there isn't really anything to "delete" afterwards. I mean, the memory was of the house (and what happened there) as it existed at the time; whether or not the house is still there (or has been renovated) doesn't really change things, but it was interesting to see it again.

Perhaps there was also some notion of happiness to see that it has been taken care of, and hopefully was good for the family that bought it and lived there after us.

[CliffFletcher]

My kids went to the same elementary school I went to. It was very weird going to parent-teacher interviews and sitting in the same classroom I sat in when I was in grade 5. But the newer impressions fade, and when I think back to school it’s the way I remember it when I was a child. My kids will be going to Wisewood and I expect that will feel even stranger since my memories from high school are more vivid.

I don’t have to worry about revisiting my jr high, as Milton Williams was demolished for the Glenmore Trail expansion. I used to cycle past the location on my rides into work, and it was sad to see an empty park on a site where a building once stood that had so many memories for thousands of people.

[undercoverbrother]

Originally Posted by Swift

Love this topic. I'm a nostalgic person and often will revisit places on Google Streetview where I lived or worked.

I do this as well.

Once I took my kids on a tour of the places I lived growing up. Both the kids were like "did it look that bad when you lived there dad?".

I finally found all the locations I worked overseas on Google Earth as well.

[jwslam]

For anyone who lives in / lived in Harvest Hills / Coventry area, someone previously posted these on FB.
Click to expand

[Regular_John]

We just moved in the last two weeks, I used the entire afternoon of our final clean up to belt out alternate lyrics.

Broke into the old apartment...
- did a deep clean of the fridge
- swept the floors for one last time
- pull some screws out of the waaalls

I'm glad my wife decides to stay with me anyways.

[gallione11]

We moved away in 92 when I was 10, but looking at street view on Google maps is a bit of a kick. The house doesn't look all that different except for the added front deck. The tree in front yard is massive now; at least 20 feet tall. What really blew my mind years ago when I first started looking around with google maps was just how far the city has expanded since I left. We lived in the brand new MacEwan subdivision 89-92 and if I recall right, that was about as far NW the city reached. Now there are multiple subdivisions further north.

They either were still building or had just finished that Simons Valley School on the corner of 14th St and Sandarac. I think 14th St. just ended there, or shortly after, but now it links to Country Hills Blvd.

It looks like they repurposed and/or renamed my elementary school, since I can't find it by name. (Colonel Sanders). The lot/shape of Colonel Irvine Jr. High looks like how I remember Col. Sanders but I could be wrong.

[jwslam]

Originally Posted by gallione11

It looks like they repurposed and/or renamed my elementary school, since I can't find it by name. (Colonel Sanders). The lot/shape of Colonel Irvine Jr. High looks like how I remember Col. Sanders but I could be wrong.

Colonel Sanders is now Traditional Learning Centre.
You can still see the old name on streetview
244 Northmount Dr NW, Calgary, AB T2K 3G5

[Nammer403]

We moved out of our Penbrooke house early 90s..
i was 3 at the time so I remember most of the house but boy I wish I could go back and check it today how it was as when you're a kid everthing seemed massive of scary especailly the basement of ours
I saw a posting of it renovated and updated to modern looks but wish there was old photos

[Vinny01]

I get strong nostalgic feelings whenever I am in Kensington which is rarely ever these days. I lived there from 04-11. I moved from Rez at UpfC during the Red Wings series with my buddy from growing up and it was and epic 4 years in my early 20’s and I bought my first condo in the area in 08. I got a great 1 bedroom place that I still rent today and eventually had to move out once I moved in with my future wife. It was a great neighborhood to live in when going to school and then even better when working downtown.

I miss FATS, Yardhouse, Molly Malones, Grass Roots, CPU, Lido cafe, Saigon 9.

Such a great neighborhood to live in those prime 18-25 years and I get great feelings whenever I drive or walk through there

[malcolmk14]

My first job teaching was in the same school I attended Kindergarten to Grade 6.

It was downright bizarre to teach in the building that I grew up in. My picture was on the wall 7 times from 1990 to 1996 and the kids got a huge kick out of finding me and pointing me out.

The Principal I worked for started working there in September 1996. I finished Grade 6 in June 1996. Very close to having crossed over with him as a student and a colleague.

One of the education assistants remembered me, as her daughter was in the same grade as me growing up and she had been a parent at that time, and was now an employee. Another of the education assistants ran a day home that my sister attended in the late 90's.

I taught for three years in the same room I was in for Grade 4.

[Dion]

A few years ago I drove by my childhhod home on Mapleglen cresent. The rear garage still had that basketball hoop and homemade backboard I put in the late 70's. I ended up having a chat with the homeowner and explained his house was where I grew up in. He allowed me to have a walk through and explore old memories.

[tete]

My parents sold our family farm in 2012 and moved into a nearby town. A few years later, they let me know that the house had been sold and moved to another town, though I have yet to go look for it. Two summers ago, we finally drove back out to the farm and I saw the place -- oof, many, many feels. It just looks so weird without the house there. The shop and a few outbuildings are still there (still being used), but everything was so overgrown.

[Redliner]

We lived in 4 or 5 houses when I was a kid but the one I remember most was where my family lived from when I was about ten until I was 22. Definitely a lot of my formative years were spent in that house and I remember it vividly. It was an older lot and had a huge, awesome back yard with lots of bushes and mature trees - it was almost like a park back there. When I was a teenager my parents let me start a "graffiti wall" in my room, and whenever people came over I would have them sign the wall and write a little message. It started out on this little 6' wall beside the closet and by the time we moved it had spread out and covered 1/3 of the room. A lot of the messages were inside jokes or memories and it almost became kind of a journal of my life up to that point.

My brother went to school with the daughter of the people who moved in after us, and she told him they painted over that wall right away. Not surprising but it still made me sad. The real shocker came when my dad and I drove by the place a couple years later. The people had three massive dogs and had basically turned the back yard into a compound for them. All those bushes and trees had been ripped out and the whole thing was literally just hard packed dirt and chain link fence. It was really sad.

After I got married my wife and I moved 6 times in the first 7 years, so never really got attached to any one place. The house we are in now is by far the longest I have lived anywhere since that childhood home.