Sometimes revisiting your old stomping grounds can just make you sad.
Recently, Frankie had to go home to Ohio for a funeral and like every time we go home, he stopped by to see our old house. We lived there for a very long time and it was our safe place, our hideaway in the woods, our place to find peace from the chaos of the world. We lived in Shawnee State Forest in the foothills to the Appalachian Mountains and it was a haven for too many reasons for me to blather on and on about. Suffice it to say, it was where we healed from very traumatic events in both our lives and became the best of friends and learned to move forward. ‘Nuff said there.
Our beautiful 20 acres was bought by an entrepeneur who saw the potential we always had, but he had the money to make it happen. He turned our corner of the world into a beautiful wedding garden and reception hall and threw outrageously fabulous weddings. FYI, we got married in our front yard 10 years previous to that, and the photo ops were stunning.
Our old farmhouse always stayed as the caretaker’s home behind the scenes.
Fast forward 10 more years later, and the entrepeneur lost his millions in the Great Recession a few years ago and now has all but abandoned the business. Our old property is on the market again for many 100’s of thousands of dollars more than we sold it for back in 2002. Although we would love to buy it back, we are love rich and cash poor.
So back to his stop there last month…
He took gobs of photos, but they are so incredibly sad. The old place is no longer as we remember it…overgrown…falling apart…totally neglected.
I went through all the photos over and over and decided to only keep the not-so-sad…the ones that can still remind me of home.
~from this angle it’s not quite so bad, and my Granma Amy’s snowball bush is in the foreground and flourishing~
~our mountain runoff creek is still wild and sun-dappled and just as I recall~
~and my ‘loveseat’ rock that Frankie hoisted up & out of the creek to sit and contemplate life, while extremely overgrown, is still there on the creek bank~
Edited to add::
After writing this post, I needed to see some shots of my old life in Ohio. This is how I remember our creek and our loveseat.
Think happy thoughts and make today ridiculously amazing!
yarnchick 
Your memories are unchangeable. That’s the main thing. That, and where you are now on life’s journey 🙂
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So true!
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I live about half a mile from my previous home where I brought up my children. I sold it to a student landlord type. (Good because it enabled me to buy my present house at a difficult time in the housing market. Bad because so many houses in that road are now let and there are less familes.) Everytime I have to go that way, I feel a little sad to see the changes and that is just the front garden.
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That would be tough to see it so often, I think I would take a different route as much as I could too.
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You are so right – you can’t go home and expect it to be as you left it. Our second home was torn down and replaced with a monstrosity. We put our heart and soul into making it a home for our little family. It was so disheartening to see it gone. We lived there 11 years and have many wonderful memories though.
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That’s what I’m focused on ~ the fun and good times. But I don’t think I will ever visit that place again. Ever.
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Last August we had to go home to IN to bury my Aunt. Obviously a terribly sad moment much like Frankie went through. Being back “home” of course led to memory lane. We had not been back since my other Aunt passed (14 years earlier). Then things were already starting to turn down and it was sad. Now It was shocking. The whole area due to the recession is in such a state of arrested decay it was painful. My mom, myself and my daughter vowed we would cherish our lifetime of memories but let this one go and focus on the happy times we remember. I think the saying “let sleeping giants lie” maybe very fitting 🙂
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It really is fitting. I like your way of thinking. The economic downturn hit southern Ohio very hard too. Although I hope they recover, I’ve made up my mind to stay away. and just be thankful I got out before the “storm” hit.
Haven’t heard from you in forever btw…nice to see you 😉
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You know me, always the reader never the chatter 😀 j/k. Build new memories!
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