A road less travelled..

Capt Lightning

Capt Lightning

Well-known Member
Location
Historic Buchan, Scotland
Many years ago, (the now) Mrs. L and I would drive down from Scotland to the Lake District. The A75 road went through lots of little towns and villages until some years later when it was upgrades and all these places were bypassed. Today we were talking about going back to the Lakes, when Mrs. L reminded me that at one village, there was a very tight bend in the road beneath a disused railway bridge - but she couldn't remember which one. This set us off on an internet search, looking at old maps to see where a railway crossed the road. We spent ages until by chance I was looking at site about stone built railway bridges in Scotland, when I saw a comment that the new road now avoided the tight bend entering the village. This was it, but when I looked at modern pictures, the once proud bridge was now overgrown and barely visible through the trees and bushes.

It was a reminder that things change, and it's always unwise to think that things will be the same when you don't see them after a long time. Maybe you shouldn't revisit places from your past - unless you're prepared to be disappointed.
 

Capt Lightning said:
Many years ago, (the now) Mrs. L and I would drive down from Scotland to the Lake District. The A75 road went through lots of little towns and villages until some years later when it was upgrades and all these places were bypassed. Today we were talking about going back to the Lakes, when Mrs. L reminded me that at one village, there was a very tight bend in the road beneath a disused railway bridge - but she couldn't remember which one. This set us off on an internet search, looking at old maps to see where a railway crossed the road. We spent ages until by chance I was looking at site about stone built railway bridges in Scotland, when I saw a comment that the new road now avoided the tight bend entering the village. This was it, but when I looked at modern pictures, the once proud bridge was now overgrown and barely visible through the trees and bushes.

It was a reminder that things change, and it's always unwise to think that things will be the same when you don't see them after a long time. Maybe you shouldn't revisit places from your past - unless you're prepared to be disappointed.
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which is exactly the reason I take my camera everywhere I go, I've found what you've said to be the truth on many occasions... and have stated how pleased I was to have got the original scene for posterity .
 

A few years ago, my wife and I traveled back to the areas we grew up in. We particularly wanted to show each other the homes we grew up in. We saw hers first. I used to be in a nice neighborhood in a big city suburb. It now was part of the city and the home was not taken care of. The lawn was replaced with stones and weeds and two large Chinese Lions were at the front door entrance. My wife was disappointed and wished we had not gone to see it...

My home on main street in a small mountain town was turned into a real estate business. It was in poor condition, with various licence plates nailed along the top of the gutters. All in all, not what I expected. The small town had of course changed, but still looked like a nice place to grow up in....

I don't recommend you go see the house you grew up in after being away for over 40 years...
 
Timewise 60+ said:
A few years ago, my wife and I traveled back to the areas we grew up in. We particularly wanted to show each other the homes we grew up in. We saw hers first. I used to be in a nice neighborhood in a big city suburb. It now was part of the city and the home was not taken care of. The lawn was replaced with stones and weeds and two large Chinese Lions were at the front door entrance. My wife was disappointed and wished we had not gone to see it...

My home on main street in a small mountain town was turned into a real estate business. It was in poor condition, with various licence plates nailed along the top of the gutters. All in all, not what I expected. The small town had of course changed, but still looked like a nice place to grow up in....

I don't recommend you go see the house you grew up in after being away for over 40 years...
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altho' we moved often when I was a child, I can see by looking in google maps that only the home I lived in up until I was 7 years old is unrecognisable from when I lived there. Completely remodelled roads, and new homes there.. but the houses I lived in the longest during my childhood/teen years , are still standing in exactly the same condition as they were when we lived in them. In fact we went to visit them a few years ago, the first one where I lived from 9 to 14 , looks exactly the same but the road it faces is now a major thoroughfare, into the city... the second house is on an urban street , away from busy traffic, and aside from a new driveway which wasn't there when we lived there.. up until I was 19 years old, and where my mother died,... has not changed one iota.. same hedges which we planted, same garden .. same road outside, even the same bus stop outside of our house , still there !!
 
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This is the house where I lived for many years before retiring. It is also where my daughters were born in the upstairs room at the front. Home births were almost fashionable in the 70's & 80's. The front garden had grass, flowers and a low stone wall. There was a small garage where that black slab of a structure now is. Otherwise the house looks the same as when we left it. It was a very nice area, but it could have been anywhere in the UK.

oldhouse.jpg
 
The house we lived in while I was stationed in the UK.
Old enough and big enough to only have a Name, no number, just 'Drove House'.
If anywhere in all my travels I would call 'home', it's this one. Just felt right.
For an American, it was like living in a time warp.
Would love to visit it again.
( we had a local artist fire a ceramic copy of the door plaque and it hangs on our wall as a reminder )

Drove House.jpg
 
Feelslikefar said:
The house we lived in while I was stationed in the UK.
Old enough and big enough to only have a Name, no number, just 'Drove House'.
If anywhere in all my travels I would call 'home', it's this one. Just felt right.
For an American, it was like living in a time warp.
Would love to visit it again.
( we had a local artist fire a ceramic copy of the door plaque and it hangs on our wall as a reminder )

View attachment 219164
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there's many houses similar to those around here.. and as you know..I know the area and village where you lived while you were here ..I personally wouldn't want to live so close to the road, albeit a quietish village road..
 
Capt Lightning said:
This is the house where I lived for many years before retiring. It is also where my daughters were born in the upstairs room at the front. Home births were almost fashionable in the 70's & 80's. The front garden had grass, flowers and a low stone wall. There was a small garage where that black slab of a structure now is. Otherwise the house looks the same as when we left it. It was a very nice area, but it could have been anywhere in the UK.

View attachment 219157
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typical British house :) ...looks like they've made the garage into a shed,
 
hollydolly said:
typical British house :) ...looks like they've made the garage into a shed,
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No, I'm sure they've knocked the garage down and built a shed. The original garage had wooden doors and I placed the original ones with ones I made myself. I made proper mortise & tenon joints etc.. and I was well pleased with the result.
In the back garden I had a bay tree which started to get a bit too big - but I had plenty of bay leaf for cooking!
The house cost £13K when I bought it, and would be the best part of £300K now.
 
Capt Lightning said:
It was a reminder that things change, and it's always unwise to think that things will be the same when you don't see them after a long time. Maybe you shouldn't revisit places from your past - unless you're prepared to be disappointed.
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Yes, our world is changing very quickly and now we have lived long enough to see the results. It always saddens me a bit to see the small towns I remember as a youth that have now been engulfed in urban sprawl.

I grew up in Dunedin, Florida. I remember it as a quaint little town but things have changed drastically there. Surrounded by orange groves that are now all gone. When I was young if you took highway 19 north to New Port Richey, about 20 miles, it was all piney woods, with a only one stop light near Tarpon Springs. Now the 2 lanes have become 4 lanes and there is not a single acre of undeveloped land left, not one. A few of the pines remain but they are now decorations in yards and the like. However I do still like going back to see it, the house I grew up in is still there and looks much the same.
 
A footnote to previous post...
The people who bought my house set about re-modelling the interior. A neighbour sent me a note saying that they had put the house back on the market - for the same price as they had bought it. Having spent a fair amount on the alterations, legal fees etc, they lost out badly on the deal.

Drove House was fairly typical of older houses in rural Hampshire..

I found an old picture of the old viaduct and the road before the village was bypassed.....

glenluce.jpg
 
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Capt Lightning said:
A footnote to previous post...
The people who bought my house set about re-modelling the interior. A neighbour sent me a note saying that they had put the house back on the market - for the same price as they had bought it. Having spent a fair amount on the alterations, legal fees etc, they lost out badly on the deal.

Drove House was fairly typical of older houses in rural Hampshire..

I found an old picture of the old viaduct and the road before the village was bypassed.....

View attachment 219173
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that looks like it could have been taken here... I'll find a photo I've taken when I get more time, and you'll see what I mean..
 
hollydolly said:
The sort of houses we would see on TV on American shows... in the 60's and 70's ...
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Yes, it probably was. Solidly middle class in its day. A bit small and plain by today's standards. Its value now is more in location than the house.

Unfortunately too many people are tearing these down and building new "McMansions".
 
I happened to talk to some Navy buddies from over 50 years ago. We kind of had some of the same memories, But my memories all had me as the star, and of course, his memories had him., as did my other buddy. We bonded and we were great buddies 50 years ago. I'll always have a warn spot for them, but that was the "them" of 50 years ago. Today, I'm not the same guy, and those men are guys I shared a few months together-50 years ago, they've grown as I did. They're not the same, either. I deeply appreciated talking to them, but all we have are dimly shared memories of a distant past. What we were isn't what we are. The memories of places are just the same,.
 
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Capt Lightning said:
A footnote to previous post...
The people who bought my house set about re-modelling the interior. A neighbour sent me a note saying that they had put the house back on the market - for the same price as they had bought it. Having spent a fair amount on the alterations, legal fees etc, they lost out badly on the deal.

Drove House was fairly typical of older houses in rural Hampshire..

I found an old picture of the old viaduct and the road before the village was bypassed.....

View attachment 219173
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@Capt Lightning ...I just remembered about posting a similar picture to your scene that I took here relatively recently... ...

oldhatdec2019hdr-HD.jpg
 
im back in the Rockies where i lived a long time, raised a kid, ranched and spent at least a life time
and more likely 3 diff ones.

i dont even drive around now. i dont want to see anything, dont want to ride roads ive been on before
and do not even recognize today. areas that were inhabited but not squeezed, where creeks ran and
trees were standing green and alive.

it does not look this way now.
the land is barren and dry, with crowds of people cramming themselves in already tight areas and the
water is nearly gone.

how could this happen to the RockyMountains??? it happens after clear cutting, when there are more humans
taking more resources that Are Indeed Limited and now nearly gone. without forests the sun evaporates all
the snow which then does not melt into the ground, instead it goes up into the atmosphere and the land and trees get none.

btw...is Las Vegas going to shut down those fountains and stop evaporating all that water??
we shall see, del webb: shut those fountains down or dont complain when you dont get IRR water.
fountains are NOT IRRIGATION.

i always stay home during these big holidaze. :)
i take the dog hiking which is the norm anyway.
 
CrowFlies said:
im back in the Rockies where i lived a long time, raised a kid, ranched and spent at least a life time
and more likely 3 diff ones.

i dont even drive around now. i dont want to see anything, dont want to ride roads ive been on before
and do not even recognize today. areas that were inhabited but not squeezed, where creeks ran and
trees were standing green and alive.

it does not look this way now.
the land is barren and dry, with crowds of people cramming themselves in already tight areas and the
water is nearly gone.

how could this happen to the RockyMountains??? it happens after clear cutting, when there are more humans
taking more resources that Are Indeed Limited and now nearly gone. without forests the sun evaporates all
the snow which then does not melt into the ground, instead it goes up into the atmosphere and the land and trees get none.

btw...is Las Vegas going to shut down those fountains and stop evaporating all that water??
we shall see, del webb: shut those fountains down or dont complain when you dont get IRR water.
fountains are NOT IRRIGATION.

i always stay home during these big holidaze. :)
i take the dog hiking which is the norm anyway.
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Not sure what part of the Rocky Mountains you are posting about. I am very sorry to read what has happened in the area where you grew up.
I grew up in the Colorado, Rocky Mountains in the 1950's, 1960's. I return to those mountains frequently. I am glad to say, I have seen no 'clear cutting' and the streams, lakes, and even the towns have remained pretty much the same. They have grown, but not at the cost of forests or water resources. New and larger highways have been put in over the years, but is has all been done keeping an eye on not damaging the beauty of the areas. The recent droughts have forced a local reservoir to be drawn down beyond anything in the past, but they are not risking any damage to the reservoir or fish/ wildlife therein. That is actually the only impacts I have noticed in the Rocky Mountains that I travel in Colorado.
 
Tommy said:
I agree with you Capt. Those are "places in time" and revisiting them almost always results in disappointment. I may soon need to return to the city where I attended college and subsequently lived and worked for a number of years. I haven't been back since 1984 and am not looking forward what I'll find.
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Been there. Done that.

The old saying, "You can't go home again" is most apropos.
 
The house I grew up in is still there and looks much the same but my maternal and paternal grandparents' houses are gone. One was a stately two story with pillars and the other was a large two story frame house. Now when I visit either area I find a bare lot where one was (it burned down) and nothing left to identify the other except an old cedar tree I used to play under as a child that for some reason was allowed to live in what is now an urban area.
 


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