I admit I return so rarely to my home place in Sussex that I anticipate the changes before I arrive, sometimes I’m shocked because it’s as if time stood still while I’ve been galavanting the globe, on others I’m horrified that they have and I no longer recognize, for example, the woods where we used to play, the lake where we used to swim.
As if huge chunks of my childhood have been bulldozed off the face of the earth... erased from the map in some cases even and here I am thankful for strong memories !
Another lovely, thought provoking post Miranda, I remember that Lucozade bottle on the M4, every time I passed, it reminded me of childhood sickness and made me feel sick all over again. I hated Lucozade almost as much as I hated being sick ! X
That's a heartbreaking experience, Susie, seeing your childhood erased like that. Having grown up in London, many of my childhood spaces have been redeveloped, and while I feel a kind of wistful nostalgia for how things were, I can accept that change in an urban space. (Once I've got over my shock and indignation at not being consulted.)
The obliteration of wild spaces is much more upsetting.
It's funny--you're not the first person to mention hating Lucozade as a kid. I did too, but I still loved that illuminated bottle.
I hope you're okay after your awful shock on Monday, Susie. I'm sending you big love and hugs.
Places changing: I moved back to my home valley after 26+ years away. Where I live now is relatively unchanged (not loving the housing developments sneaking into my otherwise pastoral view ... partly aesthetic, partly, dude, that is flood plain!) but the nearest big city where I lived for a year or so? Unrecognizable. Oh there are flashes of old buildings. But what I wanted to say was two visits before I moved back, I stayed with my mum for a while and realized that my feet knew how to walk the uneven ground from her house to the shops (no footpath). My feet remembered!
Muscle memory! That's amazing, Leanne. Also--don't get me started on flood plain development. We have another one threatening to take over part of the country park at the bottom of our hill. It's a flood meadow that's currently under two feet of water, as it is every winter. The council want to put 500 homes on it.
Maybe they’re putting the houses on stilts? Our developments edge out into it, like in a normally rainy season it won’t enter the house but who has normal rainy seasons any more?
This is so interesting Miranda! I find it quite bewildering to return somewhere and find it changed - I like your idea of using that as a way to explore and cement your memories! xx
There are some places that change so much there's really no hope of finding any hint of what existed before. I used to work on a nature reserve near Kings Cross--20 years ago now. That whole area has changed completely. Entire road layouts have been restructured and re-routed and a new mini city built. The reserve and the canal are the only things that are the same. I really do struggle with that. It's like that entire part of my experience has been scrubbed from my brain. Obviously, I still have the memories of what happened within the reserve. But everything surrounding it, all those tangential social activities that took place around and on the way to the reserve, have no physical place to live any more. But even then, when I went back about a year ago, it really forced me to seek out what was missing. When I stood on the bridge over the canal, I managed to reconstruct some of the old road network and link it up with what's there now.
Excellent article, though I hated Lucozade. One of my earliest memories (a lost sock memory) is of being given Lucozade because I was unwell, and smashing the bottle on the end of the bed frame! I don’t remember the consequences, but the glass and sticky liquid must have left a horrible mess.
Hi, Kate! That's so funny. Now you mention it, I hated Lucozade too. I'd actually forgotten that part of the story. At least, I hadn't linked my dislike of the drink with my love of that kinetic bottle. You're quite right--Lucozade was a "sick" drink when I was a kid too. They really turned their marketing around to turn themselves into a sports and energy brand.
I adore Google Street View. I go down rabbit-holes with it after I read of a place I am curious about, even a normal mundane place. As well as my own past places. I find it so relaxing! Thanks for the prompt for lost-sock memories - I'm going to write some.
I admit I return so rarely to my home place in Sussex that I anticipate the changes before I arrive, sometimes I’m shocked because it’s as if time stood still while I’ve been galavanting the globe, on others I’m horrified that they have and I no longer recognize, for example, the woods where we used to play, the lake where we used to swim.
As if huge chunks of my childhood have been bulldozed off the face of the earth... erased from the map in some cases even and here I am thankful for strong memories !
Another lovely, thought provoking post Miranda, I remember that Lucozade bottle on the M4, every time I passed, it reminded me of childhood sickness and made me feel sick all over again. I hated Lucozade almost as much as I hated being sick ! X
That's a heartbreaking experience, Susie, seeing your childhood erased like that. Having grown up in London, many of my childhood spaces have been redeveloped, and while I feel a kind of wistful nostalgia for how things were, I can accept that change in an urban space. (Once I've got over my shock and indignation at not being consulted.)
The obliteration of wild spaces is much more upsetting.
It's funny--you're not the first person to mention hating Lucozade as a kid. I did too, but I still loved that illuminated bottle.
I hope you're okay after your awful shock on Monday, Susie. I'm sending you big love and hugs.
Places changing: I moved back to my home valley after 26+ years away. Where I live now is relatively unchanged (not loving the housing developments sneaking into my otherwise pastoral view ... partly aesthetic, partly, dude, that is flood plain!) but the nearest big city where I lived for a year or so? Unrecognizable. Oh there are flashes of old buildings. But what I wanted to say was two visits before I moved back, I stayed with my mum for a while and realized that my feet knew how to walk the uneven ground from her house to the shops (no footpath). My feet remembered!
Muscle memory! That's amazing, Leanne. Also--don't get me started on flood plain development. We have another one threatening to take over part of the country park at the bottom of our hill. It's a flood meadow that's currently under two feet of water, as it is every winter. The council want to put 500 homes on it.
Maybe they’re putting the houses on stilts? Our developments edge out into it, like in a normally rainy season it won’t enter the house but who has normal rainy seasons any more?
This is so interesting Miranda! I find it quite bewildering to return somewhere and find it changed - I like your idea of using that as a way to explore and cement your memories! xx
There are some places that change so much there's really no hope of finding any hint of what existed before. I used to work on a nature reserve near Kings Cross--20 years ago now. That whole area has changed completely. Entire road layouts have been restructured and re-routed and a new mini city built. The reserve and the canal are the only things that are the same. I really do struggle with that. It's like that entire part of my experience has been scrubbed from my brain. Obviously, I still have the memories of what happened within the reserve. But everything surrounding it, all those tangential social activities that took place around and on the way to the reserve, have no physical place to live any more. But even then, when I went back about a year ago, it really forced me to seek out what was missing. When I stood on the bridge over the canal, I managed to reconstruct some of the old road network and link it up with what's there now.
Excellent article, though I hated Lucozade. One of my earliest memories (a lost sock memory) is of being given Lucozade because I was unwell, and smashing the bottle on the end of the bed frame! I don’t remember the consequences, but the glass and sticky liquid must have left a horrible mess.
Hi, Kate! That's so funny. Now you mention it, I hated Lucozade too. I'd actually forgotten that part of the story. At least, I hadn't linked my dislike of the drink with my love of that kinetic bottle. You're quite right--Lucozade was a "sick" drink when I was a kid too. They really turned their marketing around to turn themselves into a sports and energy brand.
I adore Google Street View. I go down rabbit-holes with it after I read of a place I am curious about, even a normal mundane place. As well as my own past places. I find it so relaxing! Thanks for the prompt for lost-sock memories - I'm going to write some.