As we get older, hubs and I find ourselves nostalgic for our youth, when we felt like we could do anything and had our whole lives ahead of us. Not that we'd want to be poor students working minimum wage jobs again, but something about mid-life makes youth very appealing.
I never had a single childhood home because my parents moved around when I was a kid. The closest thing I had was the house they bought when I was 10 years old, after we moved to different state than the one I was born in. I spent 8 years in that house, the longest I lived anyplace as a kid, so I do have quite a few memories. My beloved childhood dog died there and I still miss him. I still dream about him and the big backyard I adored, though not as often as I used to. My parents sold that house soon after I moved out way back in the 1980s, and I haven't seen the inside of it since. I was a little upset when they sold it, but that feeling soon passed. The outside has changed so much that I drove right past it the last time I was on that street.
My husband had a different childhood experience. He was lucky enough to be born here in Los Angeles and live in the same house from birth to college. We met during our college years and celebrated many more holidays and birthdays in that home with his family. His parents finally sold the house a couple of years ago and, other than a new paint job, it looks exactly like it did the first time I ever saw it. In fact, it hasn't changed much since he was a baby and we have photos that prove it.
Hubby and I met while working at a long-gone bookstore here in Los Angeles and had our first date at the movie theaters in that mall. The mall was remodeled and none of the original stores survived, but at least the building is still there. And we shop at some of the new stores so it's still like reliving our youth whenever we go there, even if it has changed a lot. Many of our dates took place at various L.A. icons, like Griffith Observatory and the history museum, which are still standing and look very much the same as they did all those years ago. He proposed to me on a boulder overlooking the beach. Surprisingly, that very boulder is still in the exact same place and we visit it once in a while, taking ourselves down memory lane, while enjoying the amazing ocean view.
Several years after we were married, hubs and I moved to Arizona and built a brand new house there that we lived in for almost 14 years. It was very hard selling that house when we decided to move back home to Los Angeles. We made a lot of happy memories there and still miss it sometimes. I never realized how attached I had gotten and I grieved that home for quite a while. We've been back in L.A. for 4 years and now own a house within walking distance of hubby's childhood place. We rescued a senior dog and have begin making new memories in this home with her. Who knows if we'll still be in this house in our elder years, but even if we move again, memories of this wood and stucco building we now call home will always be with us.
Posts
