Friday, May 4, 2018

Thomas Wolfe Was Right


No, you can’t go home again. Or at least, I don’t recommend it.

          In an idle moment I once used Google Earth to call up my grandparents’ street in Oklahoma. It was a pretty grand section of Tulsa as I recalled – not mansions, but fairly hefty houses. 
         50+ years later the street looked a little sad and rundown. Thankfully, I couldn’t figure out how to spin the view so that I could see my grandfather’s house so in my mind it remains the big white-washed brick house that I remember, with the forty foot holly tree in the front.

          This week we had to return something to our former neighbor from across the street. I haven’t been by our house since we’ve sold it, not surprising since we lived on a dead-end road off of another dead-end road. There’s really no such thing as passers-by there, unless you count the people unfamiliar with those streets, the ones who would come roaring down the road thinking it continued. We’d see them throw on the breaks at the cul-de-sac juust in time to avoid hurtling down the hill into the woods. It was a little comic relief in our day.

          My Guy backed into our neighbor’s driveway so I could get the full effect. Across the street sat our house, the one where I fussed if the hose was left out, or we forgot to shut the garage door. The small front porch that I swept, and where I washed summer dust off the siding, and straightened the cushions on the Adirondack chairs we placed there. 


           This was on Monday morning, when the occupants were likely at work, which meant everything there was left over from Sunday, when it had rained and rained.         

         From what I’ve heard, though, this is an improvement from when they first moved in, and the snow-filled front yard was also covered in cardboard boxes. For weeks.

9 comments:

  1. Sigh.
    And it makes you wonder why people like this are soooooo fussy before they buy.

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  2. Ditto my old house. And, it doesn't bother me. Not my house. Yea, Thomas Wolfe.

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  3. I remember being on a bus and going past a previous home only to find all the plants etc pulled up, the whole enormous front yard levelled and home to several very large trucks, the type that pull road-trains.

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  4. It is a little sad when that happens.

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  5. So very sad. They obviously don't care much about the home they bought. Sorry you had to see this. :-(

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  6. It certainly has that "lived-in" look!

    I drove past our former family home one time after we sold it, and although it didn't look bad, I was dismayed by some of the changes they'd made in landscaping and whatnot. I decided nothing good can come of visiting it again. That's the last time I'm going there.

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  7. A realtor once warned me that if you sell, or move, don't go back.

    He was right, and I've stuck to that principle faithfully. When I sold mother's house, I went in once to give the new owner a spare key, and I've not been by the house but once, and noticed that the barn had been torn down. oh dear.

    The next time I heard of it, it had burned down (something in the dryer) and had to be rebuilt. Bless the new people, they did a lovely job with it, but I have no interest in meeting them, or reminiscing.

    Once it's out of your hands, best not to intrude. You have the memory, and leave it at that.

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