Saturday, May 21, 2022

Googling Back


 

In 1882, my several-greats grandfather Henry Clay Sweet established the town of Mangum, Oklahoma and later my great-great grandfather Ashley Wilson ran a mercantile and owned a farm where Jesse James once stopped by.

Even though I was the only one in my immediate family not to be born in Oklahoma (Princeton, N.J. for me, when my father was in graduate school), I always took pride in my Sooner roots, even if they were a bit borrowed. For now, I’ll keep my big mouth shut, after their heinous state legislature just passed a bill banning all abortions from the moment of conception and encouraging citizens to narc on each other.

          In an idle moment, I Googled my grandparents’ house in Tulsa, which Grampy built during the Great Depression. After many summers there, plus three years living there after my parents’ divorce, my memories of it are as clear as if it hadn’t been over fifty years since I’ve seen it.

          When I was twelve, my mother’s alcoholism became unbearable, so I refused to return from a visit to my father in Virginia. I didn’t see the Tulsa house again until I was an adult, but I still recall it fondly.  I remember the ceiling-to-floor window in the living room, likely there to send any breezes down the room to the French doors at the other end in those pre-air-conditioning days.  And I definitely remember those hot summers and the sleeping porch off the second floor with roll-away beds for escaping the night time heat.

          It was once a big white-washed brick house with a thirty-foot holly tree in front and an equally huge magnolia tree on the side. Now, on Google Maps, it’s just another red brick house, and both trees are gone, along with the events, good and bad, that occurred there.

 

12 comments:

  1. The only thing we leave behind are memories and when those are gone, we truly die.

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  2. Isn't it cool how we can check up on places via Google? I love that. It must have been interesting to see it again, knowing it is now cleansed of its earlier associations.

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  3. That sounds like a bitter sweet trip down Google's pathways...

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  4. An interesting bit of personal history, and you are still around to remember and share it. Thank you,

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  5. Wondering if you were born in Princeton hospital, where I gave birth to my son!

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    1. I have no idea, but it was likely the only hospital around then!

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  6. Google maps and drive bys are so entertaining - and thought provoking. How things change, how some favorite haunts are gone , except for sketchy memory. Sorry you Mother was so ill, That is hard stuff!

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    1. Thanks, Linda. Kind words. The good memories there outweigh the bad.

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  7. As Thomas Wolf penned, You can never go home again. I wanted to see the projects my parents lived in when first married, but was about a week too late. They had been torn down.

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    1. I've lived so many places, and we live now in the town where my husband spent his whole childhood in one house.

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  8. A Very Powerful Post - Well Done - Also, How's The Tooth These Days - Hopefully Your Smiling With Your Heart - Sending Positive Vibes

    Cheers

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    1. The tooth is still - unbelievably - reminding me every now and then that it's there. I'll probably contact my dentist if it keeps this up. Thanks for asking.

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