On a whim this evening, partly inspired by Baino, I looked up one of my childhood homes on Google maps, using the satellite view.
I was born in London, but when I was ten years old my father got a new job, in Tiptree, and I got my first experience of moving house. It was a bit of a culture shock all round - we moved from an eighth floor flat in the city to a semi-detached house in a medium-sized village. Mum breathed a sigh of relief, being a country girl, and was soon elbow deep in compost, planting things in the garden. My older brother chose to go to a college in London and so he pretty much continued living there, but my younger brother and I had a little adjusting to do. For the first time in my life I was allowed outdoors by myself. I had a garden to wander out into, and kids my age just outside my front door, and I made the most of it.
I ended up having a long walk to school - if you look at the map above, my home is marked by the blue tag towards the top, and my school by the blue tag near the bottom. Oh, I was given money for the bus, but you know what kids are. We used to pop into the shop and spend the bus fare on sweets, or stop the milkman on his rounds and buy a third of a pint of orange juice in real glass bottles … so my friends and I would walk the mile or so to school in all weathers and think nothing of it. In fact we used to take detours and find different routes, and play in streams and fields on the way, and buy apples from trays outside people’s houses if we had any money left - and when I looked at that satellite picture today it made me a little bit sad.
Gone is the huge triangular field where a friend of mine once tried to ride a cart horse bareback and fell off, breaking her arm. Gone is the disused railway track we would walk along to pick wild strawberries between the tracks. Gone, the Kiltie Cake Shop and the little grocery where we could put our pennies together and buy a few ounces of biscuits, sold loose from big wooden boxes and handed to us in brown paper bags.
The meadow where I picked bunches of wild red and white campion is gone, and so is the brook. There are houses there now, and the brook is probably buried in a concrete pipe. The rough, sandy bank near the crossroads is gone. I used to catch lizards on that bank and watch them blinking in the palm of my hand for a few seconds, before they leaped to freedom.
The pond is gone, for goodness’ sake! That pond was an institution! Where did the pond go?
But, hey, the old windmill is still there, and the playing field too, and none of it has been sold off for housing, although they’ve tidied it up a tad. They’ve enclosed the play equipment with a neat little fence and put down some kind of kid-proof surface. I don’t know what was wrong with grass, but there you go.
My Dad worked for the Anchor Press, which churned out thousands of paperbacks, including Dennis Wheatley and Barbara Cartland among the popular titles. Now, there is yet another housing estate where the Anchor Press used to be, and it was one of the two biggest employers in the village. I wonder what happened?
The other big employer is still there - Wilkins’ jam factory. I used to earn pocket money picking strawberries for Wilkins, and let me tell you, those Little Scarlett strawberries were the very devil to pick - they used to pay us extra for those! So small! And yet, so deliciously sweet! Wilkins jam is now Tiptree Conserve - you can still buy it, and it’s still expensive. ‘By Appointment to the Queen’ … I wonder if she ever knew that my brother’s friend, working there during the summer holidays many years ago, dropped his lunchtime peanuts into the vat?
Go on, look up your childhood home on Google maps, and see what’s happened to it. I dare you.
If you moved away and haven’t been back, my guess is that you’re in for a shock.
I moved from a small town in California to Chicago. It was a SHOCK to say the least but I loved it. I think I’ll go look my town up! :o)
Bees last blog post..More proof of my dumbness plus some movie talk.
I read that post with a broad smile on my face throughout!
The wooden barrels of loose biscuits, milk and orange juice in glass bottles. Such lovely memories :O)
I went back, in person, to the house I was born in (mentioned in my 50’s posts) It was converted into about eight flatlets, and had lost it’s warmth for me. I did see all the little carvings we made in the soft red brick by the front door though. It’s quite a feeling, looking at them and seeing yourself as a little girl scratching those into the brick.
Lovely post :O)
Babs - beetles last blog post..An illustrators life for me!
My brother still lives in the same house we moved into when I was six and he was two. I’m an anomaly that way, especially among Americans. But I have been shocked by seeing what they did to my old school and other places.
I really enjoyed your trip down memory lane and the wonderful details you shared.
Ruth Hull Chatliens last blog post..Guest Post by Smokey
Oh that was lovely - I do enjoy time travelling don’t you?
I think we were born in the best age!!!
Bring back ice cream on a stick and lemon buns……………X
kates last blog post..Sounds from my childhood
Awww!! this is such a sweet post. But you know what has stuck to my mind? “I used to catch lizards on that bank and watch them blinking in the palm of my hand for a few seconds, before they leaped to freedom.” I guess you haven’t changed a bit Jay. Have you?
I have stayed in two different homes so far, the second one was some 50 meters away from the fist one. So, I used to keep hopping to and fro between the two houses. We actually shifted from joint family to the nuclear one. I have lots of memories with my grand parents but regarding the place, nothing changed much for me.
Scratch Bagss last blog post..Scratch Words
Bee - Yep, that must have been just as much of a shock as moving the other way round! Perhaps if I’d been older, like my brother, I’d have hated village life too .. but I don’t think so.
Babs - I thought you’d probably enjoy that! Interesting the emotions that get stirred up when you revisit, isn’t it? I went back to the block of flats when I was in my late twenties and it was weird. It all looked smaller and less pleasant than I remembered it, and I was overwhelmed with a rush of emotions, mostly negative. I couldn’t wait to get away.
Ruth - Not so many surprises in your old stamping ground, then? I guess it’s easier in some ways to live through the changes, but maybe harder in others. It looks like my old school has grown a LOT since I was there. They’ve put up extra buildings.
Kate - Ice cream on a stick and lemon buns! Mmm .. I might have to do a ‘tastes of childhood’ one day!
Scratch - I guess not! LOL! Well, my Dad was a naturalist, so I grew up examining small creatures, fascinated by them. It was one of the things I did love about country life as opposed to city life.
I envy you your closeness to your family, in many ways. It’s a very different lifestyle to ours, I think. Maybe the younger members of the family would be more tolerant of the old ones in a situation like that. I would hope so.
Hi! Oh such nostalgia and quite lovely to reminisce. Came here via Baino’s. I am intrigued with these satellite maps and one of the first thing I did was google my house and then my childhood home. I cried when i saw our family burial plot and saw my parent’s tombs. I think these maps are great but such details could only benefit those with bad intentions. When I look for directions, I don’t really look at the street view. The street view is so burglar and stalker-friendly.
Cess last blog post..Sugar Maple - (acer saccharum)
Hi Ces - Hi, and welcome! I have mixed feelings. I love to use them for virtual roaming around, and since we’re planning to move somewhere soon, but don’t know where, it will be useful to view the area when we find somewhere we think we might like. We’ll be able to see what’s hidden behind the street we’re in, whether it’s huge housing areas, sewage processing plants, chicken farms or whatever. Also how interesting the terrain is, and whether there are good places to walk the dogs.
I share your concerns about the bad guys, but honestly don’t see how a street view will help them much, since they can get the same view for themselves simply by driving past. The satellite maps might, because they’ll be able to see how accessible the rear of the property is, I guess. But they do go out of date very quickly.
Scoping out the area is what they do with these maps. I agree with your assessment and using the maps for needs like yours is great. I think the architectural digests are worse. Two burglars confessed that they researched the architectural digest of a home they burglarized. Now we have Zillow and our local tax office posts descriptions of houses, tax due, owners names and in some cases the floor plans! When will it stop? Soon they’ll post a macro image of my jejunum and sigmoid!
However, my negative view of the readily available information indescriminately being used does not obscure the fact that your post above is quite endearing and rather heartwarming, like a photograph in sepia tone.
Some lovely imagery there, Jay… I can see where there’d be a sense of longing with memories like that.
Jenns last blog post..Exotic Dancers and Country Mice
Hello Jay, What an aerial display can conjure. In one post you covered the playfullness of childhood to the current in your prospective move with a family. I thoroughly enjoyed the details. Beautiful and heartfelt, Jay. :))
petra michelles last blog post..MT. OLYMPICS
Jay-Thanks for the welcome home, and I thought you might like this story:
http://omg.yahoo.com/blogs/goddess/matilda-ledgers-guardian-angels/85?nc
Good for him….
Mr. Nighttimes last blog post..Phew!
Jay I think it is same with most families in India. People give a lot of importance to relationships and values. Parents are protective for their kids till a very long age. There are big joint families and respect for elders in taught from a very early age. Scope for independence is less but as the society is growing, people are having more open outlook towards things. Now if you see from my point of view, I always envy the kind of freedom that kids get in countries such as USA and UK. At the age of 24 I still have to tell about my whereabouts and what am I doing etc. to my parents.
I used to address people as Sir and Mam when I joined blogosphere but then I realized that here everyone addresses each other with their first names….. irrespective of age.:)
Scratch Bagss last blog post..Scratch Words
i still drive by 1 childhood home at least once a week, it was a huge house with a pretty big backyard. was just by there the other day and i always slow down and look and what little memory i have left of that place comes to mind.
wow jay: I used to catch lizards. i’d be running from lizards.
times certainly have changed. you can’t go outside, at least where i live, well you can, but it’s not so safe to let kids play near the street and feel comfortable. my daughter doesnt go outside to play. maybe when we move to the country.
Naturals last blog post..Is Your Subscriber Count Showing?
Ces - “Soon they’ll post a macro image of my jejunum and sigmoid” ROFL!! It’s getting close to that, isn’t it?
You have architectural digest too? I don’t think I’d like that much.
Thanks for the kind words!
Jenn - Thank you! Yes, I felt very nostalgic going over all those familiar names and places and seeing how they’d changed, but in a way I’m glad I moved away. I’m not sure I’d have liked seeing it grow so big.
Petra - I’m glad you enjoyed reading it - thank you!
Mr N - That is just so sweet - and so typical of him! Thanks for the link!
Scratch - So, it’s a case of ‘the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence’ huh? I might have guessed it. I really don’t think I’d like to have to let my parents know where I was going and what I was doing by the time I was in my mid-twenties. It’s a big cultural difference, I suppose, and the difficulty is when kids see what other kids have and want the same, but their parents want to stick to the more traditional values.
Valerie - The world is divided into people who catch lizards and those who run. LOL!
So you know your old childhood home quite well. Has it changed much?
I wouldn’t let kids play out in the street in a town - not till they were older anyway. But in a village, yes. I approve of fostering independence, although it always has to be balanced with individual circumstances and the age and ability of the child.
Took your advice and found that not only has my childhood home gone, so has my current one!! Arrggh must dash….!
Somnambulists last blog post..Training Trainee Traders
Hey Jay. Sorry bit late doing the rounds this week. Great yarn and I’m addicted to Google Earth I have to tell you. Shame that all our childhood landmarks are disappearing, progress I guess. Although my childhood home looks exactly the same as it did when I lived there and from the air, the suburb has hardly changed. (Why don’t kids walk to school any more?)
Bainos last blog post..Nature is Savage but We’re Worse
What a great read, and what wonderful memories! I’ve tried to look up the map of a few of my childhood addresses and it’s fun. I love those Google Earth maps. Sometimes I look up Plan de la Tour, France, and try to pick out Johnny’s swimming pool.
Jennys last blog post..Sequins Of Events
Somnambulist - Oh no! Where are you gonna sleep tonight? LOL!
Baino - It’s so fascinating to look at places from the air, isn’t it? I love to see the field markings here too, traces of old villages and settlements, Roman roads, fortifications, and sometimes things you simply can’t identify - as well as all the ‘ooh look! They’ve built a new road through the street where I lived’ kind of stuff.
Why don’t kids walk to school? I blame the media for frightening us all to death with scare stories to the point where no-one dares to let kids out of their sight. That and the increase in traffic.
Jenny - Johnny’s swimming pool? Now that’s something I haven’t done. Yet.
Jay, what a wonderful post! I see that you, like me, are waxing nostalgic, lol…it’s a wonder we all didn’t end up murdered the way we would wander off the beaten path and that we ever made it to school on time! I googled our house here and was amazed at how far back in the sticks we were! I just loved this!~
Sandi
Sandi McBrides last blog post..Is It really Wednesday?
Sandi sent me here - loved the post.
david mcmahons last blog post..Post Of The Day
Sandy - As I was writing that, I was thinking ‘how on earth did we manage to get to school on time?’ LOL!
Thank you so much for your kind words - and for recommending me on David’s site!
David - Many thanks - I’m glad to see you here and I hope you stick around!
fascinating material
sandy ks last blog post..Gotta Run !! whee !!!
I loved my childhood house. It was very neighboorhood like. All of the children played in the streets until the lights came on and mothers screamed from front porches to come home. I have wonderful memeories, and I’d hate to find out its gone.
meleah rebeccahs last blog post..Conversations With Writers
well i’m a runner, jay. i’m scared of a lot of stuff. why i wonder. i jump easily.
the house hasn’t changed much. the house is about the same color, new side panel..
i wonder how the inside looks now
Sandy - I’m glad you enjoyed it!
Meleah - So, you’re not going to Google yours?
I remember being called in from the front door, too. Of course, a lot of the time I was too far away to hear .. LOL!
Valerie - It would be fascinating to see inside, wouldn’t it? I’d love to have a look inside the first couple of places I lived to see how different they seem to an adult’s eyes - also what the new people have done to them.