Wednesday 29 February 2012

Tomorrow is the End of an Era

Tomorrow marks the end of an era for me. I am travelling about thirty miles up to Preston, the town where I was born and brought up. I moved away once I went to University and never went back there to live, but I still considered it my 'home town'. My parents lived there, so I visited quite often, even slept in my 'old' bedroom. More recently, my father and step-mother (whom he married when in his 80's) lived there, although no longer in the house where I grew up. I continued to visit my step-mother, after my father died nine years ago.
Following her passing last May, I travelled up to Preston several times to help clear the contents of the apartment she'd shared with my father. Memories returned when I found things that had once belonged to my mother.
After Christmas, the apartment was cleared of all the larger items and it was put on the market. I expected a long wait for a sale, but no, we have a cash buyer less than two weeks after the agency put it up for sale. So tomorrow I am going to Preston to collect one final box of items.
It will probably be the last time I ever go to Preston. I have no other friends living there now, so there will be no need for me to go back there.
It's quite a strange feeling. Over the years, I've become used to the inevitable changes in the town, but there were still plenty of reminders of my childhood and teenage years there - the house where I lived until I was eleven, the fish and chip shop round the corner, the church where I used to attend Sunday School, the park where I used to play withmy friends on the swings and slide, and of course my old Junior School too. Then there's the house we moved to where I spent my teenage years. Lots of memories there, too. I got used to seeing them all when I went 'home'. Sometimes I smiled at the memories they evoked, sometimes I simply took them for granted.
Maybe tomorrow, after I've picked up the box from the apartment, I'll drive around and have a last look at some of the places which were part of my growing-up years. And then I'll drive back to the house where I've lived for the last 40+ years.
Of course, there's nothing to stop me from going to Preston again, even without anyone to visit there, but I doubt that I will. Tomorrow I shall be saying a final goodbye to the 'home town' of my childhood. It really does feel like the end of an era.

25 comments:

  1. Lots of lovely memories of Granny , Haslam and Ashton park, Waldens, the bus to town, St Andrews junior school - hope tomorrow goes ok - have a good day and a trip down memory lane - must catch up soon - what about 17th March - Saturday??

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  2. I don't envy you, what a sad ending. It's strange how we take so many things for granted. I sure would love a do over for a day. Life goes by so fast, and so many things change.

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  3. Thanks for your comment, Helen. Yes, lots of memories - and strange to think I might never see all those places again. Mind you, if I visited ALL the places with memories, it would probably take me a week, not a day! Think I'll just confine myself to Blackpool Road and Aldwych Drive!

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  4. Hi Madison, thanks for visiting. It's kind of bittersweet - because, even though I might see the places for the last time, the memories will last for ever.

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  5. I live less than 10 minutes from where I grew up but 7 hours from where I was born. I think now and then about just driving down to Ohio, where there are a few of my dad's cousins left, and just seeing the places of my pre-school home and where I spent many summers with my grandparents. It's been many many years since I've seen any of the area.
    I might just do that one day, just for fun.
    I hope the day goes well for you.

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  6. Thanks, Jo. Over the years, I've taken it all for granted really, but somehow it just hit me that tomorrow might be the last time I'll see all the places that hold such a lot of memories.

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  7. It sounds like it will be a bittersweet trip for you.

    I don't really feel like I have a hometown. I was born in Chicago and have lived in several suburbs while growing up. My parents don't live in any of the houses I grew up in, so going to see them definitely isn't going home. Every once in a while we take a drive around and look at all of our old houses.

    My hubby and I do plan on making our house our only home. Too bad we don't have kids who can come back and visit some day.

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  8. Hi Debra, I'm looking on it as a self-indulgent trip down memory lane. Saying goodbye to the places, but not to the memories.

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  9. that's fun. i don't have that luxury as i live in the town i grew up in... so i am where i began.... i think it would be fun to go back somewhere.. to remember....

    and end of an era....

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  10. Hi Paula. So sad when such a monument to our past is over with. Such nostalgia. Those happy memories of growing up in a place should remain a part of us.

    Denise

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  11. That's such a poignant post, Paula, and I'm sure we can all empathise to seom extent. Sound as though you might have plenty of memories for a novel set there in the past.

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  12. You'll no doubt have the memories to hold you over... but it is sort of sad just the same. Hopefully you'll take a camera and capture some old sites before leaving. Cheers, Jenn

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  13. You will always have the memories you made there, but you are right. Things will never be the same. I felt much the same way when we moved from the home my husband and I bought when we were married. It was the end of an era. I felt sadness when my parents house was bought, torn down, and a drug store built in it's place. I can still see both houses and exactly where everything was kept in my mind, but now they are gone. I have no reason to go back, and like you I probably won't. Life is ever changing and continues to move forward whether we want it to or not. Wonderful post, and maybe as Rosemary you can't take those memories and incorporate them into a future novel to bring them life once again. :D

    Kathy
    http://gigglingtruckerswife.blogspot.com

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  14. danneromero - I've lived in my present town for over twice as long as I lived in my home town, so my present surroundings also have a lot of memories!

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  15. Denise - I had a very nostalgic drive around today - and had a smile on my face most of the time!

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  16. Rosemary - now that idea of using a 'visit to the past' as the basic of a novel has planted a seed in my mind. Thank you!

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  17. Jenn - I decided not to take any photos of places as they are now, but to retain my memories of how they were when I was a child.

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  18. Kathy, I really enjoyed my drive around today. Both houses where I used to live look different now but the surrounding area hasn't changed too much, and it was the past I was remembering, not the present. I was amazed at how many different images flashed through my mind!

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  19. They say home is where your heart is. I moved so often as a child, so this meant more the people than the places.

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  20. I agree, Ana - and in fact, while I was driving around, it was the people connected with the different places that I was remembering most.

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  21. Preston will always be home in your heart!

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  22. In a way, it will, Claudia. I had a wonderfully nostalgic day today and really enjoyed it.

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  23. Paula--this happens so often, just with a slightly different script, and often it's because one of our parents marries someone else. For me, I couldn't abide it, because I knew the new man would never be my stepfather, and I and my sisters knew he was not the right person. By the time he died, and left my mother alone once again, she had literally lost her mind to Alzheimer's, and so we moved her to a nursing home, packed and sorted and sold everything in the house, sold the property, and knew we would never go "home" again.
    Such a sad thing for us...and for Mother, too, because the last thing she actually remembered was that she had made a mistake.
    Bless you, Paula...you have a lot of friends.

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  24. Celia, your story makes me feel so sad. Knowing your mother remarried the 'wrong' person must have been so hard for you all.

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  25. What a strange feeling that must be. I hope the day went well for you.

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