Time

I recently paid a visit to the neighborhood and house I grew up in. Standing in the yard, I remembered my old friends and the games we used to play. I remembered getting hit in the head with a baseball bat, building snow forts, sitting in the sandbox, and hanging out on the porch. It seems like another lifetime ago, and it almost is. The last time I was there was 1983.

Looking down the street, I wondered if anyone from back then still lived there. Someone must. It would have been really strange to go inside the house. It would have felt very surreal, as everything would likely be very different, yet tinged with an intense familiarity. There are tons of memories that would be inspired. I can think of some of them now, but there’s just some things that are too far buried. Age and time aren’t really noticed until situations like these happen. It’s good to get out of the moment once in awhile.

I took these pictures to remember this visit, and look further into how things have changed.  The house is a different color, but the street was pretty much the same as how I remember it.  Some of the houses have changed slightly, but my friend’s places were pretty much the same.  Maybe their parents still live there?  I stood on the corner where I once had a small table on a summer day.  My friends wanted to sell lemonade but no one’s parent’s had any.  So, I had an idea – I took the crust off a piece of bread and rolled the middle into a doughy ball.  We sold one and the kid’s mom made us give his money back even though he ate it.  We stuck to lemonade from then on.

I’ll hopefully go back in another 5 and 10 years and see what’s happened then, and feel the uncontrollable sense of time.