any of you ever google your old places you lived drive thru on youtube?
- Thread starter raggie33
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Bought a 75-yo house in the 90s for 15k. Neighboring props were yards for rusting machinery. Gutted, rewired, walls, and roof. Only barely worth my efforts when sold. Ten years later it was surrounded by yuppie town homes, and still best looking house on the street. Patience would have paid off.
PhotonWrangler
Flashaholic
I looked for the house that I grew up in. Google maps just shows an empty lot where it used to be. The grass has completely taken over the driveway so you can't even tell where it was. 
thermal guy
Flashaholic
Except for when I was in the military I have lived on the same street my whole life😁
Chauncey Gardener
Flashaholic
No, but I always search Google Maps for the address of everyone whom I've purchase a flashlight. It's fun to see where members live.
jtr1962
Flashaholic
I've lived in the same house since I was 15, other than the first three semesters of college. Before that we were in Woodside Houses, a NYC housing project. So not much for me to Google. I used to occasionally ride my bike to my old neighborhood in Woodside but haven't for a while.
I like looking up info on former classmates and seeing the places they lived or currently live. Amazing how much you can learn online that wouldn't have been possible even ten years ago.
I like looking up info on former classmates and seeing the places they lived or currently live. Amazing how much you can learn online that wouldn't have been possible even ten years ago.
thermal guy
Flashaholic
I'm guilty of that. Lol
Jean-Luc Descarte
Enlightened
Got curious and looked up my old home, where I'd lived almost since birth until 2019 when we sold it. Don't see any changes I hadn't already seen.
The places I have lived before, I left for good reason and have no reason to check on them so no I have not googled places I used to live.
It's not a bitter thing. It's just a "that was then, this is now" thing kinda like googling my first grade teacher or the boss at a former job.
It's not a bitter thing. It's just a "that was then, this is now" thing kinda like googling my first grade teacher or the boss at a former job.
sween1911
Flashlight Enthusiast
Dude. This is a topic near and dear to my heart. Going on google maps and seeing the house I grew up in in the Philly suburbs get to me, but also looking on Zillow and the other real estate sites, some have pictures from inside. One of the pictures of my mom's house has my grandmother in the backround.
For me, moving away when I did between 6th and 7th grade always stuck with me. For me, it's very emotional seeing that house.
For me, moving away when I did between 6th and 7th grade always stuck with me. For me, it's very emotional seeing that house.
No need for Google. My family tends to put down very deep roots.
First place as an immigrant kid in America, still there.
Literally nothing has changed on that block in over 40 years.
Graveyard shift job is ironically four blocks away, few blocks down.
Next place, there for 22 years. Still standing.
Custom-made numbers above door, Dad put those there. Still there.
Living in the 3rd and current place. Drive past the 2nd one, nightly.
Find a good place in a good neighborhood, not much point in moving.
First place as an immigrant kid in America, still there.
Literally nothing has changed on that block in over 40 years.
Graveyard shift job is ironically four blocks away, few blocks down.
Next place, there for 22 years. Still standing.
Custom-made numbers above door, Dad put those there. Still there.
Living in the 3rd and current place. Drive past the 2nd one, nightly.
Find a good place in a good neighborhood, not much point in moving.
Jean-Luc Descarte
Enlightened
I know how it is. Had Raggie not brought up the issue, I wouldn't have thought of it at all.
jtr1962
Flashaholic
Exactly. I'll probably be in this house until I die, barring the neighborhood becoming a major crime zone, which is highly unlikely. Even in the early 90s when crime peaked, it largely didn't hit this area. If I had to leave NYC, I'd leave the country. Nowhere else I'd want to live in the US. I'm a megacity person. There's really only one megacity in the US. If I left, I'd probably look at London, Paris, Shanghai, Beijing, Tokyo, Seoul, maybe Hong Kong or Taipei, although the climate is a bit too warm for my tastes for those last two.
idleprocess
Flashaholic
Living in the DFW area for more than 30 years I find myself in the vicinity of former residences at times and occasionally swing by (and scope out street view on map sites).
The old family homes have undergone some changes - generally for the better:
My first apartment I don't keep track of so much. I did not care for the location and that was a time of considerable dissatisfaction for me. My second apartment I pass by on occasion and the area has little changed - I also lived there for perhaps 2 years and am far more fond of the nearby Thai restaurant I still frequent.
My present neighborhood has been undergoing subtle shifts. The number of rentals has increased - particularly in an adjacent section with smaller zero lot line homes - which means more traffic and more parked cars. It's gotten a bit noisier. A modest increase in property crime seems to be correlate with the opening of a high school across the major arterial. Once I've got the present house paid off I'm not sure what I'll do - there's some maintenance and upgrades I can point that income at which will bump a prospective valuation should I sell - but real estate prices everywhere are insane so perhaps I'll just enjoy having a paid-off house to live in.
The old family homes have undergone some changes - generally for the better:
- First house: Original front trees removed and replaced with a pair of 20+ year trees, no mans land holly patch torn out, garage transformed into additional living space, shed my father and I built from scratch some 30 years ago still hanging on, added an in-ground swimming pool. Nothing on Zillow to advance voyeurism.
- Second house: New front trees planted ~15 years ago have matured, otherwise sightlines are markedly worse in that neighborhood so it's hard to tell what's happened directly outside. Zillow suggests that there have been many many interior changes: laminate flooring first floor, granite countertops, the upstairs bonus room has been fully enclosed (dad's long-delayed awkward windows overlooking the stairs/entry have been deleted), the storage area dad built in a dead space over the dining room accessible via a ⅔-height door in the master bedroom looks to have been retained.
My first apartment I don't keep track of so much. I did not care for the location and that was a time of considerable dissatisfaction for me. My second apartment I pass by on occasion and the area has little changed - I also lived there for perhaps 2 years and am far more fond of the nearby Thai restaurant I still frequent.
My present neighborhood has been undergoing subtle shifts. The number of rentals has increased - particularly in an adjacent section with smaller zero lot line homes - which means more traffic and more parked cars. It's gotten a bit noisier. A modest increase in property crime seems to be correlate with the opening of a high school across the major arterial. Once I've got the present house paid off I'm not sure what I'll do - there's some maintenance and upgrades I can point that income at which will bump a prospective valuation should I sell - but real estate prices everywhere are insane so perhaps I'll just enjoy having a paid-off house to live in.
SCEMan
Flashlight Enthusiast
All the time. I have relatives & friends still in the area and like to see what's changed.
idleprocess
Flashaholic
The really old family homes in Washington, California, Oregon, Lousiana... I've got mixed feelings about.
Washington I have absolutely fleeting memories of to the point that I simply can't find it on a map on my own.
California I'm reasonably certain that a forest fire wiped out the entire neighborhood. I think the old house is present in some grainy street view shots from 2007 but I also do not have the best memory of that place.
Oregon doesn't have a street view for that neighborhood. I conducted a west coast road trip circa 2006 that included a trip through town that was both a nostalgia blast and the profound realization that it was a time and place that could never be recreated and that I had no anchor to the place any more. I spent all of about ten minutes parked outside the house swimming through the memories then moved on - randomly knocking on the door (the original custom door that dad finished shortly before we lest) and asking to look around would have been ... too weird.
Louisiana I have zero fond memories of. It's vaguely recognizable on streetview but I otherwise don't care. Went on a an anti-nostalgia streetview tour of the town, noted that the elementary school I attended has been razed, then lost interest and will likely never return in actuality or through the Mountain View panopticon.
For me it's not about fond memories or not. It's just closed books of life.
There was a point during the divorce years I entertained the idea (pre-google days) but I chose to keep aiming for places I was going and not where I'd been. Sometimes the 'small world' thing applied and I'd end up at new places with people who said "oh I remember you". Some from my skateboarder period, some from my gubment employee period but my favorite was when one guy said "you're that flashlight guy".
There was a point during the divorce years I entertained the idea (pre-google days) but I chose to keep aiming for places I was going and not where I'd been. Sometimes the 'small world' thing applied and I'd end up at new places with people who said "oh I remember you". Some from my skateboarder period, some from my gubment employee period but my favorite was when one guy said "you're that flashlight guy".
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