My Town - Then and Now

I still live in the town where I grew up, only a few blocks from the house where I was raised and where my parents lived for over 40 years. It’s really not the same town as it was then, however. Things change.

My first day at the elementary school, I walked home. I remember that walk home clearly because I got lost. Although it was only two short blocks, straight ahead, to my house, I thought it was only supposed to be one block, and when I walked one block and didn’t recognize the house, I panicked and went in the opposite direction. But I managed to get home okay. I was six or seven years old. Flash forward to 2007. Our neighbor’s child goes to the same school, but now the school requires a parent pick up each child after school; no child is allowed to walk home unaccompanied. If someone other than a parent picks them up, that person must be registered with the school ahead of time. When I was a child, I remember being taught not to accept rides or candy from strangers, but I don’t think anything ever happened to warrant the level of caution that we see in schools today.

Something else was different: none of my friends’ mothers and none of the mothers on my block had jobs outside of the home. Only a couple of them had their own cars. When I came home from school, my mom was either at home or visiting with one of the neighbors, all of whom we knew. At the time, though, it was still possible to buy a home in a decent, if not fancy, neighborhood on only one income. (I think my parents bought their house for less than I paid for my Toyota!) That has changed gradually over the years, and by the time my mother sold the house around 1997, the neighborhood had changed and seemed much less close-knit, with very few of the old neighbors still there. That house has been re-sold at least three times since; the last time it was listed for $599,000. If I had a spare $599,000, I’m not sure I’d buy it, though. It wouldn’t be the same. You really can’t go home again.