Well, to take this thread into the not as distant past:
I went onto google maps tonight and had a look at the house on Dorchester Street, Pt. Charlotte, FL that my parents rented from January to the end of April every year, for 8 years from 1988 to '95. They rented from the Canadian owners who lived near us and got to pay in Canadian dollars, which was a nice break.
The images date back to March of 2011. So that's only 3 years after the 2008 bank fiasco. But the house must have been sold at some point since 1995, for it was all nicely fixed up and painted a new colour. I was surprised at how few new houses there were in the neighbourhood. Granted there may be a lot more by now, for it is five years later, but probably there are not.
I took a cyber walk through the old neighbourhood and noted the changes. I had feelings of instant nostalgia, for my Dad and I used to enjoy going for walks all through the area and we'd look at the houses and vacant lots. I had my dream retirement home all picked out. It had lots of pine trees on the lot for lots of shade, and was built in the modern Florida way on top of a berm to prevent flooding. All that place lacked was a swimming pool in the back yard.
I took note of a few new houses, then realized that most of the older folks we got to know in the neighbourhood were probably gone, the same as my parents, and the couple across the street that they befriended. Almost certainly gone too is the odd fellow who only built a double garage on his property and lived in it. The garage and his property are now part of the mini estate built next door. They must have merged his lot with theirs, for a large fence encloses his old corner lot and butts up against the north wall of their "mansion". Perhaps those people were "keeping up" the the family that lives right across the street. The place across the street really is a mansion. And it still looks like some mafia boss owns it.
Maybe the family grew, and expanded across the street.
Money was spent by the town in the intervening years. The bridge crossing over a nearby drainage canal was fixed up really nicely. It was much wider than before, and even had railings. And "Danger No Tresspassing" signs. I guess aligators still live in the canal. And holy baldy ! They even put in a sidewalk along Quesada Blvd! Man, it used to be so dangerous to walk along that road with its narrow grass verges! We stayed off it as much as possible. I wonder if they had to expropriate a little land to make enough room for the long overdue sidewalk?
A last thought: I guess you really can't go back again. Because I just went for a cyber walk in the area of where my dream retirement home was located. And I couldn't find it.
Either someone cut down all the trees and changed up the house, or it was on a different street. It was a bit of a hike from the place my parents used to rent, and it's 21 years since I've been there, so I'll have to cyber walk the rest of the streets some other time to see if I can find the place.
It's all a moot point now anyhow. The idea was that I'd let my brother and his family use the place whenever they wanted, or come visit any time if I was in residence. But the kids are all grown, my brother's passed on, and my sister in law can go stay with her sister and brother in law who live in the Bradenton area any time she wants to.
And Pt Charlotte had grown a lot too. It's a huge city now. It still had a small town feel to it when we first went there in '88. But that's all gone too, by now.
Edit: I was up really late last night cyber walking Pt Charlotte. So I decided to hell with it, and kept cyber walking in the area where I knew my "dream retirement home" was located. I think I found the lot. The lot I found was in the right place on the street, a corner lot, and configured correctly. But there's no house there. There's a cut-off-midway part driveway in the right place, but no house. There's a few pine trees still, but if I was at the right corner, many are gone. So it seems the house is gone, (it wasn't new back then) and most of the trees are gone. There's a chain link fence around the property that is new. SO..... it seems you really
can't go back again.
I must check back again some time to see if there are newer google images available. I bet someone has built a new house there since they were taken in March, 2011. They certainly have a nice spot. The lot faces West, so the lanai in the back of the place will be out of the sun in the evenings. And it's in the middle of that section, so it should be nice and quiet without too much traffic.
I used to sleep so soundly down there, and realized that it was due to the location. At home there is more traffic, highway noise sometimes seeps down the river valley and spills over to my place, and I have a major airport witin 30 miles of my house, so there is often the racket of jets going by. You don't realize how it all adds up until you go some place that is truly quiet.
Sorry for the long and boring post. (Sorta.
) Perhaps I should be "blogging" this stuff somewhere instead?
