I saw my old house, that I grew up in until I was 12, being advertised in the window of an estate agent home. When I got home I decided to look it up online, to see what had been done to the place in the intervening 18 years. It had all been done up, none of the rooms on display looked as they were, in fact it has the over furnished look of a house that is there to be looked at, not lived in, with white and cream decor. The dining room has a chandelier ffs!
The weird thing is I actually feel resentful of the fact that they've changed it even though as I say I haven't set foot in there for almost two decades, because it means that the house that is in my memories doesn't exist anymore in a sense.
It is very inconsiderate of them not to preserve the house as a monument to my childhood.
Bramber Green: From bombsite to stone circle
5 hours ago
7 comments:
You are correct
The same will happen with the school you went to and the country you grew up in.
My grandparents' house, where I was born and where I spent a lot of time during my childhood, was demolished in 1970 as part of Manchester's slum clearance programme. And not even a bloody blue plaque to mark the spot.
Mind you, at least nobody is going to redecorate it in white and cream now, and my memory of how it was when I "owned" it is not going to be cruelly overridden by reality.
If you become really famous in the next few years English Heritage might buy it and return it to its former glory (hopefully you havse some photographs).
By the way my parents still own the house that I grew up in, and every single room is unrecognisable as well.
Anon 1- I'm not sure what I'm correct about but thank you anyway.
Anon 2- Oh yeah, at least one school is unrecogniseable now.
Edwin- Put up your own blue plaque.
Matthew- So all I need to do is become famous.... Britain's Got Talent here I come.
"Edwin - Put up your own blue plaque."
I hadn't thought of that. You know, I'm almost tempted. People wouldn't challenge a professionally produced blue plaque; they would just assume it had been put there by "the authorities" and it could be quite some time before those "authorities" cottoned on that it was a spoof.
The idea of the current locals standing there saying "Who the fuck was Edwin Greenwood?" does rather appeal.
As regards schools, my Alma Mater has changed from a direct grant grammar into one of those Academy thingies and, shock horror, it also now admits females.
Is nothing sacred?
You've hit on a touchy one. Ditto in my case - the childhood home - changed beyond recognition - things we'd put in ripped out and so on.
Leaves a strange feeling.
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