'Da Hood...

One thing about returning to your childhood home is noticing change/the absence of it.

When I am inside my childhood home it's like a time warp. Nothing has changed.

The set of Britanica encyclopedias still sits sharing dining room space as do the genie lamps bookending the living room's herculon fabric covered sofa with 60's house colors still adorning its walls which all proves if you wait long enough everything comes back into style including 'retro'. I have to finally admit it my parents are 'hip.'

Yet what is so apparent on the walks I have been taking daily around our block is the change that has gone on around them. Their short block is unique in that of its 8 houses only one one has been extensively rebuilt and actually I lived here when that happened.

Yet due to the desireability of the neighborhood, many of the 50's homes have been razed and bigger homes have taken their places on the valuable property known as the Heights.

This redo does have curb appeal but I do remember when this corner house was just 20x20...
Sometimes even two adjoining properties are bought so that the new larger abode has some yard which may/may not be tastefully done as they not only dwarf their neighbors but are like sore thumbs. The neighborhood's lovely quaint character is destroyed as yards are given up for monstrosities that leave neighbors on top of each other. And I have to wonder what happened to building codes? Who got paid off to allow all this to happen? I would truly be embarassed to make my neighbors look so bad.

It makes me thankful for the zoning codes where I live that keep landowners from being tempted to sell off larger parcels of land to developers if there weren't acreage restrictions. Reality is that it's just a matter of time.

And with sadness,I know the future of my parents's neighbor's deterioating overpriced vacant house and eventually my childhood home on North Grant.

I guess they call it progress...May it not reach The End of the Valley any time soon.