Memories.

I was shopping with my wife through in Glasgow,she was shopping I was walking behind carrying the Visa card.
After shopping we decided to visit some of the old areas where we were brought up,in the outskirts of Glasgow.
We hadn't seen the areas since we moved some 40 years ago.
My wife's old home is gone, it is now a Tesco and a garage/car show room.
My old home is still there,but I never recognised the place.My Mum and Dad spent years in their garden.They had a huge vegetable growing area,a large grassed area with Apple trees placed in strategic spots. They had a beautiful flower garden and a large rockery with umpteen alpines and other flowers etc growing around the large rocks.They had 3 garden seats and a picnic area for the kids, and 3 Arches with climbing Vines, it was a lovely garden and surrounds .

I could have Wept when I seen the state of the place, the Gardens and surrounding areas were an absolute wilderness. Long wild grass/ huge weeds,broken fencing on the grounds and other rubbish, the place had not been touched in years.
There was nothing that resembled the beautiful garden my parents had left.
The house was empty and in disrepair,the place was a shambles.

I should have kept my memories of the lovely place it was and never returned to see it again.
My Mum and Dad passed away some years ago, thank God they never seen the state of their Old Home.

 

40 years is nearly half of a lifetime. It would be unrealistic to expect that things were exactly the same. Though - I would much prefer the sight of my abandoned, empty family house and garden, instead of a sparkling new Tesco+car dealer in the same spot.

 

@music, I feel your pain, my mum was evicted from our family home where for most of my life (5-17) I was brought up, after she was evicted I just wanted to go back, I wanted to walk into the garden & look at the view & just remember, when I got there the windows were boarded up & some of our stuff was on the front grass, I burst into tears & felt sick and dizzy, I drive away & have never driven past again. To this day I don't know why I went back, I was so silly mum had trashed the house & garden, the whole place was a tip, but my early days there were happy, my nan looked after the garden & I cut the grass I guess I just wanted to imagine those. I keep my happy memories of that house alive & try to blank out the disappointment of the state of the place at the end, try to remember your mum & dads house as it was & blank out your recent visit. I'm sorry that you saw it in such a state .
It must have been sad for your wife to see a Tesco built on her former home

 

My Wife was sad, but she cheered up when I gave her the Visa card to shop in Tesco..