Last month my sister and brother-in-law did something I've been wanting to do for years: see my grandparents' old house in western Massachusetts where we used to spend alternating summers as children.
While she didn't get all the shots I might've wanted had I been there, she took enough that some comparisons can be made. And unlike I had feared, all my childhood memories had not been completely erased.
1968:
And 45 years later, 2013:
At some point over the last four and a half decades, the owners had remodeled the entire north wing of the house, adding a second garage and apparently reworking the breakfast and laundry rooms in the process.
The biggest change to the property is that the original 22 acres has been subdivided into 3 plots and there are now three houses standing where before there had only been one. Also the original, rambling, ramshackle barn that I used to love exploring has been demolished and rebuilt.
The Barn, 1971:
The Barn, 2013:
But everything else looks pretty much the same.
I'd still like to see it for myself.
It's surprising how little is has changed aside from the maturing landscaping
it is a comfort to see old memory things like this.