Would you be able to answer...?
As I was dozing on top of my bed earlier tonight, an interesting scenario materialized in my mind. I saw myself as an old man of 90 (still with my own teeth and hair of course), who for some mysterious reason was a bit of a celebrity. ("Yeah, that would be a mystery!" I hear you say). Because of this, a documentary film was being made about my life, and I was therefore taken back to revisit every house I'd ever lived in before fame and fortune enabled me to inhabit a large mansion. I was filmed in my old abodes, and my reactions recorded as I stood out in the front and back gardens, surveying these once familiar scenes from my long-ago youth.
And then I was asked this question: "Of all the houses which were once your home, which one do you feel most at home in?" And I found myself unable to answer, as I simply didn't know how to. As I'd stood in each house, it was like being home again, so how could I choose one over the others? Maybe on one day, I might feel more at home in one particular house, but on a different day, it might be another. I'm still pondering how I'd answer if I were able to, but it occurs to me ask the question of all you Crivvies who have lived in several houses in your lifetime. Were you to revisit them all, which (if any) would you feel most at home in? And why?
Interesting topic. First off house No1 burnt to the ground. No2 would be like visiting ghosts as I am the only one left alive who lived there. It has its memories and all of them are good.
ReplyDeleteIf house #1 still stood, LH, which of the two would you prefer living in again if you couldn't live where you are now?
ReplyDeleteHouse No1 . It had a big park next to it.
ReplyDeleteI’m building my own house in 2021/22 (OK, more like getting proper builders to do it as I haven’t mastered anything above painting a room or changing a light bulb), so that will be the house I will most prefer. At the heart of it will be the study which will incorporate space for a newsagents bottom shelf rack that I will populate with a sample of my collection on a rotational basis. Also rotating will be my comic art collection. Bliss! Although I should add that my wife hasn’t yet sussed that bit.
ReplyDeleteCan't beat a big, open park, LH. Somewhere to walk the dug. (If you've got a dug.)
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We won't tell her about it if you don't, CN. When she finally finds out, remember and tell her that she's not to touch the comics on display.
Good question one for me at least would need to be split into sections is the house I was most at home in as a child and and adult on my own. The house I associate most as a child that felt like home was my family home when I was about 7 to 11 . It was fun i had god friends near me, my wee dig, it was close to lots of things like the local town, city, parks, football grounds, even my primary school and of course my family memories are strong for me at that age I was yet to become an annoying teenager with all that entailed so lovely memories . As an adult where I am now is fine for me and my partner as long as she is happy so am I.
ReplyDeleteA watch cat...Killer will bite yer big toe if yer try to burgle me place
ReplyDeleteEasy. I'd choose the house I lived in from the age of 2, which I continued to visit till my mother died when I was 43.
ReplyDeleteDon't assume you'll live to be 90. I once asked my father how long he thought he'd live. He confidently replied "90" but he actually died aged 71.
If I won the Lottery, McS, I've thought about buying a plot of land and building duplicates of all my houses and gardens, but with millions to play with, I suppose I could buy the original houses. Maybe I'd do both. That childhood home of yours sounds great, just like most of mine.
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I wear steel toecap shoes, LH, so no killer cat frightens me. Now if you'd said it'd bite my goolies, that'd be a different matter.
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I'm hoping to get well past 90, CJ. You've got to have an ambition in life. 43, eh? Bet it only seems like yesterday to you.
I visited my aforementioned favourite house a few months after my mum passed away ( I also did that a few years after my dad passed as well) so it must have held a special place in my affections. The house was in a cul-de-sac and in the mid to late 60s / 1970 it was very quiet (apart from the sound of the then kids playing) with only a few cars, when I visited the first time around 1990 it was full of cars, on my second visit (2013) it was literally heaving with cars, bustling in fact not a space to be had on the street left to park. The quiet cool homely feeling the street had when I was a kid was gone, as was my primary school a short 10 minute walk from my house now a large modern secondary school . Still it looked a nice place and I'm sure "today's" kids will have their own fond memories of the street and house, but the feeling it had when I was a kid was long gone. I suppose if I had stayed there all this time the changes would have been incremental and gone unnoticed. Other areas where old pals used to live (all moved away now going by the names on the doors) had a similar feel to what I remembered which was nice
ReplyDeleteI think had you continued to stay in the house, McS, perhaps the incremental changes as they happened wouldn't have had such an immediate impact on your sense of the place, but eventually you'd likely have become aware that things were different as far as the 'mood' of the place was concerned. For many years, most of my places remained relatively unchanged, but one area in particular has had amenity houses and new houses and bungalows crammed into it over time, and is a sorry, overcrowded looking place compared to what it used to be. Luckily, I have extensive photos of how it once looked, so at least it's been preserved for posterity. Thankfully, there's still enough of how it once was for me to recognise, but I resent the changes it's been subjected to.
ReplyDeleteThat’s a good question . I would have to say our old flat in Wimbledon . Despite not being the first place or the nicer house we moved into later, my memories of it were more vivid. The first apartment I was very young, the later house during my teen years I somehow don’t think I spent as much time at home due to school and sports and just wanting to be out with friends. The ironic thing is the flat was the worst place, it was the least nice place.
ReplyDeleteGood answer, PS. Isn't it funny that the 'least nice place' would be the one you'd feel most at home in? Obviously there was something about the time you spent there that has resonated in your memory down through the years.
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