Yesterday my mom, sister, and great-neice went on a little adventure that I've been wanting to do for a while... we found what pictures we could dig up of the houses we have lived in and then drove by them and took current pictures. We sure did a lot of reminiscing! It's so fun to talk about who remembers what!
What did we find? The trees sure have grown a lot and most of them don't look better now! I know a few people want to see the pictures, so here they are...
This is the first house that I "sort of" lived in ... in utero! My mom was pregnant with me here but came home from the hospital to a different house. She went into labor on her birthday and couldn't get a hold of anyone to take her to the hospital, so she called a taxi and waited on these front steps for it, but it never came. In the meantime a boy that had liked her in high school but that she couldn't stand drove by. She was able to flag him down and he took her to the hospital. What excitement! :)
She brought me home to this house... which is much nicer and bigger now.
The house was owned by a Polish lady who also lived there. My mom said that the lady would come out and talk to me in Polish while I played in the sandbox. When I first started talking, my mom thought I had picked up my jibberish from the lady and was speaking Polish!
After a year or so, we moved to this house in Niagara Falls, not too far from the Power Project on Isherwood Drive.
Now it looks like this...
This is the only house where someone came out and asked me why I was taking a picture of her house. When I showed her the old picture and told her what I was doing, she invited me in! It is soo tiny! Much smaller than I remember, of course! She told me that it was the first house on the street when it was built and was the "model" home. Too funny!
Then we moved to Clarence Center, to the corner of Long St. and Clarence Center Rd. This is the corner now...
Nice, huh?! The house was torn down long ago and a Verizon building is there now. The only picture that I have that shows any of the house is this one...
Of course, that's me with the glasses! I also took a picture of the house across the street where we used to play...
Just two houses down from our house was the house that the Continental plane crashed into a couple years ago. So hard to believe that it could come down straight onto a house in a neighborhood like this... they also had to tear down the house next door because of some damage to it. Do you remember the story? The man in the house was killed but the mother and daughter got out alive. So sad for him and the 30+ people that were killed on the plane.
Next we moved a couple streets over to this house on Railroad St. It used to be a gorgeous Victorian home. The curved shutters and the porch details were so pretty.
Now it is such a dump... it could/should be on an episode of Hoarders! Such a shame!! (this picture doesn't capture how bad it is!)
When I was in 4th grade we moved to the corner of Heim and Haussauer in Getzville. The trees are huge now!
When I was in 9th grade we moved to Chestnut Hill Lane South in Williamsvlle... this house looks the most the same. (Love the cars in the driveway... anyone remember the Monza? As they used to say, it only came in one color... rust!)
While I was in college my family moved to N. Union in Williamsville. This house was so much cuter when my parents lived here! I was married in the backyard here... so scenic with a creek and a bridge. I'm sure there is a before picture somewhere but we didn't find it for today. Here it is now...
Now I need to take pictures of the houses that my husband and I have lived in!
We also drove by the house that my grandparents built themselves when my mom was 17 years old. They even dug the foundation themselves! It's on Walmore Rd. in Wheatfield.
It was really fun and I feel blessed that we lived in about a 25 to 30 mile radius all our lives! Now I need to print these pictures and scrapbook it!!
Have you ever done something like this?
I would need my parents help to do this, but they are no longer alive. This is a great thing to do with your mom! You are indeed lucky to still have her.
Posted by: Gloria L. | August 18, 2011 at 03:50 PM
Wow! What a neat thing to do. I think it would be hard for me to do it because I have lived in 10 states and the houses are spread so far apart. Then to in some states I lived in multiple places. I don't even have pictures of many of them from when I lived there. I wish I did. What fun it would be to just chronicle the houses and apartments where I have lived.
Posted by: Deb J | August 18, 2011 at 04:27 PM
Dad and I wonder if anyone else had a Monza...because we never heard of that make! The ugly orangiish, yellowish car in the driveway is a Chevrolet Vega. haha! The dealer didn't even want it as a trade-in!
Loved the whole blog...I can see it as a scrapbook!
Posted by: your mom | August 18, 2011 at 04:37 PM
Vega... Monza... same bad idea! :)
Posted by: Debby Schuh | August 18, 2011 at 04:50 PM
Last year I took pictures of the two houses I grew up in, plus the houses I have lived in with Shane. I don't know how successful I will be at finding pictures of the houses WHILE we were living in them. I hope to do a layout with them one day.
Posted by: Heather | August 18, 2011 at 05:38 PM
How fun and it looks like a really nice day to be out and about looking up all of these addresses! You had a great trip down memory lane! xo
Posted by: joey | August 18, 2011 at 06:24 PM
Last summer I drove by my 2 old houses. While taking pictures of the first house a little boy came outside and looked at me so I told him I used to live in his house, I don't think he got it. I did take a picture of the other house. Brings back so many memories for me.
Posted by: freddi lynn | August 18, 2011 at 06:25 PM
Not only have a never done something like this, I've never SEEN anything like this. What a great idea. Love the old pictures.
Posted by: Jana | August 18, 2011 at 07:10 PM
Thanks for sharing your trip down memory lane. Love it, love it, love it. Wish I could join you in Italy next year but I'm going in 2013 to celebrate my 55th birthday and 30th anniversary. Have a great time. Donna O
Posted by: Donna O | August 19, 2011 at 06:01 AM
What a fun post! My sister just visited Orchard Park, NY and visited the house where we grew up! She brought back photos to share! The town is a bit frozen in time and not much has changed. My parents house is 50 years old and was just updated a bit but basically looks the same!
Posted by: Mona Pendleton | August 19, 2011 at 11:46 PM
Amazing. You lived two houses away from the plane crash. My son's friend is the man that lived in that house and died because of the crash.
Posted by: SuZeQ | August 21, 2011 at 08:06 PM