You just can't go home!

RalphWD45

Well-known Member
Three yr's ago, after having a heart attact, I realized that I might not be here forever, and retired from the Boeing co, at age 70, and decided to make a trip back home to Pike Co. Il. and just look around, and do the memory lane thing. ( The post by Bruce from Can. reminded me of this) I drove down to the old farm, in the IL. river bottoms, at Bedford, and found corn growing up to the yard edge, and the old house was vacant, but looked in good repair. The barn ( Post&Beam white oak with wooden pins) the corn crib, and cattle barn, plus various sheds and chicken house, were all gone, and replaced with corn.No tractor shed or shop bldg. The whole area of farms and the little village of Bedford, had changed, and so many of the houses were gone. I know that they have had several record floods since 1960, and maybe that contributed to this. I drove down to Pearl, and then up to Milton, and only found one man that I remembered, and he was an old man 2 yrs older than me, that was still farming, but his son was doing most of it.I guess most of the people either died off, or moved away. It was good to see the old country, and landmarks, but you just can't go home!
 
I go "home" every day. It's not where I was born, where I graduated High School, or where I grew up, but it IS HOME. It's not even in the same state.
 
I'm glad for you that you was able to see your old homestead once again before the Lord calls you home . I have lived in Franklin , Pa. all my life so driving to see my old home isn't far away . I live in my Grammas home since marriage in 66 of which I had spent the first 2 yrs of my life in . I almost died at birth with heart & Bronkitis problems , so Gramma & Grampa kept me here because my Dad actually didn't want me or want me to live (and being a buden to him). Mom finally after 2 yrs took me home with her where I lived until I married at age 21 . My dad was a very abusive man to me mostly but also to 8 of the siblings . He only favored my middle brother )5 yrs younger than I) . There was a total of 11 of us kids plus 1 other brother who Dad admitted to me when I was about 19 yrs old the day he beat me for taking my own car & sneaking out to be with my first girlfriend (future wife). He told me how much he hated me since birth & wished he had kicked my Mom in the stomach & killed me like he did my brother . I truly loved my Dad even tho I really didn't have much of a childs life . I never hated Dad , but hated what he did to me & Mom . So visiting the old homestead , gives me too many flasbacks of Dad constantly beating & if Mom tried to shield me , he's beat her to where she could hardly walk . So I'm glad you got your chance to reminise your good life as a child .Good memories can be precious . God bless, Ken
 
I don't know. I left home when I was 18 to go to college. Graduated in 1968, got drafted, 2 years in the U.S. Army and then spent 30 years teaching school. Retired in 1999. Worked construction for 10 years. Retired again, Left Louisville, Kentucky and built a house on the old family farm near Cincinnati in Northern Ky. The SWMBO and I have been here about 8 months and love it. Ellis
 
As I set here pounding the keys, I can see the house on the homefarm that my dad and his siblings were born in, the house that I was born in, the house that my dad died in last spring, and the house that Grandpa died in in 1971. I can also see the farms of two of the other uncles on the other side of the valley, who left the home farm, which is still operated by two other uncles. Us family nuts never rolled out of the shade of the old nut tree. PS Grandpa, Dad. and I liked selling farm machinery better than milking cows. We were Case dealers for 55 years. (1931-1986) and I stayed in the Case loop until 1992.I am next door to our former dealership.
Loren, the Acg.
 
We moved from the farm that I grew up on to a bigger one in 1959. 40 years later I went back there, the old two story house, the barn that dad built, the 4 bin grainery, the slat corn crib that dad built, the chicken house, the shed, that we ground feed in one end, parked the car in the middle, and dads little shop on the other were gone.
The hog houses, cattle shed, the huge oak that we stacked fire wood under, and used its shade to husk sweet corn under, gone. A guy told me who owned the place, didn't live far, I went over, told him who I was, and that I had grown up on that place, and if it would be ok to walk around the place.
He said sure, I had my dog with me so just like so many many years ago, I was once more home walking, watching my dog explore, seeing some of the old trees still there.
But it wasn't the same, the pond was gone, the ditch that we played in was a grassway, but when I left I couldn't began to haul in my truck all the memories that had come back.
 
My old home place really hasn t changed much, it was just land when dad built a new house(1961), and the outbuildings were gone before I left(wind storm). But I sure would like to have that big pole barn that the next owner built!
 
Ralph, Interesting to read your post. The towns bring back memories for me as well. I spent several Christmas vacations in Griggsville as that is where my mom was raised so Christmas was always with grandma. Still make it down on occasion to see a friend who still farms there. I think mom left there in about 1960 as well. Thanks for bringing back memories.
 
I went back to my old hometown a few years ago for a funeral. Everything looked smaller, tired, and old.
 
A few years ago, wife and I visited farm I was born on. It had a real nice barn when we moved off when I was 8. Barn still standing but only other building was the little old granary with a lean to dad parked car in. I have a picture of me standing in front of that granary when I was two years old, so I took a picture of my wife standing in front of same granary about 65 years later. Has a tree growing up through it now. That big hill we used to sled down had shrunk down to a small rise in a field now.
 
left home at 18; military, marriage and then a job that required numerous moves to several states. retired 1 1/2 years ago moved back to hometown and built a new home on our land. final move!
 

The house where I grew up is vacant. My siblings and I still own it and it is for sale. It is a nice little house, in good repair but it is too close to the road that a lot of trucks constantly go by on. The 100 milker farm of my youth just a half mile beyond is now a 1,000 milker and all the trucks carrying feed in and milk and manure out, go by about one every twenty minutes most of the year and one every five minutes during corn time.
 
Same deal here. All but one of the outbuildings gone, crops planted right up to the house, new house built where our garden used to be.

Drove by a couple of times years back, decided I'd rather remember it the way it was. Haven't been back since.

Last time I went back to Michigan to visit family, I dropped in for Sunday services in the church I grew up in. What I remembered as a large building packed to the rafters with all the adults and kids I grew up with has mysteriously become a rather small church with 3/4 or better of the pews empty. Smaller families, kids moving away looking for work and other factors have shrunk membership to a fraction of what it used to be.

What really hurts is that all, and I do mean ALL of the farmers I looked up to as a kid are gone. Saw the obits on the last one a couple of months ago.
 
You're all making me feel like the old guy at the airport wandering around looking worried. Somebody asked him what was wrong. He said his brother had been gone for 40 years,but he was coming home today. He didn't know if he'd recoginze the brother when he got there. The other fella said "do you think he'll recognize you?". The old guy thought a minute and said "well,I guess maybe he should,I haven't been anywhere".

That's me,I haven't been anywhere. I still live in the house I grew up in.
 
I lived in the city, but my grand-father lived on a Farm, near Evans City, Pa. I"d spend time on his farm every summer, helping him with all kinds of things. They lived in an old farm house, parlor and kitchen on first floor, 2 bedrooms on second floor, out-house out back.
I started spending lots of time there during school vacation. He farmed with horses. Had some cows, a few pigs, lots of chickens, and a barn where us kids would practice being circus performers, etc.
When the folks got too old to do the work required on the farm, they moved to the suburbs, and lived in a small cottage. My family would travel out there twice a summer month, unless there were "doins" like a picnic. Grand Mother died, but Grand-father lived to be 98 YOA. I got drafted and was in combat in France, in the 90th Division, but i trained with the 78th Div, for basic.
Fast forward 30 years, i joined the 78th. Division club. Talking to one of the members, turned out he lived on Grampaws farm!So, i paid him a visit. Alas--all of the buildings, barns, and house, everything. GONZO! Everything was different. The spring had been covered and a pump put in. A septic system and inside plumbing. A nice house that they lived in.
Where i had lived in town, i stopped one day, saw a lady sitting on the porch, told her the house had been my home. We talked for a while. She asked about something inside that had her puzzled. She asked why the dining room ceiling had a large wrinkled place in it. So, i told her that when my Dad and Uncle Elmer Stewart were finishing off the attic. Elmer slipped and put his foot thru the ceiling of the dining room! They patched it up, but didn"t do a good job of it. AHH, the good old days!
 
I'm still on the same place, but no one would recognize it from when I was a kid. All the buildings are gone, replaced, except one, and it's so remodeled that it's origional purpose is no longer evident. Even some serious remodeling on some of the buildings my dad built in the '50s and '60s.
 
Ken,

Sorry to hear about such a rough child hood.Really broke my heart reading about it.

May god bless you

Vito
 
I get back to the farm in SD once or twice a year....since my parents are still there and a brother farms it, it hasn't changed too much. What has has been gradual so you don't think about it as much. What I like to do is tour around the old stomping grounds - places I used to live....Aberdeen, SD, Lansing, MI, St. George, UT and Bend, Or. One thing is for sure....change is inevitable!
 
Where I grew up is all gone, except for the water tank foundation. In 1960 Dad moved us from the home place, after he and his two brothers sold it. He bought another farm at a tax sale sale, about a mile down the road. He built a house in 1960. That house is still there, as all the other buildings. I live a block away, and go there every day as that is my work shop area where I keep my tractors also. I go by the original home place, which is new houses now, and am reminded of the good times, and not so good times, Stan
 
I went on the nostalgia tour several months ago. Took a photo of the house I was born in back in the summer of '41. My folks built this house new in about 1939. Remember Dad saying it cost him $1,200. The swing that was on the porch is now on my back porch. I drink coffee in it every day.

We moved from this house in 1946 and I grew up in the house my mother was born in (1911). All the pastures are now grown up in pine trees, the old house has been razed, and nothing is left to show we were ever there but the dairy barn, which is falling in.

I also went to the old country church I went to as a lad. As the photo shows, there's not much left. I still have the old rough pine bench my dad sat on every Sunday for 50-some years. Across the road from the church is what's left of the old sawmill company store that was built back in the 1920s. My uncle would sometimes open the store after church on Sunday and give me a pink-icing Stage Plank out of the old glass display case.
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I live where I was born too. And all of the buildings except for the corn crib are still here and doing fine. But it's taken a lot of work and money to keep them up. The house has been added to a couple of times. The livestock and fences are gone and I have hay where the cattle yard was. The whole place drains directly into a creek so I don't expect to see livestock here again. Jim
 
My dad farmed the farm he was born and raised on for 69 years. The farm was sold(was owned by him and his brother and sister)(only dad was farming it).It was the best way to sell, rather than letting all the cousins inherit and sell and divide it. Bought by developers,bulldozed as flat as posible, it is totally unrecognizable. I did not go back for a long time. If I look across the road,I can landmark the locations of the house and buildings.The state(eminate domain)moved the highway further onto the farm 3 times in my dad's lifetime,never paying for fence or buildings,only the land at low value.Dad was resiliant: he tore down the buildings and reused them,switching from dairy to beef. It grieved him terible to have to stop milking : he worried about supporting his family, but in the end ,he managed.And when it was finally sold to the developers, he made out OK.I have no home place to show my kids, only pictures and memories and stories.
Mark
 
Speaking of old! I'm never going back to any more class reunions - all the people there are old!
 
Speaking of old! I'm never going back to any more class reunions - all the people there are old!
 
dad never stayed in one place long enough to call home.he was also never close to father of year.by 10 i wanted to get away but couldnt till out of school. my grandparents farm few miles away was bought by old guy in1976 and he put everything in a trst so his daughter and son inlaw couldnt p-- s everything away,justsetting there abandened for several years now.i have good memeries of that place but hurts like h--l to drive by and see it now
 
This is A pic. of the place where I was born, but not in this old house. Live there until I was 8 yr. old. Moved up the road 1/2 mile, stayed there until I married.

I have some of the acres there, but I have it leasted out. I live about 4 miles from there. I go by there often I made lots of tracks under that old elm tree. >Hammer Man
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I still live in the place I grew up in, but I own a chunk about two miles from my folks home, and a mile from my G-dad's farm. The village- a cross roads- has grown a little from what it was, and has changed some from different uses, but hasn't changed much in sixty years- just more traffic and a red light. Over half of the farms, and most were dairies, have succumbed to "developments", with their own special brand of city bred a-holes, all willing to tell you how to run your business. There are still a few of us farm boys around who still farm, but we're getting far and few between. Sad to see it all go....
 
both places we lived when I was growing up are gone all the bildings gone and allcropground you'd never know that either was a farmstead
 
Jerry S,
Great pics. Sad to see the house - yet I love the old abandoned ones.

From an Oak Ridge Boys song:
"Is this all we get to keep
as the years go rolling by;
just the memories...
of all the days gone by?"

Sadly, yes.
 
I went back to the farm once. Cried like a little girl in the yard. Never peeked into the house...just want to remember it like the home it was.
 
I guess in many ways Im lucky, I still farm the home place and live in the house I grew up in. There have been changes, sure, but at least I got to be the one who made them.
 

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