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hunter

(39,661 posts)

43. All the places of my childhood have been obliterated by very wealthy people.

Wed Jul 9, 2025, 10:47 PM

Jul 9

My parents always moved on just ahead of the hard core gentrification. It was as if they'd see an expensive new car parked in a neighbor's driveway and say, "That's it! We're out of here!"

I was born in the city. I lived in three different places before kindergarten. When I was in the third grade we moved to a bankrupt suburban development surrounded by open spaces. That was nice, me and my siblings wandered far and wide. Then the housing market exploded and there were new developments everywhere, all the new houses sold to white people growing fearful of the city, many of our favorite wild places falling to the bulldozers.

My parents didn't like these people and my dad got itching to move to Spain, which we did. He didn't consider that Franco was still in charge there and that my mom had no respect for authority and wasn't even able to feign it when pompous officials came around checking up on us. My dad couldn't sleep one night after an uncomfortable exchange between one such official and my mom so we packed all our stuff in the car and left for France in the middle of the night, unfortunately leaving all our money in a Spanish bank. Eventually we landed in Britain where Barclay's Bank allowed my parents a negative balance until they got my parent's money out of Spain. We lived in small town Britain for a year.

When we moved back to California my parents bought a small farm surrounded by citrus fields. Alas that place was starting to fall to the developers too. It's all hobby ranches for very wealthy people now. My parents made some profit selling that, but it was before property values there really started to escalate, from the low hundred thousands to millions.

I wasn't there for that, When I wasn't in forced time-outs from college I was wandering all over the west as a crazy person, or sleeping on my brother's sofa in his house by the beach, all crashed and burnt, waking up at dawn to scream at the ocean.

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What neighborhood did you grow up in --city, rural, or suburbs? Mine is city until 8th grade. then suburbs. Culture [View all] debm55 Jul 9 OP

Where I grew up was rural at the time but transitioning to suburban Walleye Jul 9 #1

Thank you very much Walleye for sharing with us. debm55 Jul 9 #2

Townie here SARose Jul 9 #3

Thank you very much SARose, It sounds like you had lots of fun. debm55 Jul 9 #12

Kind of depends on how you define each entity rurallib Jul 9 #4

Thank you very much, rurallib. College towns are very diverse. Love them debm55 Jul 9 #11

I grew up on a family farm in Ohio. sinkingfeeling Jul 9 #5

Thank you very much, sinkingfeeling. debm55 Jul 9 #10

Town of 160 people in Nebraska. Bee, Nebraska. Sold ice cream at the post office. OLDMDDEM Jul 9 #6

HAHAHAHAHHAAH. Thank you OLDMDDEM. How did you get out of there? debm55 Jul 9 #9

Fortunately, my dad got a job in the big city, Lincoln. OLDMDDEM Jul 9 #14

Lucky you. Thanks, OLDMDDEM. debm55 Jul 9 #16

Wow, that's small! The 3 smallest places I've ever been to were... electric_blue68 Jul 9 #40

This community was all Czech and German. You spoke one or the other. OLDMDDEM Jul 10 #46

Small town to big city to suburbs. LoisB Jul 9 #7

Thank you very much ,LoisB. debm55 Jul 9 #8

It was a small town in northeastern Iowa. rsdsharp Jul 9 #13

HAHAhahhahahhahha. Good one. Thank you very much, rsdsharp debm55 Jul 9 #17

Rural MissB Jul 9 #15

Great post , MissB. It was a great place for kids. debm55 Jul 9 #18

I grew up in a suburban neighborhood on Long Island. lucca18 Jul 9 #19

Thank you very much Iucca18 debm55 Jul 9 #22

thank you very much. electric_blue 68, What great memories. debm55 Jul 10 #49

Jones Beach! Happy memories! electric_blue68 Jul 9 #41

I love the detailed description of your Jones Beach memories! lucca18 Jul 10 #70

YW. It was wonderful to remember. electric_blue68 Jul 10 #71

I grew up in a number of states LogDog75 Jul 9 #20

That sounds great LogDog75, You have the ocean, great temps. I like it. Enjoy. debm55 Jul 9 #23

All of the above ... Dorothy V Jul 9 #21

Thank you very much Dorothy V. Wow you have lived in so many places. debm55 Jul 9 #24

Very diverse! 👍 electric_blue68 Jul 9 #42

City ProfessorGAC Jul 9 #25

Thank you very much ProfessorGAC. That is very interesting. debm55 Jul 9 #29

Always lived in burbs SheltieLover Jul 9 #26

Thank you SheltieLover. debm55 Jul 9 #30

City. greatauntoftriplets Jul 9 #27

Thank you very much for sharing with us. greatauntoftriplets. It sounds like the perfect place to raise kids. debm55 Jul 9 #31

It still is a great place. greatauntoftriplets Jul 9 #34

Thank you so much. That is good to know. debm55 Jul 10 #51

Grew up in Chicago. boonecreek Jul 9 #28

Thank you very much for sharing with us, boonecreek. Such a greet city. debm55 Jul 9 #32

Lived on the west side of Detroit. Moved downriver, now we live in a rural area near the lake. Srkdqltr Jul 9 #33

Downtown gopiscrap Jul 9 #35

Thank you very much gopiscrap for sharing with us. debm55 Jul 9 #36

The Oakland section of Pittsburgh-urban row house. A very walkable neighborhood. cloudbase Jul 9 #37

I am from SW of Pittsburgh. I live very near the old Century III mall Thank you for posting cloudbase. PS I live very debm55 Jul 9 #38

I lived in a rural area that was developed into a suburb. We went from potato farms and woods to tract housing... NNadir Jul 9 #39

thank you NNagir. I see it around here too. Dairy farms and regular farms that we visited in girl scouts have turned debm55 Jul 10 #52

All the places of my childhood have been obliterated by very wealthy people. hunter Jul 9 #43

NYC. 'nuff said............j/king..... electric_blue68 Jul 9 #44

Thank you very much,electric_blue68 that sounds wounderful debm55 Jul 10 #48

I grew up in the suburbs, sestina Jul 10 #45

Thank you very much, sestina. That sounds so different then my suburbs that I lived in after 8 grade. My had no sidewalk debm55 Jul 10 #47

Working class suburb in a working class town. Emile Jul 10 #50

Thank you Emile, I considered mine a city But it was a small city located next to a Steel Mill.Thank you for sharing. debm55 Jul 10 #56

Rural. I grew up in a very small community on a lake connected to Lake Michigan in northern lower catbyte Jul 10 #53

That sounds like a very nice place to live and grow up. Thank you very much for sharing with us, catbtye. debm55 Jul 10 #57

The road I grew up on was a mix of rural and BlueKota Jul 10 #54

I agree with you BlueKota. Up the hill they are building an extension of the turnpike that would go from Pittsburgh to debm55 Jul 10 #58

I was raised in a small town in Michigan Americanme Jul 10 #55

Thank you very much for sharing with us Americanme. debm55 Jul 10 #59

Small city in Kentucky get the red out Jul 10 #60

Thank you very much , get the red out. Same here ----you had to have a car, no buses, no walking to store. So everyone debm55 Jul 10 #61

Its funny get the red out Jul 10 #65

Thank you, get the red out. debm55 Jul 10 #68

burbs. glendora ca . 25 mi east of la on old route 66. then to sonora ca , late 1984, then to tic toc base in 2005 AllaN01Bear Jul 10 #62

Thank you very much for sharing with us, Bear, You have lived in a lot of places. debm55 Jul 10 #63

Suburbia... city... suburbia Nittersing Jul 10 #64

Thank you very much Nittersing. You have lived in unique places. Thank you for sharing. debm55 Jul 10 #66

"inner city" as they call it Eugene Jul 10 #67

Thank you very much for sharing with us. Eugene. debm55 Jul 10 #69