Missing Home

I loved the house I grew up in. Our family moved in when I was 5 years old, so all of my school years were spent there. Although I did go away to college, and a couple of apartments of my own, I pretty much lived in the 'Meridian house' until I was married. My folks stayed there until the late '80s when the upkeep got to be too much for my Dad. It broke my heart when they sold it. It was an interesting house- there was no front yard to speak of. It was built on a hillside, so the small backyard was terraced. That meant that I didn't have a yard to run and play in. BUT I had something else even better! Not 25 feet from our property line was the gate that led to the high school stadium. A huge football field to play in! A full-sized track for running and jumping! An enormous grandstand to climb! Tennis Courts! Long-jumping pits! But I digress...
Not long ago I found some negatives from about the time we moved into the house in 1956. It's probably the only one I have of the entire front of the house. Amazing how we take so many pictures but fail to take some of the most important ones! Since it was a teeny tiny negative, and so old & scratched, the quality wasn't the best. But I scanned it & used it here as my background. (with a few filters). I found some old photos of me taken in front of the house in various places, and just added them to the general area where they were taken.

I've been back to see our old house many times, but unfortunately the new owner removed the pretty white railings on the balcony, and added those 'lovely' decorative iron bars on the french doors. It has been painted a boring gray instead of the two-tone green I knew and loved. And they took out all the trees in the front. It's just not home anymore!