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I can empathize with the author after moving away from Toronto almost 20 years ago, so much from when I was a teenager is gone. I'm not "from" where I live now,

I can empathize with the author after moving away from Toronto almost 20 years ago, so much from when I was a teenager is gone. I'm not "from" where I live now, and where I'm "from" no longer exists, I just feel perpetually detached from everywhere now.

thenewwazoo 3y ago
You can’t go home again.
- netsharc 3y ago
  Grosse Pointe Blank reference? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=50G3ScEKP6Y https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=50G3ScEKP6Y Ironically his former home got turned to a, well not a mall, but a convenience store.
  - mikestew 3y ago
    Grosse Point Blank is making a reference to Thomas Wolfe: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/You_Can't_Go_Home_Again https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/You_Can't_Go_Home_Again
- workingdog 3y ago
  On those who step into the same rivers, different and different waters flow - Heraclitus ~5th century BC https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heraclitus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heraclitus
whartung 3y ago
One of the reasons I like to watch "Colombo" is that it was essentially filmed in Los Angeles and around Southern California. It's an ad hoc capture of the southland in the early 70s. I like to reference IMDB to try to see if the landmarks in the show still exist. Some do, some don't. The criminals used to live in some very nice houses up in Bel Air. A recent example had Colombo at a winery. Well, the Pomona and Cucamonga Valley is where many of the wineries were back in the day. But, that's been transitioning away from that area for some time. The Ontario Airport exists where that winery was in the show. But there's still vestiges of all that in the area, and the area is still in rapid change. What used to be dairy farms are all turning into warehouses or new residences. Yet, there's still that same old local convenience store on the corner in its 70+ year old building just down the street. It's a very interesting place to just watch the change happen around you.
netsharc 3y ago
Apparently people who grew up in East Germany have this but worse. Their "home culture" (TV shows, snacks made by the state snack factories) got "demolished" when East Germany got absorbed into Germany...
- ephesee 3y ago
  This is one of the many aspects of the so-called "Ostalgie": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ostalgie https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ostalgie
- kstenerud 3y ago
  I had trouble getting an apartment in Leipzig a few years ago, because so many of the (older) landlords didn't want "Wessies" in the house who would just leave in a couple of years rather than staying and joining the house community.
- anal_reactor 3y ago
  I happened to grow up during the age of my country's rapid development, both financially and culturally. I was too young to truly experience "the old times", but I got a lick of them and now I feel this weird nostalgia towards the entire esthetic. Things will just never be the same, modern world is completely different.
mattpallissard 3y ago
I've tried explaining this feeling to people so many times. Unmoored is a good word. We now live in a place where the locals are warm and welcoming, but I'll never be one of them. My kids are, but I'm just a little different. When I go back to where I was raised, I'm no longer a local there either, just a little bit different. It's more than the place itself changing. It's as if there is some continuity that's been broken somewhere. It's not bad, just odd. I can't quite put my finger on it.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- ElFitz 3y ago
  As a kid we never lived in a country more than a few years. Now, everywhere feels a bit off. And I feel a bit off everywhere. Which, you are right, isn’t bad. Just odd. Unmoored is adequate.
  - em-bee 3y ago
    interesting. i moved around as a kid a lot too, and later as an adult as well. but i have the totally opposite reaction. as a kid i didn't have any friends because of the frequent moving. but i love exploring, and now i feel at home everywhere i go. every place creates new memories, and i make new friends. especially going back to any place a second time always feels like coming home to me. whereas getting to a new place fills me with a sense of adventure. moving to a new city or country is like exploring a new neighborhood in my hometown. i guess the key point is that i feel as connected to the place where i am now as to the places where i grew up. effectively, the whole planet is my home.
    - ElFitz 3y ago
      I get the "the whole planet is my home". It’s just that to me there’s no reciprocity. It’s a one-way thing. And no matter where I am, I know I’m just passing through.
      - 3y ago
jfil 3y ago
When I first moved out on my own, I went to live in a very hip neighbourhood in Toronto - West Queen West. It was gentrifying, and had a lot of artsy spots, cafes, hole-in-the-wall nightclubs. It was an amazing time living there. A little bit of grit, a little bit of hip. Electro music. Coffee culture. But, looking back, I was the gentrifier. I've seen what it was a few years before moving in there: prostitutes on the street at night. Mobile soup kitchen feeding them, and a group of eccentric locals who included a man without legs in a wheelchair. Folks who got pushed out of other parts of the city - finding a home and a place to just _be_ What I'm trying to say is that: your "from" and your nostalgia was somebody else's "to". Somebody else lost what was there, and then you came. And then you left and something else came. The city builds up layers. And there is a longing and a nostalgia and a wrenching... but those feelings are part of what's always been there even before you. Now that you feel those feelings, you've joined in another part of the cycle.
- lioeters 3y ago
  > your "from" .. was somebody else's "to" That's beautifully put. Every city I've lived in, there were stories of the good old days. "You should have seen this place ten years ago." As I grew older and lived in more places, I would hear stories about a city where I was "from". How it's changed now with all the new people moving in, how it used to be in the glory days. And I was there, living those glory days that they're reminiscing about, a place in the past that no longer exists. As I'm getting ready to move from yet another city, I reflect on how it's changed. She's no longer the city I used to know - and I'm no longer the person I was when I moved here. It's time to go find my next "to". Others will move in and make where I'm "from" theirs. I loved your story and the pictures. The rebirth was satisfying to see, how the merchants were able to find a new home for their village.
- brianjacobss 3y ago
  Yeah, it's this constant cycle of change, where what's new and exciting for one person might be tinged with loss for someone else. And yeah, that feeling of nostalgia and longing, it's like this shared thread that ties us all together in the cityscape. We're all part of this ongoing story, adding our own chapter and feeling the echoes of those who came before us.

thenewwazoo 3y ago

You can’t go home again.

netsharc 3y ago
Grosse Pointe Blank reference? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=50G3ScEKP6Y https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=50G3ScEKP6Y Ironically his former home got turned to a, well not a mall, but a convenience store.
- mikestew 3y ago
  Grosse Point Blank is making a reference to Thomas Wolfe: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/You_Can't_Go_Home_Again https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/You_Can't_Go_Home_Again
workingdog 3y ago
On those who step into the same rivers, different and different waters flow - Heraclitus ~5th century BC https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heraclitus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heraclitus

whartung 3y ago

One of the reasons I like to watch "Colombo" is that it was essentially filmed in Los Angeles and around Southern California. It's an ad hoc capture of the southland in the early 70s. I like to reference IMDB to try to see if the landmarks in the show still exist. Some do, some don't. The criminals used to live in some very nice houses up in Bel Air. A recent example had Colombo at a winery. Well, the Pomona and Cucamonga Valley is where many of the wineries were back in the day. But, that's been transitioning away from that area for some time. The Ontario Airport exists where that winery was in the show. But there's still vestiges of all that in the area, and the area is still in rapid change. What used to be dairy farms are all turning into warehouses or new residences. Yet, there's still that same old local convenience store on the corner in its 70+ year old building just down the street. It's a very interesting place to just watch the change happen around you.

netsharc 3y ago

Apparently people who grew up in East Germany have this but worse. Their "home culture" (TV shows, snacks made by the state snack factories) got "demolished" when East Germany got absorbed into Germany...

ephesee 3y ago
This is one of the many aspects of the so-called "Ostalgie": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ostalgie https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ostalgie
kstenerud 3y ago
I had trouble getting an apartment in Leipzig a few years ago, because so many of the (older) landlords didn't want "Wessies" in the house who would just leave in a couple of years rather than staying and joining the house community.
anal_reactor 3y ago
I happened to grow up during the age of my country's rapid development, both financially and culturally. I was too young to truly experience "the old times", but I got a lick of them and now I feel this weird nostalgia towards the entire esthetic. Things will just never be the same, modern world is completely different.

mattpallissard 3y ago

I've tried explaining this feeling to people so many times. Unmoored is a good word. We now live in a place where the locals are warm and welcoming, but I'll never be one of them. My kids are, but I'm just a little different. When I go back to where I was raised, I'm no longer a local there either, just a little bit different. It's more than the place itself changing. It's as if there is some continuity that's been broken somewhere. It's not bad, just odd. I can't quite put my finger on it.

deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
ElFitz 3y ago
As a kid we never lived in a country more than a few years. Now, everywhere feels a bit off. And I feel a bit off everywhere. Which, you are right, isn’t bad. Just odd. Unmoored is adequate.
- em-bee 3y ago
  interesting. i moved around as a kid a lot too, and later as an adult as well. but i have the totally opposite reaction. as a kid i didn't have any friends because of the frequent moving. but i love exploring, and now i feel at home everywhere i go. every place creates new memories, and i make new friends. especially going back to any place a second time always feels like coming home to me. whereas getting to a new place fills me with a sense of adventure. moving to a new city or country is like exploring a new neighborhood in my hometown. i guess the key point is that i feel as connected to the place where i am now as to the places where i grew up. effectively, the whole planet is my home.
  - ElFitz 3y ago
    I get the "the whole planet is my home". It’s just that to me there’s no reciprocity. It’s a one-way thing. And no matter where I am, I know I’m just passing through.
    - 3y ago

jfil 3y ago

When I first moved out on my own, I went to live in a very hip neighbourhood in Toronto - West Queen West. It was gentrifying, and had a lot of artsy spots, cafes, hole-in-the-wall nightclubs. It was an amazing time living there. A little bit of grit, a little bit of hip. Electro music. Coffee culture. But, looking back, I was the gentrifier. I've seen what it was a few years before moving in there: prostitutes on the street at night. Mobile soup kitchen feeding them, and a group of eccentric locals who included a man without legs in a wheelchair. Folks who got pushed out of other parts of the city - finding a home and a place to just _be_ What I'm trying to say is that: your "from" and your nostalgia was somebody else's "to". Somebody else lost what was there, and then you came. And then you left and something else came. The city builds up layers. And there is a longing and a nostalgia and a wrenching... but those feelings are part of what's always been there even before you. Now that you feel those feelings, you've joined in another part of the cycle.

lioeters 3y ago
> your "from" .. was somebody else's "to" That's beautifully put. Every city I've lived in, there were stories of the good old days. "You should have seen this place ten years ago." As I grew older and lived in more places, I would hear stories about a city where I was "from". How it's changed now with all the new people moving in, how it used to be in the glory days. And I was there, living those glory days that they're reminiscing about, a place in the past that no longer exists. As I'm getting ready to move from yet another city, I reflect on how it's changed. She's no longer the city I used to know - and I'm no longer the person I was when I moved here. It's time to go find my next "to". Others will move in and make where I'm "from" theirs. I loved your story and the pictures. The rebirth was satisfying to see, how the merchants were able to find a new home for their village.
brianjacobss 3y ago
Yeah, it's this constant cycle of change, where what's new and exciting for one person might be tinged with loss for someone else. And yeah, that feeling of nostalgia and longing, it's like this shared thread that ties us all together in the cityscape. We're all part of this ongoing story, adding our own chapter and feeling the echoes of those who came before us.