# Where did you grow up? - in Pictures



## Geoffrey (Jun 20, 2009)

The where are we from thread got me thinking .... in addition to where are you from, what did it look like there? I lived in 4 different towns before I was 18, but Coloma Michigan is the place I think of as my home town ...













































All of which makes me wonder why I moved to Texas in the first place. So, a little reminder to myself:


----------



## anne_holly (Jun 5, 2011)

I lived in a couple places, but the most formative years were spent around in this region:










(Specific location hidden to protect the innocent.)

***

Also, off topic, but this person's photos are pretty neat:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/skood/


----------



## Mike D. aka jmiked (Oct 28, 2008)

Army brat. There aren’t enough pictures.   


Mike


----------



## Sandpiper (Oct 28, 2008)

Here


----------



## NogDog (May 1, 2009)

Though I was born in Elmhurst IL, a suburb of Chicago, we moved to Napoleon OH when I was 8, and I think of it as my home town. While browsing Google images for Napoleon, I was pleasantly surprised to see this one, which is the house we lived in from midway through 4th grade until after college, when we moved to NJ. (The siding was all white when we lived there.)



It was a town of 8000 people: the largest in the county. By far its largest employer was the Campbell's Soup plant, which is probably where your soup (and V comes from if you're in the eastern half of the country. If you head down the road to the right along the river in this photo for maybe a mile and a half or so, you'll end up in front of the house, above.



Probably the most famous building in town, at least architecturally, is the courthouse:



Quiz: From what nationality were the vast majority of of the population of *Napoleon* OH descended?

.

.

.

*_Buzzzzzzzzzz_*

Wrong: German!


----------



## spotsmom (Jan 20, 2011)

Anne, that is a beautiful picture.  I've been wanting to see a photo of "that place" for years.  Thanks for posting!


----------



## anne_holly (Jun 5, 2011)

spotsmom said:


> Anne, that is a beautiful picture. I've been wanting to see a photo of "that place" for years. Thanks for posting!


Check out the rest of that guy's album! I covet his/her photos.


----------



## R. M. Reed (Nov 11, 2009)

Oak Park, Illinois. Birthplace of Ernest Hemingway (who said it was a town of "Broad lawns and narrow minds.") and Ray Kroc (who made McDonald's what it is) and home to Frank Lloyd Wright and a large selection of his houses. It's a nice town, and I spent my youth wanting to leave it. The high school had, and probably still has, a great theater department and I appeared in several plays, usually as a chorus member. I will soon visit it for possibly the last time, for the memorial for my mother. After that I will have no more connection to it, except in memories. The memories aren't always good, I had a miserable three years from sixth the eighth grade with a group of bullies dedicated to my psychological torture. If you work in Chicago and need to be able to get on the El and commute without a car, Oak Park is a good location.

http://www.oak-park.us/


----------



## Geoffrey (Jun 20, 2009)

NogDog said:


> Though I was born in Elmhurst IL, a suburb of Chicago, we moved to Napoleon OH when I was 8, and I think of it as my home town.


I had forgotten that you grew up in my family's neck of the woods. My father grew up just South of Napoleon in the tiny village of Holgate and I'm related to all the Snyders, Rettigs and Eis (Eises?) in the area .... as well as much of the rest of those pesky Germans.


----------



## NapCat (retired) (Jan 17, 2011)

Long Island, New York










...in the '40s and '50s "Suburbia' was a new concept, so Long Island was still unspoiled with lots of farmland and lovely beaches. Montauk Point Lighthouse symbolizes the island. George Washington authorized its construction in 1792.

One of my very first memories is seeing this beautiful structure beginning a life-long love affair.....hence the name of my desert oasis....*The Lighthouse Ranch*.


----------



## anne_holly (Jun 5, 2011)

NapCat said:


> Long Island, New York
> 
> 
> 
> ...


That's lovely. I adore lighthouses.


----------



## Dawn McCullough White (Feb 24, 2010)

These are a few views of the area I'm from:


----------



## NapCat (retired) (Jan 17, 2011)

Dawn McCullough White said:


>


Beautiful !


----------



## Shellybean (Apr 22, 2009)

A little town about an hour south of Topeka, Kansas and I miss it terribly. I keep praying Dh's company will transfer us back since they just got the maintenance contract at the nuclear plant outside of town (he is a welding engineer). It was his company that sent us away.

The view from my paternal grandma's front window. I took this picture as a storm was coming in on the very last day I say my grandpa alive right before I moved awayi in September 2008. When I was a kid there was a wind row of Osage Orange (hedge/horse apple) trees along the fence line. When I was 3 my daddy and I ended up in that ditch in a snow bank. Probably my earliest memory.










My Daddy just in from the field at his house. Even at the 40 side of 30 you aren't too old to be a Daddy's girl.

I can't count the times we played around that tree and I'll never forget when my dad killed the huge lilac bush that use to be beside it. My step mom nearly killed him. lol

The small tractor on the other side of the white truck is as old as me and even though he didn't buy it new I can't remember a time without it.










Leaving town heading south with another storm coming in from the west.

















I really miss that place. Nothing feels like home quite like the prairie. Thankfully the next stop for us is Central Kentucky. Horse Country and prairie. A lot more hills but still prairie.


----------



## Colin Taber (Apr 4, 2011)

Some great pictures there!

...and some very frosty ones!


----------



## anne_holly (Jun 5, 2011)

Colin Taber said:


> Some great pictures there!
> 
> ...and some very frosty ones!


Love those frosty ones in this heat wave.


----------



## Sandpiper (Oct 28, 2008)

NogDog said:


> Though I was born in Elmhurst IL, a suburb of Chicago, . . . .


*NogDog*, ELMHURST! House photo I posted above is in Villa Park, so just a very few miles from where you were in Elmhurst. I'm currently across the street from Villa Park in Lombard. My first three years were in Chicago. After that Villa Park, then for the past 31 in Lombard.


----------



## Geoffrey (Jun 20, 2009)

Sandpiper said:


> *NogDog*, ELMHURST! House photo I posted above is in Villa Park, so just a very few miles from where you were in Elmhurst. I'm currently across the street from Villa Park in Lombard. My first three years were in Chicago. After that Villa Park, then for the past 31 in Lombard.


I think Nog has been pre-stalking us ....


----------



## NogDog (May 1, 2009)

Sandpiper said:


> *NogDog*, ELMHURST! House photo I posted above is in Villa Park, so just a very few miles from where you were in Elmhurst. I'm currently across the street from Villa Park in Lombard. My first three years were in Chicago. After that Villa Park, then for the past 31 in Lombard.


Does Lombard still have the Lilac Festival, and are all the fire engines still Lilac purple?


----------



## Sandpiper (Oct 28, 2008)

NogDog said:


> Does Lombard still have the Lilac Festival, and are all the fire engines still Lilac purple?


Yes, there is still an annual Lilac Festival with Lilac queen and her court and Lilacia Park. Purple fire engines? No, I don't think so. I don't ever remember purple fire engines.


----------



## NogDog (May 1, 2009)

Sandpiper said:


> Yes, there is still an annual Lilac Festival with Lilac queen and her court and Lilacia Park. Purple fire engines? No, I don't think so. I don't ever remember purple fire engines.


Well, it _was_ back in the early 60's, so some things probably have changed. I think the fire hydrants were all purple, too.


----------



## swolf (Jun 21, 2010)

Grew up in the town of Bridgeville, PA: (To get the full effect, click on the photo and set your browser to full screen, then scroll from side to side.)



In the center of the photo, in the distance, you can see the tops of the buildings in downtown Pittsburgh.


----------



## Sandpiper (Oct 28, 2008)

NogDog said:


> Well, it _was_ back in the early 60's, so some things probably have changed. I think the fire hydrants were all purple, too.


I lived in Villa Park then . . . on the other side of the line.


----------



## NogDog (May 1, 2009)

Sandpiper said:


> I lived in Villa Park then . . . on the other side of the line.


I'm actually going to be back in that area next weekend, staying with my brother and his family in the city, and heading out to Bollingbrook on Saturday for a little family reunion sort of thing (a delayed memorial for my mother).


----------



## rho (Feb 12, 2009)

NapCat were you near Montauk? 

I can't figure out how to do pictures but I grew up about a 1/4 mile from Jackson Pollacks house so if you saw the movie you saw where I grew up  .


----------



## NapCat (retired) (Jan 17, 2011)

rho said:


> NapCat were you near Montauk?


I did not live near Montauk, but visited often..


----------



## Dawn McCullough White (Feb 24, 2010)

NapCat said:


> Beautiful !


It is a nice pic isn't it? Admittedly I borrowed it from some online site or another. It's Sodus Point NY. I grew up near there.

Dawn


----------



## mlewis78 (Apr 19, 2009)

This was our house in Long Branch, NJ in 2000. It has since been sold and renovated.


----------



## mlewis78 (Apr 19, 2009)

This was taken in Long Branch, NJ by someone who posted in an online photo sharing website:


----------



## Sandpiper (Oct 28, 2008)

R. Reed said:


> If you work in Chicago and need to be able to get on the El and commute without a car, Oak Park is a good location.
> 
> http://www.oak-park.us/


You've got a choice for commuting of both the CTA / el and the UP, formerly good ol' CN&W.


----------



## Susan in VA (Apr 3, 2009)

Finding this thread just made me look on GoogleMaps for street-view pictures of the places we lived.  None of them look particularly exciting, but some have changed enormously.  Does anyone know of a way to capture a street-level image from Google Maps and save it?  I'd love to show some of the changes to my parents.


----------



## kindlequeen (Sep 3, 2010)

Susan, I use Light Shot to do screen captures of maps and aerial photos for work.  It's a fantastic and easy to use free program!  =0)


----------



## kindlequeen (Sep 3, 2010)

My hometown, San Bruno, California is known for two things.... the Golden Gate National Cemetery and a tragic PG&E explosion. It broke my heart. The cemetery is quite a beautiful sight. We're also neighbors to Colma where they have more residents underground than above. This is because San Francisco didn't allow cemeteries inside the city.... Joe Dimaggio rests in Colma, not far from the clown cemetery.


























If you've ever flown into San Francisco International, you've technically landed in my hometown - hope you didn't miss it!


----------



## NogDog (May 1, 2009)

Susan in VA said:


> Finding this thread just made me look on GoogleMaps for street-view pictures of the places we lived. None of them look particularly exciting, but some have changed enormously. Does anyone know of a way to capture a street-level image from Google Maps and save it? I'd love to show some of the changes to my parents.


I use the Screengrab add-on with FireFox. Alternatively, you can usually do something with the Print Screen key (PrScr or whatever it is on your keyboard) to save the current screen or window to the clipboard, e.g.: Alt-PrScr or Alt-Fn-PrScr or Alt-Shift-PrScr, depending on your 'puter. Then you can paste it into Paint or GIMP or any other image program.


----------



## Susan in VA (Apr 3, 2009)

NogDog said:


> I use the Screengrab add-on with FireFox. Alternatively, you can usually do something with the Print Screen key (PrScr or whatever it is on your keyboard) to save the current screen or window to the clipboard, e.g.: Alt-PrScr or Alt-Fn-PrScr or Alt-Shift-PrScr, depending on your 'puter. Then you can paste it into Paint or GIMP or any other image program.


Ah yes, I had forgotten about the PrintScreen detour. I'll try that. And I'll check out Screengrab and Light Shot too. Thanks, NogDog and kindlequeen!


----------



## PatrickWalts (Jul 22, 2011)

Geoffrey said:


> The where are we from thread got me thinking .... in addition to where are you from, what did it look like there? I lived in 4 different towns before I was 18, but Coloma Michigan is the place I think of as my home town ...


I grew up in Oscoda, MI, at least until age 7. Found pics online of what my house looks like now:
















Ahh, good ol' Lake Huron...


----------



## rayhensley (Apr 16, 2011)

Hawaii.










It's alright.


----------



## JFHilborne (Jan 22, 2011)

How do you post pictures? My image link won't post


----------



## Dawn McCullough White (Feb 24, 2010)

rayhensley said:


> Hawaii.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Envy.

Dawn


----------



## JFHilborne (Jan 22, 2011)

IMG_4950 by Jen 498, on Flickr

This is my hometown in England in the middle of winter


----------

