What’s a place from your childhood that doesn’t exist anymore?

There used to be a water park in my hometown that had a bunch of slides and a wave pool. I used to go there all the time as a kid, and even went there as a senior on a trip. I went to birthday parties there, sometimes.

It closed in 2020 and never reopened because they had apparently been avoiding paying bills for years. It wasn’t just the pandemic. It was visible from the freeway, so I watched it slowly being demolished over the next couple years any time I passed by.

I haven’t found a water park that really compared to it yet. Most are either too small or part of a larger theme park, which is fine. It just seemed like the fact that it exclusively was a water park allowed it to focus more on the atmosphere and types of slides it had.

Yewb,

The Texas from my childhood, most Texans dont give a shit about identity politics, you would think there are a bunch of brown hating cowboys - that was not the case Texas was incredibly tolerant.

mPony,

someone messed with Texas. I do believe there were specific instructions against doing so.

Detry, (edited )
Detry avatar

.

GW_Delenda_Est,
GW_Delenda_Est avatar

I feel the same way about my home state. The hate and bigotry in the area is just heartbreaking. Maybe I was just too young to see it was always there.

BarrierWithAshes,
BarrierWithAshes avatar

You can't step in the same river twice. ~ Heraclitus.

I'm just glad I realized this early as I did. I made sure to cherish each place, knowing full well it would eventually disappear.

bayjird,

You can't even step in the same river once

BarrierWithAshes,
BarrierWithAshes avatar

Heraclitus was a genius.

Doll_Tow_Jet-ski,
Doll_Tow_Jet-ski avatar

Hard part about being an immigrant. I am permanently detached from all the places from my childhood

BladeOfIsildur,

What’s preventing you from going back? It has everything changed in your home country?

Doll_Tow_Jet-ski,
Doll_Tow_Jet-ski avatar

The quality of life for my daughter is way better where I live now. I am doing it for her.

Hanhula,
Hanhula avatar

I feel that. Went back home for a visit last year and so much has changed. It's bizarre, feeling disconnected from where I live and yet like home has moved on without me.

Tigbitties,
Tigbitties avatar

There was a forest we use to play in behind my friends house . It had a few giant trees. They must have been hundreds of years old. One was 3-4 meters in diameter. We used to climb them using the coarse bark up to the branches and see how high we could go. You could see the whole neighborhood. Wonderful memories.

That whole area is filled with Mcmansions now.

irinotecan,

This happened on a much smaller scale to me. My grandparent's home was demolished to make way for a McMansion after they sold it. They were the only people to ever live in that beautiful house.

brownpaperbag, (edited )
brownpaperbag avatar

We had an incredible ravine that got destroyed for a highway that I've driven many times as an adult. It's a rare trip that I don't think back to the beautiful place where I spent countless hours of summer breaks being wild and free.

laivindil,

Same where I grew up, worst part was the developer bought it like two decades ago, sat on it for five ish years (logged a single dirt road), then put in paved roads/utilities and a demo house for another five with empty lots cut, and the last ten or so have built maybe four more. So it's not even utilized, they cut down huge swaths of forest and it's just sat most of the time.

limelight79,

There are some woods in our neighborhood, which aren't owned by anyone in the neighborhood. The risk is obvious. I would like us to buy those woods so we control them, but every time I say it, they start screeching, "I don't want an HOA!" Neither do I, I have two RVs sitting in my driveway. But I would like some limited partnership simply for owning those woods....

mrbubblesort,
mrbubblesort avatar

Toys R Us

argentcorvid,
@argentcorvid@midwest.social avatar

K-B

PupBiru,
PupBiru avatar

the feels i feel from probably another country

(i’m from australia; most people that would post this i assume are US)

TeaHands,
@TeaHands@lemmy.world avatar

We also miss Toys R Us in the UK 😢

Silviecat44,

Isn’t toyworld the same?

skellener,
skellener avatar
ivanafterall,
ivanafterall avatar

Spoiler: it doesn't appear there were any actual puppies involved. I can see why it closed, false promises and all.

midi_sentinel,

USSR
East Germany
Yugoslavia
Czechoslovakia
Amiga (oh, I hate Commodore eternally...)
Rotary phones
Incandescent light bulbs

I could do this all day ;)

edit: yeah, these are not things that were just "around the corner", but it is amazing how much world changes actually and we are so used to it

Turkey_Titty_city,

being able to go out alone in the woods at the age of 8-12 or just go down to your friends house. or have any unsupervised time alone time.

yunggwailo,
yunggwailo avatar

you cant do that anymore?

Turkey_Titty_city,

nope. police will be called for child abuse and neglect.

yunggwailo,
yunggwailo avatar

sure they would

ScrumblesPAbernathy,
Jarmer,
Jarmer avatar

Two big ones for me:
1- a local arcade. Spent so many summer days there with friends. TMNT, Street fighter, Mortal Kombat, etc etc etc.
2- laser quest! Lots of birthday parties there.

taurentipper,

Arcades were the promised land

HeartyBeast,
HeartyBeast avatar

Obligatory Grosse Point Blank

Kevin-McCartney595,

And his friend brokered the deal, such a good film.

TheSaneWriter,
@TheSaneWriter@lemmy.thesanewriter.com avatar

There was an Arby’s near my home where I would get Jamocha shakes as a treat either as a reward or after special events. One day it was closed and soon after it became a pile of gravel, and now there stands a parking garage.

Rainbows,

Those wooden playgrounds. There was one I went to all the time as a kid. It was so much fun and had all kinds of rooms and nooks and crannies to play in. It got replaced with a generic plastic playground at some point, I think for safety reasons.

ivanvector,
ivanvector avatar

You perfectly described a water park in my home town, although mine closed down in the 1990s. It had a "silver bullet" slide, a bunch of conventional slides and a tube slide, a lazy river, a wave pool, a pretty decent arcade and a go-kart track, and probably a bunch of other stuff I don't remember from spending big chunks of my childhood summers there. Birthday parties and school trips, too.

After it closed down, some of the slides were moved to a golf course across town that wanted to expand, but it wasn't as good and it was way too far to go by bus. The original park is the loading dock for a Home Depot now.

ConstantMown,

Fantasy Glades, Port Macquarie, NSW

A child-size theme park owned, built and operated by a family of Little People. The site is still there with several new owners and attempts to redevelop it over the years.

BrerChicken,

I grew up in the middle of Miami, with developed streets and houses in every directions for at least 5 or 6 miles. But I lived in the corner of this dead end that ended at a path There was this huge area of woods like two or three city blocks worth, about 10 feet lower than the rest of the neighbor. There was a steep path down, by far the only stretch of mountain bike - worthy riding anywhere around, and all kinds of trails and huge boulders to climb. It wasn't wilderness--I think it was a coral rock quarry, and all of the trees were an invasive species that meant the original pines had been taken down. But it was just a beautiful place, and all the neighborhood kids hung out there for hours and hours. We could cut through there to get to school, and there was also a big covered basketball court. We could literally play basketball rain or shine, in this huge pavilion. The soccer fields were there so we could cut through those words for our games. There was a pool, too.

Hurricane Andrew came through when I was 14 and destroyed that forest, since those invasive trees couldn't handle the winds. The court and pool made it longer, but it's all gone now. Oddly enough, especially for Miami, it became a park and soccer fields, instead of more houses. My kids and my brothers' kids all still go there to play when they're visiting my parents, but that beautiful magical place from my elementary school years, where I could be wild and free in the middle of the city, is so gone.

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