Has where you grew up changed a lot?

[Another Fan]

For me Woodbridge, NJ.  It still a solid middle class town with not too high crime rates.

 

However, the demographics where I grew up changed like a lot.  There’s really only one family I still know in my part of town since the 90s.

 

As a product of Catholic schools for some years most of the Catholic schools shut down due to lack of enrollment.  
 

There was a mini strip mall a few blocks from where I used to live but just about all those stores are gone.  Had some good memories growing up of the bagel shop there and Easy Video aka Sleazy Video.

 

 

In recent years though “luxury apartments” have really skyrocketed.  They are built all across town.

 

So yeah I mean it is what it is but I don’t get childhood nostalgia from visiting.  

[Augie]

You might need to be more specific, I lived in 9 houses (technically 8 but one of them twice) before leaving for college at 17. Mostly in Williamsville, but one in OP and a couple in Hamburg. My parents were in real estate. I’m at the airport now and will be in Williamsville tonight. Even though I only get back sporadically, it doesn’t feel like much has changed. I can get turned around at times, and things aren’t always the way I remember them, but it doesn’t seem to have changed much. 

 

However, some of the places I have lived since leaving WNY are almost unrecognizable a few years after leaving.  I spent my first 17 years in WNY, but then spent 30 years living in resort communities that exploded. I guess it depends a lot on where you live, and if people are trying to get in or out. 

[BuffaloBud]

 

I'm hoping to be in WNY the first weekend in October.  I haven't been back since my grandfather passed away - 10yrs? ago.  It will be interesting to see what everything looks like.

Edited September 5 by BuffaloBud
Added comment

[Another Fan]

34 minutes ago, Augie said:

You might need to be more specific, I lived in 9 houses (technically 8 but one of them twice) before leaving for college at 17. Mostly in Williamsville, but one in OP and a couple in Hamburg. My parents were in real estate. I’m at the airport now and will be in Williamsville tonight. Even though I only get back sporadically, it doesn’t feel like much has changed. I can get turned around at times, and things aren’t always the way I remember them, but it doesn’t seem to have changed much. 

 

However, some of the places I have lived since leaving WNY are almost unrecognizable a few years after leaving.  I spent my first 17 years in WNY, but then spent 30 years living in resort communities that exploded. I guess it depends a lot on where you live, and if people are trying to get in or out. 

I only lived in two homes in my life so there is that.

 

But yeah it sounds per what you write Williamsville hasn’t changed much over the years 

[coloradobillsfan]

There's hardly any undeveloped land left anywhere in my part of West Seneca.  It's kind of depressing to look at the google satellite maps of the area.  We used to have minibike trails, and forests so thick we could have bonfires without anyone knowing.  Now it's all housing developments.  Historically they called this part of town "Back of the Moon".  It's certainly anything but now. 

[boater]

My neighborhood on the West Side of Buffalo near Soldiers Circle has gentrified. It is the same.. but just more expensive.

 

Maybe that's an understatement. The house my Dad bought for $17K in 1962 just sold for $595K. I can't afford to live where I grew up. It's a bummer.

 

Even the duplexes on the next block are expensive. They are all in the $475 range... for a duplex, most with only street parking. What a rip off.

 

I know $595K is the going rate for many people on this board, but for Buffalo, that is really high.

[Mike in Horseheads]

Elmira was a vibrant downtown in 1972 then TS Agnes hit and whipped it out .  It was never the same.

[ExiledInIllinois]

1 hour ago, boater said:

I know $595K is the going rate for many people on this board, but for Buffalo, that is really high.

For any part of the country that's way too high. Way to rich for my blood.

 

My parents bought their house (I grew up in) for $16k in 1966. The area houses go for about $200k.  I guess it depends on the area in the Buffalo area.

[Saxum]

Grew up in Steelton Neighborhood  in  Blasdell, NY on 20A west of stadium.  Neighborhood is the same but the area in back of it which I used to dig fossils and fish is now Penn Dixie Fossil Park & Nature Reserve and charges $17.   I collected troilite fossils I gave to team from Buffalo History Museum which they traded for some other pieces for Museum.  The pond  I pulled my brother out of when ice broke there is dried up and gone.

[Ridgewaycynic2013]

Ridgeway / Crystal Beach / Fort Erie has really built up in just the last ten years.

[Sweats]

Most of my old neighborhood got turned into a parking lot.......hey, they paved paradise and put up a parking lot (but my old neighborhood was far, far from paradise).........true story right there.

[ExiledInIllinois]

44 minutes ago, Sweats said:

Most of my old neighborhood got turned into a parking lot.......hey, they paved paradise and put up a parking lot (but my old neighborhood was far, far from paradise).........true story right there.

Kinda like this?

 

[Sweats]

We used to hear gun shots all night and wake up in the morning and find shell casings all over the road on our way to school......husbands would be out in the middle of the street smacking their wives and girlfriends around (nobody did nothing or even attempted to step in).......cops were called out to the old neighborhood every 20 minutes (sometimes they showed up and sometimes not)........street brawls were the order of the day.

The KKK opened a chapter across the street......until some of the neighborhood hoodlums drove them out of town, tied-up and dragging them behind an old Dodge Duster.

 

When i was a kid growing up in the middle of all this, it was normal and just the way it was.......it wasn't until i grew up that i realized that the whole thing was just wrong and a terrible environment for a kid to ever be raised in.

 

Looking back now, it was some wild, wild stuff, man.

[ExiledInIllinois]

Yeah, I hear you... Like swimming nekkid in Jr.High swim class.  Some things just don't pass the eye test today. LoL...

 

cc: @Gugny @BringBackFergy @Mike in Horseheads

 

6 minutes ago, Sweats said:

When i was a kid growing up in the middle of all this, it was normal and just the way it was.......it wasn't until i grew up that i realized that the whole thing was just wrong and a terrible environment for a kid to ever be raised in.

 

Looking back now, it was some wild, wild stuff, man.

[Gugny]

I grew up in Queensbury, NY in the 70s and 80s. 
 

Back then, it was full of rich, snobby ass.holes and - even worse - wannabe rich snobby ass.holes. 
 

Fast forward to 2024 … still here … still full of rich, snobby ass.holes and wannabe rich snobby ass.holes. 
 

[Draconator]

Marilla's one bar, the Marilla Grille, was torn down just a couple of months ago. End of an era for many of my high school friends. (I had my first beer there when I was like 14). 

Edited September 6 by Draconator

[Saxum]

39 minutes ago, Sweats said:

We used to hear gun shots all night and wake up in the morning and find shell casings all over the road on our way to school......husbands would be out in the middle of the street smacking their wives and girlfriends around (nobody did nothing or even attempted to step in).......cops were called out to the old neighborhood every 20 minutes (sometimes they showed up and sometimes not)........street brawls were the order of the day.

The KKK opened a chapter across the street......until some of the neighborhood hoodlums drove them out of town, tied-up and dragging them behind an old Dodge Duster.

 

When i was a kid growing up in the middle of all this, it was normal and just the way it was.......it wasn't until i grew up that i realized that the whole thing was just wrong and a terrible environment for a kid to ever be raised in.

 

Looking back now, it was some wild, wild stuff, man.

 

I am glad the hoodlums were part of the neighborhood cleanup brigade.

[Ned Flanders]

Rochester was a great place to grow up in the 1960s and 70s.  I grew up in the Irish/Italian enclave of Charlotte...didn't know anyone who wasn't Catholic until high school.  While the economy is still pretty good, thanks to the adjustments after Kodak, Xerox, B&L, et. al. manufacturing pretty much dried up, crime is now the number one issue.  It's a shame what a once great city has become.  Further discussion on this is probably best left to the politics board. 

[Sweats]

46 minutes ago, Punching Bag said:

 

I am glad the hoodlums were part of the neighborhood cleanup brigade.

 

 

 

The "hoodlums" were actually the Henchmen motorcycle club, who were taken over by the Satan's Choice, who were eventually taken over by the Hells Angels, so we had a lot of action going on in that neighborhood, i can tell you and ain't nobody wanted to mess with another man's business.

 

.........seeing KKK members being tied up, chained and dragged behind an old Dodge Duster is something i will not soon forget, nor should it have been something a 5 year old kid should ever witness.

[Saxum]

10 minutes ago, Sweats said:

 

 

 

The "hoodlums" were actually the Henchmen motorcycle club, who were taken over by the Satan's Choice, who were eventually taken over by the Hells Angels, so we had a lot of action going on in that neighborhood, i can tell you and ain't nobody wanted to mess with another man's business.

 

.........seeing KKK members being tied up, chained and dragged behind an old Dodge Duster is something i will not soon forget, nor should it have been something a 5 year old kid should ever witness.

 

Thanks for information.  I am assuming this is California where motorcycles are very big.  First time I drove there I was shocked to seeing caravan of bikes driving down middle of road between lanes of traffic.