I Remember When I Used To Be Into Nostalgia.

Yesterday my mom and I decided to make a trek to Livermore. It has been a good five or six years since I have been back there. I had expected it to be so much more developed and different than I remember it to be. Much to my surprise, it hasn't really changed all that much. In fact, most of the places that are still in my memory are still there.

Sure some things have changed, there is some more development, but not around where I was. Mostly up in the hills. Also, the pool I used to train at as a young kid, is no longer open. I think the pool is still there, but the laboratories that were across the street from it (that my mom used to work at) bought out all the land (probably after september 11th, since it's a weapons manufacturer and a government facility). Now you can't even drive in front of the lab. I didn't get a chance to see that old pool. So many memories, like swimming during a quick hail storm or stepping on a bee.

Also, there seems, at least to me, to be many more wineries than there were when I was a kid. We drove down to my old school, Stiver's Academy (I'm not really a hundred on the spelling, but that's what it sounds like in my head) and I remember that when I was a kid we used to either take the city way to school or the horse and sheep way. The city way, while faster, didn't have the scenic views that the horse and sheep way had. The horse and sheep way had horse and sheep, and me and my mom would count how many we saw, I would take horses and my mom would take sheep. Whoever counted more of their animal would win for the day. I know it sounds stupid, but then again I would like seven. Well anyway, the point is, when we were driving the horse and sheep way to my old school, it was covered in vineyards and there weren't many horses or sheep to count. I think it might just be that all the vineyards sold their land to housing developments and then moved back into the hills.

We drove by my old house. It looked awful. They pained it some weird tan color, took out most of the trees, leaving one, there was no grass to speak of, and all of my mom's rose bushes were gone. It was a sight for sore eyes. My mom was very upset by the lack of grass, she had spent a lot of time and money getting a good looking lawn for our front yard, only to see that they tore it out. Now their front yard is nothing but dirt.

And sure not everything has changed. I was surprised by some of the things that were still there. Like The Vine, the theater we used to go to all the time (It was like one of two theaters we used to go to). Last I had heard, they were going to tear it down. So I was shocked when we drove by it, still standing, and still playing two movies, like it always had. And the place we used to get pool supplies, still there with the slide on the roof. Granada Bowl, where I'm pretty sure I learned how to bowl, still standing.

It's funny the things you don't realize you remember until you remember them. Driving through town brought so many memories back. The old mini golf place, with the blue windmill and the pink castle. The park we used to walk to that was near our house. The time I thought no one was there to pick me up after swim practice, so I decided that I had to walk back, only to get picked up one the side of the road by the people who were supposed to be taking me home (then hiding under the bed in embarrassment when my mom found out I tried to walk home). Or that there was a road that connected the Target and the Wallmart. Little things like that.

I am really glad I went back, it had been too long, and yet nothing, at least not the important things, had changed.