Do you remember a place vividly, perhaps from comparatively recent times, that no longer exists?

Sodom was really nice this time of the year. Beautiful peach orchards.
Got glassed by some minor Goa’uld just recently.

Having been in Northern California for over fifty years, there are many such places that I remember, ones that have been altered or torn down or rebuilt.

30 years ago, the Embarcadero freeway was a blight on the San Francisco waterfront, a double decker freeway which cut off the Ferry Building from the rest of the city, and disrupted many a view. It acted as a wall. Then Loma Prieta struck, and permanent
Y damaged it to the point where it had to come down. Within six months the whole part of San Francisco was reborn and thrived. The skid row hotels, especially the one that had been the scene of a murder in Bullit were replaced by new vibrant restaurants and hotels.

But there are also many instances where growth has overcome nostalgia. The old Kings Bowl in Millbrae is now condos.

Bullwinkles resteraunt and arcade.

In Charleston, SC, there are dozens of places that used to be forests, or wetlands. I used to go muddin’ , or fishing in many of those places. Now, they are neighborhoods, or giant apartment/condominium complexes…

All of the 70s.

This is now ancient history, but when I returned to Denver, Colorado, after a 10 year absence, I cried while the plane landed and I couldn’t see the mountains due to the smog. Before the freeways were built, The mountains could be seen from anywhere in the city

There has been so much change. I remember my home town as it was 60 or more years ago; the sweet shops and the old ladies who worked in them, the fields in which we played football now long since built over and the streets with scarcely a car to be seen.

“You cannot leave things as they are; so you destroy the most beautiful gift granted to man on earth: the joy of finding everything again as one had known it.”

I remember when I was nine, they tore down the woods (about 80 acres) behind our house to build a subdivision. It seemed strange, when I was nine, that I could remember every wooded trail, pathway, dale and hollow,——and all that was there now was razed dirt and gravel.

We had fun on those dirt hills and ravines also (when the trees were all gone) , and the houses as they were being constructed, but even at nine or ten it was so strange to remember the woods so well but they were no more.

Tracks. It was a mega big nightclub in Washington DC. It was in a really bad section of DC in a warehouse. It was a gay club, but everyone went. College night was on Thursdays, but I don’t remember anything being much different on Thursdays. It had two indoor dance floors on either end, and in the summer a thirds dance floor outside along with a volleyball court with sand like the beach, and they grilled hot dogs and hamburgers outside.

The main dance floor, the larger if the two dance floors that were indoors, had a really high ceiling and amazing lighting. Not only the typical colored lighted flashing, but also white lights that would shine straight, and it was really amazing. The light pattern seemed to go with the music. I remember one New Years the white lights were straight down across the dance floor and there was white and gold and it all felt very Roman. Like Roman columns.

It was open until 6am. A lot of people would leave the other bars or clubs in town when they closed, and they usually closed after last call for alcohol around 2:30am, and drive over to tracks to keep dancing.

I took my husband there one time when we were dating. His first comment was, “everyone is dancing rather than drinking.” His stereotype of Americans was they drank a lot.

I had so much fun there. I loved it. The music was typical gay club, runway type music.

If you are interested in nightclub business stories here’s a link to an interview with the owner of Tracks. They started in Denver and then branched out. Coming to DC is around minute 30 if you don’t want to watch the entire thing, but I recommend watching from the beginning if you’re interested. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Xj3OrJmGMfs

Yes. In Biggs Junction, Oregon there was a beautiful Union 76 gas station that I worked at for a couple of months. It’s gone now.

A lot of my old childhood neighborhood is gone but I remember it vividly. I live in a different state now, but when I go back I always ride through what was my neighborhood. This question is timely for me as I talked for a couple hours today to a guy I’ve known since I was two years old and we talked about the old neighborhood. We now live on opposite sides of the country but we’ve stayed close friends since we reconnected about 10 years ago.