With help from Google Maps and Streetview I have located some of the houses I've lived in during my life.  I had so much fun doing this project, and was amazed that I found every one I looked for.  Thanks to my long-term memory I'd remembered their addresses.

I removed trash cans, debris, hydro wires and parts of cars from the images and added a Watercolor Pencil Filter just because I liked it.  And I've added random memories.

Here's the first house I remember.  It's the house in the middle with the front door just behind the right side of the bush with yellow flowers.  On very hot days Mum would leave the door open and put up a canvas curtain which allowed air in yet maintained privacy. 

The narrow window to the right of the door was a very small room.  My brother and I used to sit at that window on Thursdays when the 'Pop Man' delivered bottles of fizzy drinks.  The two larger windows to the right of it brought light into the Sitting Room.  Mum and Dad's bedroom was above that.  My sister's bedroom was above the front door.

In the back garden was an Air Raid Shelter where my brother and sister and I used to play. The house is in Newport, Wales.  When I lived there it was 'Newport, Monmouthshire.' 


Just down the street and around the corner was my Grandma's house.  There was no brick wall and path in those days.  Instead Grandma had a small front lawn with masses of gorgeous blue and purple hydrangeas just below the windows.  In the back she grew black currant shrubs and made delicious blackcurrant jam with the berries we kids picked for her.


I was 8 when we came to Canada to live.  At first we rented this house in the West end of Hamilton Ontario.  In this house we drank our very first Coca Colas and ate our first watermelon.  Mum thought she had to scoop out the seeds before serving so we ate the rind and pretended we liked it.  One of the neighbors clued her in and we had a good laugh. 

In those days there was a TB Sanitarium not far away.  One night Mum was writing a letter at the living room table when she looked up and screamed.  There was a face pressed against the window. Dad grabbed a poker from the fireplace and ran outside but nobody was there.  A few weeks later an inmate of the TB Sanitarium was found dead in the woods - an Eskimo (as we called them in those days) who was recovering from TB.  We all felt sad about that.

The house was heated by a coal furnace - a lot of work.  We all enjoyed sitting on that big front porch and watching the world go by.


In the following Spring we moved to our very own house in the East end of Hamilton, freshly built among orchards and vineyards - a kid's delight for sure!  I lived here for most of my childhood. 

This house had 2 bedrooms upstairs, a kitchen, dining room, living room, bedroom and bathroom on the main floor and Dad built a large Rec room in the basement big enough for a table tennis table at one end and a sitting area at the other.


My brother and I finished out the Spring term at our school in the West end that year.  Every day we took 3 buses to get there and 3 to get home.  Dad went with us the first day to make sure we knew what we were doing.  I was 8.5 and my brother was 7.  Imagine that!

Dad also planted that big tree!  In the garden he made us a Davy Crockett House on stilts and a big swing with three seats as well as a wooden bench for Mum to sit on and watch our antics.  One year on Fireworks Night my sister's friend accidentally held her sparkler over the bench which also held our bag of fireworks and WHOOSH!  All the firecrackers went off at once and the bench was charred. 


When I was about 19, my parents had this house built in Oakville, Ontario, closer to where Dad worked.  I had my own bedroom for 2 years - it's the window on the right on the top floor.  The big window on the left is the Living room.  Above that was Mum's Painting and Sewing Room.  She was thrilled to now have a dedicated room in which to pursue these activities.  She also loved her big living room and dining room - lots of room for her tea parties.  And there were 3 bathrooms!  No more waiting in line!

The downstairs room on the far right became my Grandma's bedroom when she came to live with us.  Later still, my kids would visit for weekends and Mum would trot the around all the nearby parks, then play games with them.

The basement was finished too - a TV area, a pool table and a nook for Dad's new interest, computers.  I have memories of sitting at a giant Wang computer, trying to calculate speed and vectors as dots inched across the screen in a Space Invader-type game the name of which  escapes me.  Fun!

And last but not least, Ancaster Ontario is where I spent most of my adult life.  My kids were born here and lived here until their late teens and early twenties.  The house is known as a Back Split style and has 4 different levels.  The bedrooms are at the back and overlooked a woodlot when we moved there.  Later the Golf Club sold the woodlot and posh houses were built.  It was a great place for kids - lots of places to play, ride bikes or kick a ball around, fun things to do and lots of friends to play with.   

I am surprised that the basketball net and pole are still there, in the small jog on the right-hand side of the driveway. I also note that the owners have the same trouble I did, trying to get something to grow under the tree in front of the windows which appear to be the windows we installed.

I have memories of life in the 'burbs here.  When the kids were little we'd walk down to the farmer's field, give the horses an apple and listen to the cows moo.  A year or two later the farm was sold and became a housing development.  School was within walking distance.  There were buses to the Senior Public and High School.  Life was easy and relatively uncomplicated in those days.

And then there was the day, when unbeknownst to me, my best friend Claire and her husband tiptoed up my driveway very early.  Under the carport they put up a folding table, plugged in a big coffee urn, put out coffee cups, cream, sugar, and a few chairs.  At the end of the driveway they stuck a large sign which said 'Today is Ang's 39th Birthday.  Have a coffee with her.'   (My next door neighbor at the time reminds me that Claire chose '39' so I would not suspect a thing.)  I had so much caffeine that morning that I swear my eyeballs were spinning in opposite directions.  And I loved every minute of it.  It was a birthday with a big smile. 

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Time to get off Memory Lane.  This project is part of an on-going attempt to relearn my web skills on a Mac platform instead of a PC.  That means new software, new terminologies and tons of experimentation.  Who said you can't teach an old dog new tricks?