Do you use Google Earth to visit your childhood places?

[AccuTron]

I was young long before the internet age, and have in recent years been amazed to be able to visit childhood places while hundreds of miles away.  It has been very valuable for processing youthful trauma, given that I'd already been doing lots of mental work.  Partly, it must be that I can "be there" and not be threatened; threat was constant back then.  I notice that if a couple years pass between visits, I can tell how much healthier I am by how differently I react.

 

Any one else do that?

[Jaeger]

AccuTron,

 

I have used Google Earth to visit my childhood homes.  It was quite surprising to see the change to one of the houses as it now has a freeway behind it and the front yard looks like it was converted into a parking lot.  I'm only guessing that the place is now a business.  That was the house I lived in from 1972-1979  as small child.  So I was before the internet too.

 

I'm so sorry to hear that you suffered trauma as a youth.  I couldn't imagine what it must have been like.

[Thus_Spake_the_Nightspirit]

I never thought of doing it until just now when I saw your topic. My parents have since moved out of the house I grew up in and having lived so far away from them for so long, it's been at least 10 years since I have been there. Most of the town looks much the same, except my original house is now obscured from view by a large tree (it wasn't so big when I lived there). I hadn't considered it in terms of processing old trauma, though, but then again, my mother tells me the house has changed owners twice since they moved and it no longer looks like the house I grew up in. I'm not sure how comfortable I'd feel looking at the house if it were the way I remember it being.

[kikkakutonen]

I haven't done that, but it's a good idea!

[neeeel]

I do do this, yes. I actually did it recently for the first time in a while.

 

It does bring up a lot of memories for me

[equipoise]

Yeah. It's only about 15 km from where I am now and I have driven down the street. But you can "perve" a little more in street view at your drunken leisure. And satellite view, check out trees, sheds, pools etc.

 

Problem is of course that street view is maybe a decade old.

[Anuojat]

I have done it aswell and it was very good experience. I also WENT there walked around and talked to a guy who lives there for most of his life still remembered me

 

But that about it

[shirgall]

Yeah, I.ve done this. The heartbreaking one was where the "old house" from my grandfather's centennial farm was replaced by modern construction... but I haven't seen the place for 20 years so what do I expect?