You Can't Go Home Again... If It's Not There

Last week I drove up to Northern Virginia and met Marie for a short time. I wanted to see her before she leaves the country for a world tour.

After lunch we drove by the address where we used to live off Duke Street. It has really changed! When we drove by there in 2008 it was a vacant lot with some construction equipment.

Now there's a large new house, a mansion compared to the rambler that we lived in.

When we lived there, the neighborhood was called Delta and it consisted of steel-framed houses built after World War II. A few of those homes are still there, like the blue one you can glimpse behind the new house. In the 1950's they were "contemporary" but eventually they were sturdy but way out-o- fashion.

Now the neighborhood is called "Coopers Grove" and the homes are expensive. Here's the back of the house that replaced mine.

The location is still excellent. It's a short drive to downtown Alexandria and an even shorter drive to the Beltway. And the back yard overlooks a little park.

Here we see the view that I had from my back door. And that was why I bought the house in the first place!

Also, I was rather desperate to move from the townhouse that I was selling in Delray. We had next-door neighbors there who frightened my children, kept me awake with their Saturday night fights, and even broke in to my attic. So the peaceful yard that I found here promised tranquility. And I lived there for 14 years and really liked it.