Revisiting the Past on Google Maps

I was in the mood to clean some closets and shelves today and came across one of Mom's books in which she had written her name and various addresses where we had lived when I was a child. I remembered the street names but not the house numbers. I use Google Maps at work when I need to see what a patient's house looks like. Part of my job is to ensure that a patient can access the outside and inside of their home safely when discharged. Many patients can tell me how accessible their homes are, but for those who cannot, I look up their address and street view on Google. Is the house a two-storey, side split, or walk-up apartment? Do they have railings on the outside stairs?

Today I decided to look up the addresses of the homes I remember living in during the years I was in school. Surprisingly, all of the houses are standing after fifty to sixty years and they still look familiar. So here is a brief history of 15 years of my life illustrated by Google Maps.

Lighthouse Rd, Durban. The bus stop is still near the house

We moved to 207 Lighthouse Rd in Durban, South Africa when I was four years old. My brother Philip was born the next year. I remember my mother teaching me to read and I spent hours practicing with my hoola hoop in the front yard. The yard was fenced but there was no wall or gate when we lived here. I remember a bus stop in front of the house and my brother Nathan used to talk to people who were standing there. I started school at the nearby Marlborough Park Primary School and was terrified of my strict teacher. I remember throwing up my breakfast each morning due to anxiety about school but it never gave me license to stay home. The scary teacher became ill partway through the year and my mother, who was also a teacher, taught our class for a few weeks making me very happy.

My first school is behind this wall 

The school is still there but is behind a high wall topped with barbed wire and is patrolled by a security company. We moved to another neighbourhood before I started Class Two, my second year of school. 

26 Piedmont Rd. The mango grove is still behind the house in the aerial view

Piedmont Rd rose along a hill and we lived at number 26. The front yard was flat in front of the house and then dropped steeply to the road. Again, there were no walls or gates and all you can see now from the street is the distinctive peaked roof of our house. The hill at the front has been terraced and landscaped. This is the house where my parents called for help to remove a puff adder and a black mamba from the yard. (I still have a snake-phobia) The road looks much the same as I remember and we used to visit our playmates across the road and up the street. Two friends' names come to mind;- Binky and Megan Crawley. Mrs. North lived across the road and looked after us sometimes if Mom needed to run an errand. We still make her Hot Milk Sponge Cake. I used to walk to the end of the street at 7 AM with my father on my way to school and continued on with friends as he took the bus to work at Lever Brothers. School started early and ended shortly after lunch. There were mango trees behind the house and black-faced monkeys that were sometimes bold enough to enter the house to grab fruit. We had Dutch doors and no screens on the windows and a wild chameleon shared our kitchen. I had my first little garden here and remember planting radish seeds. A current aerial view shows the mango grove is still there between the backyard and Jan Smuts Highway, along with the footpath we took as a shortcut home from school. Grandma D. visited us for six months when we lived here and she took me to many interesting places around the city.

My second school- I walked about 2 km each way with other children from the neighbourhood

I attended Sherwood Primary School for two years and it is still operational. I enjoyed this school much more than my first school. My brother Nathan likely started school here but I do not have definite memories of going to school with him. South Africa was completely racially segregated when we were there in the early 1960s. Today this neighbourhood is only 6% White and is populated mainly by Black and ethnic Indian residents. Durban has the largest ethnic Indian population in Africa and I remember Mom and Dad sampling some of their hot curries. 

Centre St Aurora ON

We came to Canada the summer before I entered Grade 3 and lived in Aurora, Ontario for two years. Aurora was a small town of 5000 people and I knew all the streets well. I learned to ride a two-wheeled bike and rode everywhere. Our cousins lived around the corner and Grandma D's home was two blocks away. The house at 98 Centre Street is where we lived when my two youngest brothers, Mark and Stephen were born. There were two bedrooms in the attic and I remember that they were cold and scary at night. The house has an addition to the attic now. The large glassed-in front porch looks the same. I attended Wells St. Public School which has since been converted into condominium apartments.

Willowdale, ON- the pine tree was planted when we lived there

We moved to a new subdivision in the Toronto suburb of Willowdale the summer before I started grade 5. The house at 11 Unicorn Ave was the first my parents owned, a brand-new four-bedroom, two-bathroom house that cost $19,000. I am sure Dad made no more than $6,000 a year in 1964. We lived here until the end of 1970 which was a record for being in one place. I attended Snowcrest Public School, now closed, Northmount Junior High School, now Cummer Valley Middle School, Earl Haig Secondary School and the newly built A. Y. Jackson Secondary School. I loved living here and was heartbroken when my father got a new job in Kitchener ON. I still have a special best friend from this area.

Kitchener ON

We moved here in December 1970 when I was halfway through grade 11. It was hard to leave my friends and switch schools partway through the year.  I met my husband-to-be who lived across the road and we were married in 1975. We stayed in this community and called it home. I am the only member of my family who still lives in this region. My parents and three youngest brothers moved to Mexico in 1976. One brother eventually returned to Canada and lives a couple of hours away from us. Another brother lives overseas.

It is unlikely that I will ever return to South Africa for a visit as I do not know anyone there. I am grateful to live in a country where walls, gates and barbed wire are not needed around homes and schools. Finding Mom's old book took me down memory lane and while we moved often, I have happy memories of each home. Like most people who grew up in the Baby Boomer generation, I was able to explore areas around my home and play with friends with minimal parental supervision. I did experience normal childhood fears and anxieties but overall grew up confident in my ability to change and face new challenges.