Things you once saw that you wish you could revisit

[roadman65]

How many times have you remembered something as a child that you wanted to check out more, but being you could not drive as a youngster nor had money to travel you could not go back to it, then later when you become an adult the attraction disappeared? 

I have some with roads like wanting to check out defunct freeways, arterials, and bridges as well as buildings that no longer exist.  Even some old them park rides that I was on as a kid, but no longer exist.


For example, I would love to see the effects again on the now defunct Disneyland Journey Through Inner Space ride was.  This particular attraction that was an omnivehicle which led the ride into a giant microscope that gave riders an illusion that you were shrinking in size as you passed through it.  As a child I remember the shrinking part, but being I was 4 years old at the time I can only remember vague images of the process.  As a fan of technical stuff, it would be neat to be able to see it just for curiosity, but since its been gone for over 27 years that would be impossible. 

I am a technical buff and love to check out how buildings are built and even laid out inside.  Even the Spaceship Earth in Epcot, amazes me that I have to check out the technical details of the ride's omnivehicle layout just to see how the ride fits inside the geosphere building, that even though it is a large building where you know it all fits, the round shape throws off perception of it.  I often wonder where all parts of the ride is related to each other and in what part of the sphere its in as unlike a typical square building the 360 degrees of it adds a mystery to it. 

Anyway, the Epcot attraction is still there for me to check out, but many other places are not.  Does anyone have a place that they wish they could revisit for this reason I have stated or any other reason whether its for nostalgia or curiosity?

[sammi]

World Trade Center... The last time I was there was 14 years ago (September 10, 2000 according to photos).

Also, the Golden Gate Bridge. I had a picture leaning against the cross-section of cable on the south side, during the same US trip in 2000. For my 2011 San Francisco trip I really wanted to do that picture again, but we went to the north side, so I didn't get to. Next time.

[hbelkins]

Lots of old signs I saw when I was a kid. Cutouts all over the place in Kentucky, several cutouts in North Carolina, "N-West, N-East, S-East, S-West" directional banners in Ohio, etc.

[getemngo]

Lots of old signs I saw when I was a kid. Cutouts all over the place in Kentucky, several cutouts in North Carolina, "N-West, N-East, S-East, S-West" directional banners in Ohio, etc.

I too am boring and can only think about signs. There was still a ton of neat stuff on old US 16 between Grand Rapids and Lansing - state name shields, ancient mileage signs, even a sign for a weigh station ahead - that all vanished in the last 10-15 years. I discovered one of them was gone on the same day I bought a digital camera.

[1995hoo]

See my avatar. By far the best way to travel between London and the USA.

[leroys73]

Too many to list.

[jeffandnicole]

I think for the most part, if the attraction disappeared, I've simply forgotten about it.

Having said that, defunct Drive-In movie theaters come to mind. (there is one in Vineland NJ I go to a few times a summer).

[Jardine]

I have a vivid memory of my dad driving me somewhere in western Iowa in the mid sixties, and somewhere we had to stop and wait for a huge earth mover to get out of the way so we could drive under an overpass being built for the future Interstate 80.  As an adult, I have driven I-80 many times, and I've sometimes wondered which overpass it was I saw being built, but from the Interstate, I've never been able to tell.

Just a few years ago, I was running errands and my erratic and un-update-able Tom-Tom had me running down a county gravel.  I turned a square corner, and headed south, and hadn't gone more than a few miles, and suddenly, I had this deja vu thing going on, and then, there was the completed overpass!

LOL, I was so surprised to recognize it!

My dad drove me around many times looking for parts to fix tractors, or to find special repair shops, or to get seeds or special grease for a combine or something.  I miss those trips, these days I just Ebay stuff, so no more day trips trying to find some vital necessity. 

I had a similar experience just a couple summers ago, I drove through Humboldt Iowa, and realized we had driven all over that town over 40 years earlier looking for a welding shop.

So, for the OP, maybe you'll run across something somewhere, someday, and without even realizing you're looking for anything in particular, you might run across a special moment, otherwise long forgotten, with a friend or family member.

[Pete from Boston]

I think for the most part, if the attraction disappeared, I've simply forgotten about it.

Having said that, defunct Drive-In movie theaters come to mind. (there is one in Vineland NJ I go to a few times a summer).

Wow, is it a re-opened one?  I recall a lot of hubbub when I lived in NJ that the last drive-ins had closed in the state that gave birth to the concept.  This was probably 15-20 years ago.

[Takumi]

Road-related things:
-Old exit numbering on the Richmond-Petersburg Turnpike
-VA 44
-VA 167
-Incomplete VA 288

Non-road-related things
-my second car, the wrecked one. Since then I've gotten a lot more in-depth with how the car is put together, so I'd have 5-speed swapped it, and gone a different way home that nightm

[Pete from Boston]

My avatar.  I'd have photographed it, since no one else seems to have.

[OracleUsr]

Canadian Rockies.  When I was in North Dakota in the early 1970's my parents and I went there and I have seen many slides from my father taken on that trip.

I think I was 2 or 3 at the time.  Oh, well, there will hopefully be time.  Maybe that's why it's appropriate I'm honeymooning in Canada in September.  It's British Columbia's Pacific area, but nonetheless, I'll be hoping for clear skies when my wife-to-be and I fly over Alberta en route from Toronto to Vancouver.

[kurumi]

SR 533 BGS on I-86 circa 1982.

Hanging out with Grandpa, Dad and my uncles at the bar in Hinton, Iowa (taking a break from the farm).

Family trip in the camper from Iowa to CT via Michigan, Ontario and Niagara Falls