Our Old House with Memories and Photoshopping

SUMMARY: In Poughkeepsie

Actually, in my world view, we've had more than one "old" house--meaning "previous".

Got to thinking about Poughkeepsie, NY, where we lived once upon a time. And so went browsing on Google Earth to see what it looks like now. Lot of changes in the area--the "Crown Heights Playground" down the street from us now is full of a clubhouse, parking lot, and two big baseball diamonds. Shame--I have fond memories of playing there.

But wait: Back up to when we lived there. This was maybe a year after we moved in. The house had been freshly built in a freshly cleared old orchard (along with the rest of the neighborhood. Dad added the rail fence in front, probably to keep the 5 of us from running into the street, and the flagpole (not sure why; our previous house and next house didn't have one), and I think my mom added the stones around the base for a flower garden. And our good old Chevy Carry-All, which was the first car I remember, and which didn't survive to leave Poughkeepsie with us, after 2 trips across the continent and many side trips.

Wellll... let's say that that's the photo as I scanned it in originally. Clearly the color is off, and I recall the yellow of the house being more--uh--yellow. So it's time to play with Photoshop [Elements]!

First stab: Not bad, but now it looks washed out to me. And now maybe erring on the blue side. (But I did crop out the over-scanned edge).

And another variant! Eh, too yellow!  -- note the yellow tint in the flag. And the shutters were white.

Try again... Yellow is looking pretty good but maybe the whole thing is still too yellow--

...and again... back to the blue side and the yellow fades out... Eh, I dunno, either of these last 2 are probably good even though they're quite different.

Well. OK, then, about the best I'm going to do with an hour's work without turning it into multiple hours of work.  That's the thing about photos: Is the way they come out of the camera "real"?  Not likely--oh, particularly when the photo is printed by someone who is not you. And then left in an album for many years. And then scanned....

Anyhoooo--

OH! Some cool details!  The baby carriage with the red-plaid plastic basket that could detach from the carriage frame and just sit on a surface or the floor! I'm sure these things wouldn't be considered safe any more.   AND the lumberjack wind vane! When the wind blew, the pinwheel on the front (left) spun and the man pulled his saw back and forth.

Then here's another photo that probably my grandparents took, when we put the house up for sale.  The Chevy is gone and now it's a Ford truck with our huge-old cab-over camper. This gave us a lot of miles, too, back across the continent  and many other trips.

Somewhere in there, dad painted the shutters blue and I think the house a brighter yellow. Developers never *did* get his houses bright enough for him. Heh.

Oh. But the photo is too too dark. Back into PhEl...  Ahhhhh, better, although the dark parts have lost too much data; they'll never be excellent.  Ha--that's Ann on the front stoop!  I don't know why I know it from just this photo; has to be a memory of clothing and hairstyle.

And here's me in the doorway. I'm pretty sure there are photos somewhere of me with the same shirt and shorts. These house colors are likely the most accurate, as the whole photo was taken in shade rather than parts in sunshine. (I still had to brighten it, though.)

The front stoop! We kids hung out there a lot. And it was a good place for photos, especially with mom's marigolds.  (Me again. And Susan.)

Oooh, nifty detail: The milkbox, insulated, where we'd leave our list of eggs & dairy things that we needed, and the milkman would provide them.

Anyhow. Again.

Back to the present (well, 2012) and Google Earth's image-- The house--big changes! Colors, of course; siding and maybe the shutters are different. Windowbox is gone on the living room window. But particularly interesting: It's now a 2-car garage with a 3-car-wide driveway! And there's a huge add-on of some sort behind the garage.

 (Naturally, the flower garden and flagpole are long gone. The front door and stoop and walk are fancier.)

Somewhere I have a photo or two of the place in between then and now. Not sure where. Maybe still in a print only.  Someday I'll dig that out, too.

That's all!