Abandoned Adventure

Some of my fondest childhood memories revolve around a group of kids and a couple of abandoned houses that we used to play around.

I loved to play games with my friends in which we essentially scared the bejesus out of each other. This was when there were no such things as helicopter parents, when you mom and dad just set you free and you’d show up just in time for dinner.

But of course, things like abandoned houses and vacant lots soon became a thing of the past in Silicon Valley—or at least I thought they did. When we purchased our house six years ago we quickly learned of at least five of them within two blocks of our house.

It looks like my kids are going to have scary fun just like I did growing up–with parental supervision, of course.

Stumble It!

Comments

[Jan]

It's great that your kids have a place to go to use their imaginations.

Jan
Always Growing

[Jacqueline]

Love it.

[Carol, May Dreams Gardens]

When someone discovers those, they'll become million dollar homes!

[chigiy]

Jan,
It's wonderful to have places like this.
They are few and far between here in the mountains above Silicon Valley.

Jacqueline,
I had great models.

Carol,
These old homes are are on extremely valuable land but they are locked in by some private residences who wont allow a road to be accessed by the public. Hopefully they will be turned into a preserve one day but until that day, yeah for us, they are practically in our back yards.

[Aiyana]

I did this too as a kid. My uncle had a few old abondoned houses for former hired help, and we loved to go into the "Indian House", a place where an old Native American died while his grandson worked in the fields. We always found usual bottles and caps, and always expected something spooky to happen.
Love your photos!
Aiyana

[Mace]

Well parental supervision is always best when approaching abandoned houses. You never know if a sicko pedophile on the loose and is being looked for is hiding out in one of those houses. Or a bum using the house as their own. you can never trust anyone these days. So I'm glad to hear you go with them just to make sure it's safe and that the house alone isn't a death trap with rotting floors that collaspe to a basement.

[chigiy]

Sadly Mace, you are right. Places like this are very cool but tend to attract the wrong element. I don't let the kids go into the houses because yes, they are rotting away and full of rats and other vermin. icky. Luckily we live a bit off the beaten track so you have to live in the neighborhood to know about them.