WATCH: With the West Shore growing and changing, parts of it are almost unrecognizable. But dedicated residents of the area with the use of social media are unearthing pictures and reminiscing about its past. Luisa Alvarez reports.
With the West Shore changing at such a rapid pace, it seems what it used to be is only a distant memory to those who lived it.
Lori Krogel grew up in the West Shore but moved away for nearly 32 years and when she got back, things were drastically different.
“In my quest to reorientate myself, I was going through a bunch of old pictures so I could kind of piece it together,? said Krogel.
But she quickly found out those pictures weren’t so easy to find. So, with a passion for photography, she began taking pictures of the area.
?We are living through today and all the changes going on are going to be the changes and the histories of tomorrow,? said Krogel.
That?s why last year she created the Facebook group ?The Changing West Shore, Old and New? with the hope that members could share old pictures and stories.
“I was actually pleasantly surprised, right away hundreds of people joined up and started sharing their memories, their stories, their pictures so, it’s been great,” she added.
Now up and running for over a year, hundreds of members reminisce together about a time when things looked a little bit different.
One of the groups main contributors, Janice Mason, is a hobby researcher and was an avid photographer back in her day. Mason says she has boxes and boxes filled with photographs she can’t wait to share.
?It’s a way of kind of preserving how you grew up here and where you grew up and what you did,? said Mason.
She says people’s reactions to seeing something again that they thought was gone forever is just one of the many reasons she loves to share her photographs.
?The comments you get are just fascinating, ‘oh my uncle or my grandfather or my father came back from the war and did this’ so the comments are just really great,? said Mason.
Now with over 1,200 members in the Facebook group, they hope it continues to grow so even more pictures and stories get dusted off and shared, for the world to see and always remember.
“It’s been wonderful in trying to patch together the history of the area and it will be there for people to see for years to come,” said Krogel.
Luisa Alvarez
