I think no one happened to be out at that particular moment on my old street… my comment was more a reflection on the intersection of my memory and the images Google gives us; it was far from a scientific argument about the lack of people.  I guess in this sense Google Street View can be distortive, like all photographs, I suppose… the tool is best used carefully, and corroborated by/integrated with other resources.      

Wow, how cool was that, and for me power of so many of these tools lies in this collective past you mention, which is in so many ways fueled by a generative nostalgia. And I know as a history scholar, nostalgia poses a huge problem, yet it also remains one of the most powerful forces for creation in my mind. I always think of Faulkner’s wrestling with narrative, nostalgia and Southern history as a beautiful example of just how powerful it is to miss what you never knew. Yet, here you are missing something you intimately knew and obviously loved. That moment of childhood in the Fall when the mornings were crisp and the days were longer than they will ever be again. It is such an important moment to capture and reflect upon for ourselves. I relate to this narative on every level, many of which are deeply personal–how important is that! Not only are you picking up your friends on the way to school, but your own questions about where the hell everyone is while these images were taken triangulates my place in the narrative. How have communities consistently eroded since the 50s and 60s, and I truly believe they have given the built environment that has been grafted on our new developments. I grew up in a similar space on Long Island, filled with trees and kids and people, and I went back to it after this video and Google Street View tells the same sad story. What might a collection of nostalgic folks like us begin to theorize or imagine from this? I’m working on my own google maps walk to school now, so thank you!

This is a masterpiece on several levels, but the point when it hit me was when your childhood home came up in full color as if I was standing before it, and you begun the narration which is touching and important. A form of sharing that is unique, and will be the basis of so many different ways of narrating theories, historical trends, sociological realities, not to mention the burgeoning forms of narrative. In short, bravo!