Borrowed a car and bought a bagel:

Somehow felt disappointed. This was not the taste I had been expecting.

Or was it?

…

Drove across town to a place that I had photographed back in 1998:

Took a picture:

The amusement park had gone out of business by now though. The owner had died. Sad story.

I wondered what had happened to the old roller-coaster:

But it was still there:

When I got out of the car, a huge black dog came running across the lawn and scared the shit out of me. He turned out to be pretty friendly though.

…

Off it was to the infamous area I used to live in back then:

Plainview, it is still called:

Back then, it was a rather poor neighborhood:

It was just run-down houses inhabited mostly by Mexicans and Southeast Asians:

I remember thinking to myself: was this what the people on TV referred to as “the hood” ??

The best thing about it was the school bus:

Could there have been a better place for a foreign exchange student to improve on his language skills?

…

This time I came in a car though. I cruised around for a while, then I found the lot we used to live in:

While I was still taking pictures, an Asian guy came running out of his house and asked me what I was doing. Or rather, he said something to his little son, who looked a bit embarrassed, because he had to translate for his dad. I smiled and told them I used to live in this area. They shrugged and went back in.

The original house was still there:

I was reluctant to knock on the door at first, mainly because I didn’t know who lived there now, or what they were doing. But then I knocked, and a lady appeared and looked at me suspiciously. I told her I used to live here, but it didn’t seem to make too much sense to her. I was about ready to leave, when a huge tow truck pulled into the driveway.

It belonged to Darrell, the lady’s husband:

He was totally cool. He said the area hadn’t changed much from the time when I used to live here, and that they were thinking about moving to the countryside anyway. The Cambodian family next door was supposed to be pretty friendly though.

I said bye and got back into the car. Then I drove around the neighborhood some more, 70s disco music blasting from the car stereo.

There wasn’t much to look at:

Some of the buildings looked like public housing:

And there was a purple building decorated with butterflies and hearts:

I stopped and knocked on the door. A lady came out. I told her I liked her house. There was not much conversation after that, and when I left, I saw her speaking into her cellphone while her eyes were following my every move.

…

It was then and there that I decided to leave this area and try to find my former high school:

Notice the signage? Yes, Wichita High School East is supposed to be a health zone, and no, guns might not be very beneficial in that aspect. Well, duh!

I was surprised that the security guard was still there, even though it was more than ten years later:

He even let me roam around the hallways for a little while:

Nothing had changed, except I used to go there only when I had class, so there were much more people around:

Despite the risk of being called the biggest nerd, I still keep a copy of my old lesson plan:

Note that there is an item called “Photography 1″ on there. It’s where I took my first picture with a real SLR camera:

Thanks, Mr. Antrim!

One thing had changed about East High though:

Now there was an official dress code.

…

I went to the Mid-America All Indian Center after that:

Besides all the other stuff, there was also a tipi on display:

And a grass hut:

Apparently there was no grass on the grass hut anymore, because a Canadian goose had come and built her nest in it. She was just lucky that the Indians were not around to shoot her down and eat her though.

Again, guns were not allowed on the premises:

(Not even if you were the delivery man.)

I had an Indian taco, which was pretty nice and filling:

Then I drove around and found the site where someone had reconstructed the very first Pizza Hut ever:

Of course it was just as boring as most of their pizza, but I thought I had to see it anyway.

…

One thing that’s weird about Wichita is that there is a city within the city:

It’s called Eastborough, and it’s like a rich people’s ghetto.

Basically what they do is put up speed limit signs everywhere and then have their police patrol the place like crazy:

I always thought they were annoying as hell.

…

Encouraged by the disco music that was blasting in my car, I drove around some more, sometimes taking pictures of the things that I found most interesting.

Like the place that sold CRAW FISH:

Or the diner that apparently used to serve members of royal courts before it eventually went out of business:

…

And then I somehow ended up at my old swim club:

I was 16 when I trained here, but I wasn’t allowed to share a lane with people from my age. Instead, I got my ass kicked by a bunch of 13-year-old girls. But that was alright, because it helped me do better on my school team:

Good times, good times.

Soundtrack: Vicki Sue Robinson – “Turn The Beat Around”