Progress

I think I've mentioned a time or three that I've lived in the same small town since I was a toddler.

I remember when our first fast-food restaurant was built and when "driving across town" took all of 5 minutes (if you took the scenic route).

I remember Mama dressing me, my brother & my sister in our best clothes and going to the local department store to have our picture made. In the last 20 years, the department store moved and its original building has been a hardware store, a furniture store, and a thrift store.

I remember the one-movie theater downtown and "suicide" drinks (a bit of everything in the soda machine, all mixed together...seriously yummy!). That building later housed CJ's dance classes, and is now closed.

I remember life before Wal*mart. And it was good.

These days, we have six fast food restaurants, several photography studios and one semi-decent department store. Driving across town takes much longer than I'd like since so many of city folk have migrated here. I guess they decided that moving to a small town would be just the ticket for a relaxing lifestyle. It's only brought more stress to us natives who yearn for the good old days of knowing everybody (and their business).

Our schools are crowded, the traffic is crazy (a relative term, I know), and I can hardly find a familiar face when I'm brave enough to go to Wal*mart. Fields and forests have been ransacked in the name of progress. I miss the friendly small town atmosphere and short lines at the grocery store. I've been a vocal opponent of all the change.

Until today.

As I sit here sipping my Grande White Chocolate Mocha & enjoying the deliciousness of a cranberry scone, I'm thinking progress may not be such a bad thing after all.