Sunday, April 13, 2008

I walked five miles to school in the snow!




Somethings just make you realize that you are turning into your parents. I find that I yammer on and on about things that as I hear the words ring in my ears, I know that I sound like an old fogey. For instance, I can not stand that all the trees in my hometown downtown have been chopped down! I realize that they are those Pear trees that have a relatively short life, but still the area looks so exposed and naked. Then, they decided to redo the sidewalks, the roads, tear down the old buildings that lined the once familiar streets to erect a modern style multi-retail building. Yuck and double yuck! I want back the old glass front "Mattress store" that old blind Bess L., who could barely see (and be seen) over the top of her steering wheel drove right into the show room after running the stop sign.

I miss having that memory rekindled every drive by.

I hate the Car dealership that now shines like a beacon on beautiful Lex. Rd. Did I say beautiful, the once beautiful Lex. road. It once boasted beautiful horse farms, gentle rolling hills with the tobacco bases, corn fields and stately mansions (at least they looked like mansions to me when I was a child) sitting behind white washed fences on expansive farms. In a rush to make a buck, the past is quickly being swallowed up as Dairy Queens and sub-divisions chop up the most coveted horse farm land in the world. The absolute worst is the farm that was sold by the heirs and leveled out for a Wal-Mart then went bankrupt. The ugly slash on our beautiful bluegrass sits undeveloped, as the preservationists slug it out with the visionaries, with a large weather beaten sign promising us a new shopping center "soon".

Ver/Lex Rd. will quickly become like the Lex/Nicholasville corridor. Nothing but ugly commercialism as the two towns attempt to merge into one.

I like stuff to stay the same so that I can count on it, look forward to it, and when it finally arrives know that it will be like it was before. Like strawberry season! And Keeneland Race Track being a 21 day event. And when Keeneland closes the spring meet, they move to Churchill Downs and its Derby Week!

This year Derby week began yesterday. Let's see, Derby week use to be the lead up to the Derby beginning with the Balloon Race on the Saturday morning before, the Chow Wagon on Main (which was as many people as possible squashed into a small fenced off area, drinking beer), $1.00 Derby pins, the parade, the Riverboat race, a couple of local events thrown in and then the Oaks, and suddenly its Derby Day!! One week.

Now, it begins three weeks before Derby,starting with the Thunder Over Louisville firework show. The biggest, baddest spectacle of shooting showering color you will ever see!

That reminds me of another story, the one where I attended the very first Thunder! It will have to wait.

I must go make strawberry pancakes.

5 comments:

Becky said...

I think it was my grandma who used to say, "one thing is certain, everything changes...nothing stays the same." She used to tell me that when I would complain about being bored, or crying over a boy. It's multipurpose advice that sorta works for any and all situations. LOL

Paul said...

That walk to school was uphill in both directions, wasn't it?

nonizamboni said...

Oh, I so agree with your words about 'progress' and what it leaves in its wake. And I miss the old days of my memories too. I'm pretty sure I walked ten miles up a hill both ways all year and was never late!
Have a wonderful week.

emmapeelDallas said...

I know what you mean. Here in Dallas, where there are WAY TOO FEW TREES, IMHO, there was, about 20 years ago, a beautiful, landscaped small shopping center with lots of live oak trees under which one could park and get shelter from the sun, and the buildings themselves were red brick, & housed stores like Workbench. Well, Joni Mitchell was a prophet...one day, they "paved paradise & put in a parking lot", followed by construction of a big, ugly, red & white store for Circuit City(?) - which couldn't make it there so now there's a concrete lot and an empty building...real progress...

Anonymous said...

It sounded so beautiful. Understand how you want things to remain the same--though I'm one of the masses who moved South for a less hectic life and in the process made it more