DO YOU REMEMBER WHEN?

A couple of weeks ago my cousin, Fran (we call her Frannie) Mitchell posted on her Facebook page that her childhood home had been bulldozed in the name of progress.  From her posting I could tell it almost broke her heart.  Although it wasn't my family home,  I also have many fond memories of that house.  In fact Peggy and I rented the little house next door that I believe Frannie's Mom and Dad (Frank and LaRue) took up  what we use to call house keeping in.  I can remember walking in the back yard with Frank and looking at his garden and then going to the chicken pen to check on his chickens.  And many an afternoon we would set on the back porch with LaRue listening to her tell stories about her and mom and the other sister's and  brother's childhood.  I can still hear her infectious laugh halfway through a story.  But I believe my most vivid memory of that house is Frank and his two grandsons down at that creek just learning about nature, having fun outdoors and enjoying each others company.  Frank and LaRue really loved those grandsons.

As I was thinking about this, the things that came to mind were how far back can you remember?  How old were you? and the second thing that came to mind was....What really is progress?

I know I talk about Kirkwood a lot but my very first memories were of a home in Mableton.  A home on what  I call Bankhead highway,  now known as Veterans Memorial Highway and Gordon Road now known as Mableton Parkway.  Does progress always include renaming all the roads?  Maybe it's not a sign of getting old when you can't remember....maybe I can remember,  they just keep changing the name of everything on me.  Could this be a conspiracy?  Makes you wonder doesn't it?  Oh well, back to my earliest memories. Our house was located where Ragan Plaza is today.  Of course Mableton was a much much much different place then.  Gordon road didn't cross Bankhead Hwy.  It dead ended into Bankhead Hwy.  And they hadn't got around to paving Gordon Road,  so it was still a dirt road.  The Fowlers lived on one side of us and the Gazaways on the other.  Believe it are not the Fowler's house is still tucked back in there.  Only thing I can figure is that since you can't see it from the highway, they forgot to tear it down.  You know sometimes the government looks over things because they're very busy spending our money and if you ever go shopping you know spending money can be very time consuming.  Gosh my mind is wondering today!!!! Now.... Back to the story  Back then there really wasn't much of a business district in Mableton.  You had the old Barnes Store and across the railroad tracks you had that little row of businesses. All I remember being there was I think a little grocery store,  the Post Office, and a barber shop.  If you went up to the corner at Floyd Road, (Or have they changed the name of that road too) and turned left you would see my grandfather's blacksmith shop and Ed Cardell's grist mill.  If you turned back to the right at Floyd Road you would cross the tracks over that old wooden bridge and on your left would be a gas station.  Next door to the gas station was Jake Lee's Auto Repair Shop.  Right in front of our house was another gas station,  I can't remember the man's name that owned it but Im sure my sister will, and across Bankhead was another gas station owned by Bob Thompson.  And then you had on the corner of Bankhead Highway and Gordon Road a restaurant called the Candlestick Restaurant.  Cobb County was what was called a  dry county back then but later I was told you could buy something to drink at the Candlestick.  I remember people calling this restaurant a "honky tonk".  I guess that's why at the young age of 4,  I can still remember people eating dinner at this fine restaurant up until the wee hours of the morning.  And that was Mableton in the late 40s and early 50s..  Oh there may have been another store or two but no Mableton Shopping Center,  no Hawthorn Plaza...That was pretty much it..... and then....and then.....and then along came progress.  Houses were built,  stores were built,  more people came and with them came more cars.  I remember an airplane landing on Gordon road and turning into Bob Thompson's Gas Station and they didn't have to block traffic because there wasn't any traffic.  I told my dad this story for years and he would always say I dreamed it.  Then one day we ran into Bob and I asked him and he said it sure did happened and told us who owned the plane.  He said he painted the plane for the man and a few days later it took back off on Gordon Road and again they didn't have to block traffic.  Boy has the traffic changed in Mableton.  And now the stores go from can to can't.  My son laughs at me when I call Mableton the "Picture Frame Capital of The World".  Do they sell or import picture frames to any other part of the country?  I moved away from Mableton in 1952 and we returned in about 1963.  In those 11 years there were many changes made,  lots of growth and lots of this so called progress but I still liked living there.  Since then it has been just more and more and more progress.  How much progress and how many picture frame stores can one community take?

I guess we all must decide in our own minds if progress is good or bad,  and I'm sure there are very good argument on both sides,.... but as for me,  I think I'll just go ride down a dirt road somewhere, and look at some cows.

That's where I will progress today.