DO YOU EVER WORRY ABOUT GETTING LOST?
Have you ever been somewhere and thought to yourself, "It seems I've been here before but things look different." The other day Josh and I went downtown to the Dome to buy some tickets. I drove as Atlanta is my home town and I know how to get around. As we were on our way home Josh asked, "How do you remember all these streets, you always go a different way every time we come down here. It got me to thinking about the changing of Atlanta. Oh sure, the main streets are mainly as they were in the 50's and 60's but so much has changed. And when I say the streets are the same, I mean they are in the same place but so many have been given new names. Cain Street is now International Blvd, Sewell Street is now Benjamin Mays Drive, Bedford Place is now Central Park Place, and Bankhead Highway is now called Donald Lee Hollowell Parkway. Even my beloved Boulevard Drive, the location of my first paper route, is now Hosea Williams Drive. And this is just a sample of the name changes. There are pages and pages of them. Of course as with most things there is good news and bad news. The good news is I can pronounce most of these new names. The bad news is if our country keeps going as it is now, the next name changes will be Chinese names and I will have no idea how to say the street names. I hope this name changing doesn't catch on. If all my friends change their name, I'll never be able to remember them at this age in my life. I guess I can call them all "Hey you".
One of the other things that has changed are Landmarks. Compared to other large cities in the United States, Atlanta is a relatively young city. As I think of this it amazes me how many of our landmarks, our first mansions and first buildings are gone. We call this progress. I don't want to be included in this "WE". I had rather think of some of this progress as dumb. In fact I may start using the word progress as my new word of profanity. A good friend of mine, Tim Cole is a fantastic photographer. The other day on facebook he posted some pictures of the Fox Theater. Do you ever think about how close we came to losing this treasure. The Fox was saved but think of the ones that were lost in the name of "progress". How about the Lowe's Grand and the Roxy Theater, or the Peachtree Arcade. Atlanta was built because of the railroad. If you notice most large cities have river ports or ocean ports. Not us. Atlanta was railroad, and the most famous railroad building in Atlanta, Terminal Station, is gone. What a lost treasure. And what replaced it? The Richard Russell Federal Building. I understand sometimes some things have to be torn down, but before we do it we need to really think if what we are doing away with is worth what we are replacing it with. We have become a "throw away" society. I love the old neighborhoods in Atlanta. The Inman Parks and the Ansley Parks. The Grant Parks , the Kirkwoods and yes even the Cabbagetowns and Reynoldstowns. I don't know.....Maybe it's a "getting older thing" but just walking through Piedmont Park and Oakland Cemetery or just riding past Grady Stadium and remembering high school football games. Just walking down Peachtree Street, thank God it still has that same name, or riding through the tree lined streets of Druid Hills. These are the blessings of a man in his forth quarter of life.
Sure progress is good. Where would we be without computers and the advances of medicine. And we can now go to California as easily as we use to go to Mississippi. I realize we need to go forward but we must realize that going forward doesn't require us to destroy the past. Some of us came from the past and is was a great place. A place to be revered, a place to be honored, a place to be loved and a place to be remembered.
One day you will want to look back at a place called yesterday. I pray your yesterday will still be there. I pray your past will put a smile on your face and a tingle in you heart. I pray you will be able to say thanks to your generation for not destroying your past.
God Bless you All.
