Small Town Headaches

Sitting around this morning, reading my daily online news sites and articles, I gained the realization that my once quiet little area of the world is growing up. It became even more clear when I had to make my way into one of these "quiet" little towns to run errands.

My quiet little towns have always been growing and I do realize that change is a great thing, and that towns indeed grow and hopefully economics allow it to grow and allow it to do better. For some reason my drive this morning when this realization set in made me somewhat sad.

Why would it make me sad to know that the area that I love so much that I just can not stay away for longer then 6 months or so without coming home, is growing up? It all falls more or less into the feeling of community, the communities that you always hear about and say to yourself I would love to visit, or I would love to move there, or the feeling of wow you wish your town was more like this.

I can remember growing up in this area and it seemed everyone knew everyone else one way or another. The "outskirts" of this wonderful area is where I live now, and in a round about way it is still that way. However when you get into the main parts of the towns it is just the "WOW" what happened feeling.

One of the main attractions of the area is for a younger crowd so to speak. Appalachian State University is a huge draw for this little town. Large apartment complexes are popping up all over the place, homes are being torn down and moved to make way for these large complexes. ASU is sprouting up all over the place and it is understandable that they would need to do this, considering they have over 32,000 students enrolled this year. So, yes those 32,000 need somewhere to live, places to park that are closer to campus, and places to shop and eat.

It just makes me miss the days when I was child riding into the area with my Grandfather and seeing him wave to everyone as they passed by. There wasn't much traffic then, and it did not take 30 minutes or longer to get wherever you were going. Given that he probably didn't know all the people that he was waving at personally but it was a kindness thing. Someone said hello or threw their hand up to a wave then you waved back. You did not have to be afraid to raise your head and smile at people, and you certainly could talk to everyone without feeling odd about the whole situation.

Yes, more then anything I am guessing that I miss that sense of "community". The areas here are still a strong community, but the yesteryear is fast disappearing. The old downtown is getting a facelift, there are loads of cars everywhere, people rushing around, no one taking the time to say hello and have a nice day. The old businesses are being pushed out by bigger businesses that can sell cheaper. Big buildings are overtaking the once clear beautiful mountain views. And, yes, the car ride to do anything is getting ridiculous! What use to take 10 or so minutes tops now takes 20 or 30 minutes and that is if your lucky.

Bring back the days that you could walk down main street and say hello to everyone. Bring back the days when you could buy great products from someone that you knew and trusted. Bring back the times when you could drive down the street without stopping every five seconds to let someone run across in front of you. Or at least the days when people would say thank you when you stopped every five seconds to let someone run across the street in front of you.

Like I said earlier I know that change is good, and yes I can see the changes that have been for the better for the area. It just does not do much for the days gone by that so many miss. If you still live in an area that is small or at least close knit, do not take that for advantage. Some day you maybe sitting in your home reading a paper, watching or reading the news, or it is quite possible that you too could be sitting in your car in out of control traffic and realize just how much you miss the "good ole days" when things were so much simpler.