Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Memories of a Concerned Citizen

Being fortunate to have been born and raised in the rural South, in a small town with many connecting smaller communities, uniquely defined by named crossroads, farms, feed mills, old-time country stores, countless picturesque churchyards, even old style garages, and drugstores with soda fountains...family owned diners and barbecues, drive-in movie theaters, skating rinks and so on. It was truly idyllic. Most of these are now disappearing, being replaced by urban sprawl and development.

In the early days more so than now you could trace and connect all of the family names from the center of a small town outward to almost all of the family names in a forty mile radius. Does this conjure up any scenes .ie. , the old Rexall drugstore, E.J. Grubbs classic old-time garage complete with wooden floors,Waggoners filling station filled with bibbed overall clad farmers chatting on the old benches, Lacy Fairs Market right across the street, and the old Fire Station with the finest locals always there in times of need in the community.

Driving down memory lane there are countless other scenes, some could be blurred by a tear or two, sometimes you may have to watch as the motor graders and earthmoving machines erase and pave over these once fine places forever, only the memory of these days, now being rendered to the past,whether we like it or not, will remain.
Just some thoughts that I wanted to share, and its really great that our Walkertown Area Historical Society is helping preserve our fine heritage.

P.S. I do have to share this one thing I saw today, unsettling as it was, I was sitting at the stoplight below the Seafood Shack and right in the middle of the five o'clock traffic, I swear this is true, here comes riding thru the intersection a bona fide drag queen on a moped, she/he (it) looked just like the vampire faced drag queen star in the Rocky Horror Picture Show, maybe you will see it around town, hope we aren't seeing the beginning of any new trends.

2 comments:

  1. I imagine my own Grandpa was one of those overall clad farmers....Tom Martin. If he wasn't there, then he was definitely sitting at Carvin Morris' store down on 66. I grew up in Walkertown as well and it seems that each time I go through the town, I'm more shocked at its growth and expansion. I know that progress encourages growth but at times, I sure miss those good ole days of simpler times!

    I'm just beginning my genealogy search of the William Henry Martin family so your Historical Society intrigued me when I ran across your site quite by accident this morning.

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  2. I remember when they built that Rexall. And don't forget that E.J. inherited that garage from his dad, Ether.

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