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May 10, 2006
C-C-C-Changes
I took WildChild down to spend the week with my parents & my sister on Monday, noticed there's been a few changes in the old hometown. One of the first things I noticed was the start of a new section of highway that will eventually bypass the crooked road down Still's Spring hill. (I don't remember if it's called that because someone named Still used to own the spring, there used to be a still at the spring, or both. Given that it's one of my relatives, prolly both.) Anyway, the new road will go straight out from the city limits, through where an old barn used to sit, across a big pasture and down a holler to rejoin the old highway at the edge of another big hayfield. Since the old barn used to be a popular parking spot back in the day, I'll have to giggle everytime I go through there. Or at least smile in remembrance.
The other big chance I saw was the installation of road signs on all the back country roads. All the county roads now have official names, so that emergency crews and law enforcement can better respond to calls. Some of the names tickle me, like my parents' official address is now Ragland Ridge Road. So far my mother has refused to use it, as the Raglands are her in-laws and she doesn't like them. Which cracks me up.
But the name makes sense, because most of the people who live on that road are, as you might imagine, named Ragland. One of the names I saw on the way has me bumfuzzled though. "Flid Hill Road". WTH is a Flid? The only name I've ever heard associated with that particular road is Uncle Lloyd's hill....because my Uncle Lloyd lives at the top. I haven't found out yet why it was named 'Flid'. I'm sure there's a story behind it.
Some things there, however, haven't changed. Like if you stand around on the town square for more than 5 minutes, you'll encounter about half or more of the people you know. I stopped by to pay our property taxes, since after last year's confusion I'm a little paranoid. Before I could leave the town square, I'd seen & talked to my sister and one of my first cousins, and waved to about a billion other people I knew as they drove by. I even saw a lawyer I vaguely know from Fayetteville.
And the clerk in the tax collector's office recognized me, even though I hadn't seen her in about 10-15 yrs.
Some things never change.....and that's a good thing.
Posted by Rita at May 10, 2006 07:40 AM