Memories And Changes

We've not had a chance to get back to visit Sunbury since January. So on Thursday we decided we just needed to take a break and visit once again. We started by taking Dianne's stepmother out for breakfast. We went to our favorite breakfast spot on the road to Kramer, the Peppertree. As always, no atmosphere, very loud, but the best country breakfast anywhere. I love to stop there. Later we visited Dianne's parent's grave to see if the engraving was completed. It is in the cemetery where I worked digging graves - with just a shovel - during my college years. We had time to walk around and look at tombstones of many former friends and members of our former church. Many great memories. Then we drove to the parsonage where I lived during my first year and to the church we used to attend - where my grandfather ministered for 22 years, where I was dedicated to the Lord and where we were later married. The church building is destined to be a daycare center and it was locked so unfortunately we couldn't get in. But it was in very poor condition. We remembered the hot Sundays when the only air conditioning was opening the church windows where you could see the back porches of the row houses which were next door. I recalled how as a college student I used to get a ride to town early and then crawl in the basement window of the church to study until it was time for prayer meeting to begin. The old parsonage and yard are now gone and a new house is there which looks nothing like the old parsonage. Then we drove down to the neighborhood where my mother and her family used to live. It was not a great neighborhood but the house is still there, as is the front porch where we used to enjoy the swing as we recklessly banged it against the house. The neighborhood store where we used to buy delicious "cho-chos" is now gone as is the one where we used to go to buy comic books. The Horn Railroad is also gone. My mother's father, Pappy Wise, used to walk this everyday as he went to work making caskets. The casket building is now gone as well. We drove out to see what used to be a beautiful park-life property where Dianne grew up and her dad had his water business. Now it is trashy and filled with weeds. Sad, sad, sad, actually depressing! Next we drove to the neighborhoods where some of Dianne's family lived - some of these areas had changed very little, but the farm where her mother grew up is now a beautiful vineyard. Probably the only change that we saw that day which was an actual improvement. The main street of town which used to be thriving with stores and farmer's markets is now a sad site. The bank where Dianne used to work has changed only in name and the Daily Item where I used to work on the editorial staff is still there, as is the old prison a block away. The old library where I had done some research work has been replaced with a modern facility. Our final stop was to an office, where as we waited for our appointment, we saw a neat painting of a snowy scene along the main street of town, the way it used to be. It was a still and beautiful scene. And maybe that is the way we wish to remember it. So many great memories of great years in our lives. Changes happen and are to be expected, but unfortunately they aren't always for the good. But hopefully the mind pictures of how it used to be will never go away.