You may all thank Thenzero for this post. My brain started going into over drive thanks to his thread:
Located here.
Back in 2017 I returned for the first time to the United States since 2000. Life got in the way, even though I've been wanting to return I just never got the opportunity to do so unfortunately. This is a smaller place in Georgia, Warner Robins. It's an Air Force town with the base being a hop and a skip away.
When I left, Wal*Mart was
still just Wal*Mart, no food section there. And the ones with food sections were called "Super Wal*Mart" and were far and few between. Our Office Depot were still showcasing the Psion 5mx alongside other equally as cool
(and expensive
) pocket PC's in various flavors. Our local mall was still showcasing the candy colored iBook's and big fat TV's with picture in picture!
Wow
Our "main street" still had a "Po'folks" restaurant, Taco Bell, and Captain D's. And it all ended about half way to the highway. Our old airport still had smoking areas albeit closed off, encased in glass. And the store down the street still served groceries, and next to it an outlet store that sold older goods at a reasonable price.
Then fast forward seventeen years. I buy a ticket on the lowest economy fair I could just so I'd have a little extra spending money. My back, legs and buttock are angry with me over that choice.
After an OK plane ride despite the cramped accommodations I land at the new
(to me
) Atlanta Airport. It was evening, my grandmother showed up to pick me up. My grandfather had "long since" passed. If you've seen one airport, you've seen them all. The international arrival section was nothing to write home about, oh, I was home!
As the main doors leading out of the airport swooshed open, warm weather rushed at me almost as if Georgia was welcoming me home with a warm hug. I remember the feeling, I was wrapped up in the warm humid heat which at one point, I hated back in the day but now had a new appreciation for.
Well, on our ride back we stopped and ate at a Waffle house. You bet the first thing I did was get a sweet tea! It was
soo good! I don't remember exactly what I had for a late dinner, perhaps a patty melt which was my go-to back in the day. So far, so good! Everything was as if I had left in 2000 again. Granted, the airport was different, so was the fact my grandfather was missing.
My grandmother on our hour long ride back home exclaimed how much things have changed. I not fully grasping the severity of my home towns changes got a little shock but I'm jumping ahead of myself. She asked me if there was anything else I'd like to do before we got home, it was like 1am at this point and I excitedly said "Wal*Mart!", she laughed and called me crazy but she obliged and we pulled up to the parking lot. This was not the Wal*Mart I remembered! It wasn't in the same spot and this was one of those Super Wal*Marts, now just named Walmart*. Even though, I walked in and was just happy to be in a Walmart again!
Then we made our way home, pulled up in our driveway and I excitedly walked out and 99% of the place was exactly the same. Sure, our old TV with built in stereo was gone, and in its stead a big old wooden cabinet with a TV inside. But besides that, it was the same.
I walked into my room and was literally blasted back to my final day in Georgia in 2000.
Everything was left as I had left it except for a neat picture on the wall of a big map. But my futon, still there! Desk, still there! Entertainment section with my TV? I'll let you guess. Yes, it was still there! I opened my closet and sure enough, boxers I've owned since I was 15 was
still folded neatly awaiting to be used for school tomorrow. I sat down in my futon and looked around amazed at where I was and the feeling of almost never leaving home. Like the past seventeen years didn't happen and felt almost like I should go to bed soon as I had high school early next morning!
Then the next day came, I woke up and my grandmother was sitting in her usual spot. At the kitchen table on the chair on the left. My spot was to the right, my grandfather typically in the middle.
I was home! Sure, I was missing Grandad, but almost everything else was the same. My grandfathers toolbox in the garage was still there, his little workbench area as well. As for home, it was 99% frozen in time. It wasn't before we left our neighborhood which also remained nearly identical to the year 2000 and prior where I started noticing a little differences. Not too much, at least not on "our street" before you get to the "main street". Sure, the Hardee's was now some hole in the wall Buffalo wings place, our local grocery store closed and the discount store next to it some hair extension place! Some minor changes as well, but the biggest shock on our street was the old grocery store further down the road had been completely obliterated and in its place, a "Neighborhood Walmart"! I didn't even know those existed until then!
But the real eye opener was the very old mall that was made defunct when the "new" mall came into play
(a while before my time
) was completely and utterly void of it's former self, it was now a health care facility with various doctors. And the Radio Shack on the outside was gone, bricked up and added to the mall itself. Things only got weirder from there. Driving down the "main road", the first half was seemingly the same. Sure, the Taco Bell was now gone and again, occupied by some mom and pop shop. Captain D's was still hanging on, although just barely. It would be gone by my next visit a year later. As we drove further down, "Po'Folks" as gone as well! I mean completely!
The further we got down the road, the more had changed. At the end of the road was the mall, next to it Toys'R'us. It was still going at this time and of course, I made a pit stop to check the place out again after all these years. It felt a little different from last, perhaps I had just grown but it felt empty in a way. Gone were all the SNES, Playstation games... I'm glad I made that stop as next time, it would be gone and turned into a spirit Halloween. Then torn down and a Friday's put in its place. After this area, it'd usually be pretty empty leading up to the high way. No more! Strip malls galore, hotel after hotel! Now this place was very different from what I remembered.
Oh, and our local Office Depot still was still there serving customers as usual! However, gone was the Office Depot of my youth, the store cut in half on the inside. Once a large warehouse full of furniture and computers cut down to just a few furniture displays and I don't even remember seeing any computers on display. And gone was my favorite spot, the place where all those pocket computers were once proudly displayed. In fact, that area of the store had been closed off and a wall now separated me from where it once stood. I surmise they gave up that space to another store next door. I guess I'll have to pine for these old handhelds in old magazines now, since I can no longer see them and handle them in person wishing I had 500 dollars to drop on one as a seventeen year old.
But it was an interesting throw back to an era I never thought I'd see again. Sure, things changed but so much had remained the same.
Ferris Bueller said it best; "Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it." Boy did I miss it!
However, my story is long from over. A new chapter is in the works, having now a fiance whom I met in Georgia is moving back to Texas. Now with my grandmother having joined my grandfather, there's nothing left for my in my old hometown except a piece of my heart. Who knows, maybe one day I'll be back and things will have changed again.
I am looking forward to joining my fiance in Texas and starting our new chapter together. But before that can happen, there are a few major hoops I have to jump through. One being my health.
Thanks for reading this insanely long post.
Edited by HPC:Fan 2024-04-28 4:19 PM
