TASK #41

October 9th--October 16th

The Way You Were

Progress may have been alright once but it has gone on too long.  Ogden Nash

I drove down to an old neighborhood of mine and I was surprised to see that the movie theatre I once loved was now an empty lot with a chain fence around it. I bothered me. Why? It wasn't because they had $1 movies and free popcorn. It wasn't the building because it was an ugly thing. I used to go there during a time when I was not working steadily and I could fill a few hours there. 

So it wasn't a place of fond memories. So why was the bothered that it was gone for good? 

I look at my life as a timeline full of highlights and lowlights. And in my timeline those milestones, good and bad, are often represented by physical places--in this case a movie theatre. If the place is gone, will the memory be far behind it?

There is a part of me that hates progress. I understand that life can't stand still and that one man's $1 movie theatre is another man's Seven Eleven. And I understand that increasing population in my city means an increasing amount of services to well, service them… and I can tolerate multiplex theaters, and giant hardware stores and places that just sell containers, but nonetheless there is part of me that hates progress, because progress often relies on bulldozers, and bulldozers means that some marker of your past is going to disappear. 

I decided to visit the places that are the notches on my timeline. Now, in my case my life is divided, landmark-wise, into two parts: pre-college and post college.  On a visit to my hometown, I visited my childhood home, a mansion to me then and a matchbox now; my high school, the old candy store, from which i liberated Clark bars and Skittles; my church, the bowling alley where my dad bowled with his Knights of Columbus buddies, etc. In the city I lived now I went in search of my first apartment; the Mexican Restaurant that had incredibly cheap and watered-down marguerites; the building where I worked as a ticket broker; and other spots. 

TASK:

Visit the places that make up your timeline. Get in the car and drive to the places that mean something to you, regardless if the memory from that spot is good, bad or ugly. It has to be acknowledged before it vanishes.

Write down your feelings. Arrange them chronologically. A story will unfold…

Comments or stories? joedoebula@gmail.com