Out with the old! In with the new! Isn’t that the best way??
Not necessarily. I look around sometimes, and I feel a deep sadness in my heart when I see old abandoned buildings that once stood tall and proud. They were the new, bright and shiny location once upon a time. Today, they sit forgotten and ignored. Empty shells where perhaps a lonely ghost wonders, or perhaps a homeless man or woman finds shelter.
As I write this I realize I could be equally writing about my hometown as I am about my current town.
Walk through the downtown square of my hometown, and you’ll find many empty store fronts. Yes, some now house businesses, but it is nothing like the bustling square my dad talks about it having been at one time.
The drug store that had anchored downtown for so many years finally closed a couple years ago, sending its clients to the CVS Pharmacy at the edge of town. The jewelry store where many of my graduation gifts came from, where my mother’s engagement ring came from, where my brother and sister-in-law registered for their wedding, closed a few years ago. That location, luckily, does now have a new tenant. Both national banks remain, and we are the county seat and trials do keep people coming into downtown.
However, if you look at the sides of the buildings, you can still faintly see the advertising that had once been painted there. Western Auto, Sears, and other department stores have long ago left. The jail is now a museum.
I look at old photos of my hometown, and its almost as if you can feel the town’s energy cutting through the years. A bustling, busy square. Back when taking trips to the bigger named stores a couple towns over was a big trip… treated more like an event than something we just do without thinking about anymore.
Out with the old. In with the new. More is better. Go! Go! Go!
The problem is that out with the old often doesn’t mean it goes away. It means its left to decay and sit as a shadow of what it once was.
It’s no secret that I absolutely love Printer’s Alley in downtown Nashville. That little strip of bricked road has this amazing vibe that you feel if you only stop for a moment and let it sink into your soul. It’s history excites me. I want to tell the world all about it! A dream of mine is to write a book on the Alley to do just that! Its something I need to do soon before the people who can tell the tales of its glory days, the days when it was the Vegas Strip of all the South, start to die off and its interesting (and often sordid!) history is silenced for good.
All of Nashville’s history interests me. I could — and have — spent hours on end in the public library researching the city’s history. I wish I’d loved the subject in general this much when I was in school!
However, as I drive through the streets of my city and I look up in awe at the high rises, I also look down and see many forgotten buildings — not unlike my hometown. I stroll through the Arcade, a place once bustling with so much activity, and I see only a shadow of what it once was.
Friends who grew up in Nashville, who remember the glory days of the Alley and Nashville in general, tell the tales of their memories, and I find myself enthralled. I hang on to every word. I imagine my eyes shine like a child’s would at Christmas. I feel at the same time, though, a sadness deep down to see so much changed and lost. I see my beloved Alley now being ignored, almost as if the powers that be wish it would just go away.
Out with the old. In with the new.
I am perhaps one of the minority that hates the idea of the new convention center downtown. I ask, “WHY?” as I point at the many empty large facilities that dot downtown. Some of which that have long been ignored. Buildings that were once the biggest thing going, now left empty and ignored. Hosting the random show here and there, but on a whole no longer loved as they once were.
An article appeared the City Paper recently that echoed my melancholy thoughts perfectly as it questioned the closing of the fairgrounds.
“First they moved the Grand Ole Opry out of town, and now they’re running stock car racing out,†Denson said. “They’re doing away with the history and tradition that made our city so unique and special. It’s sad to see.â€
It’s sad to see. Call me a sentimental fool, but I think so much of what made Nashville special is ever so slowly being lost. I could also very easily say the same about my hometown in Texas, only my hometown just stopped all together. Nashville is at least progressing as it forgets its past.
And while the city still loves to tout its Lower Broadway and its honky-tonks, the dirt and grime were cleaned up considerably in the past couple of decades, turning seedy into trendy. — City Paper Article
I’m all for making the city safer, and I am all for growth. If you don’t grow you’ll die on the vine. But as you grow, you can’t forget where you came from. That goes for cities just as much as it does individuals. Learn from the past. Honor the past. Keep a bit of the old as you bring in the new.
