|
A Changing Scenery and A Changing World
The sleepy hollows of a county in which I was raised are nothing more than distant memories. There was a time when Scenic Highway truly lived up to its name. I remember vividly the day that I received my driver’s license. I drove from Snellville to Lawrenceville and reveled in the scenery as the hills and pastures rolled on and on. It seemed that the trip would take hours. Now, of course, the road is still called “Scenic Highway,” but the scenery is certainly different. That maiden voyage that I took down the road many years ago, that seemed to take forever, has now come to pass as it now does take forever to get from Snellville to Lawrenceville. It’s a pity that the original scenery is still not available considering the time that we actually sit still on that road with tens of thousands of other folks who are also…..just checking out the scenery.
Unfortunately, the scenery has changed from rolling hills and pastures to rolling hills of backed up traffic and one new construction site after another. It has changed from watching the fog roll off the early morning fields to watching the smog roll off the early morning mufflers. It has changed from watching horses gallop wildly in the wide open spaces to now watching drivers running wildly through red lights, in very tight spaces, to try and get home before the late news. There are still a handful of old barns along the path but they are not many. The old barns have been replaced with one development after another. I understand that these new developments are now where some people call home, but it is a far cry from what was destroyed so that these homes, one after another after another, could be erected. Plots of property that had been in the same families for hundreds of years are now owned by many different families who couldn’t even tell you who the original owners were. Oh well, such is progress..
However, on a recent drive down this road that I have driven on for the past 32 years, I felt a bit saddened. I realize that progress is something that cannot be stopped. For those who have attempted to do so, they were left behind with fairly negative results. It just seems that some way, some how, we could find a healthy mix that would allow progress without destroying our entire past. The current practices of clear cutting trees will surely allow more homes to be built, but literally strips the landscape of everything that it has ever stood for. Huge oaks have been buzzed away to the saw mill in place of pitiful saplings that will never know the glory, or the memories that took place under the giant branches of their predecessors. It’s a little difficult to have a family picnic under the branches of a three foot tall pine.
Maybe we could restore some of the family history on these new developments by naming these new developments after some of Gwinnett’s first settlers. After all, they did have a little something to do with what so many now call their home. It is definitely their house but it may never actually be their homes. In these changing times, several families will call this area their home. In fact, more families will call this area their home in a three or four year time span than what this area has known for 75 or a hundred years. Home today is where you hang your hat. Home for the original owners was where you plowed the fields, where you raised your kids, where you worshipped your God, and where you helped your neighbors….and yes even where you hung your hat. Most folks don’t even wear hats any more.
I know change has to come. I know progress is a given. But, on a recent drive down Scenic Highway, I could not help to wonder is it really better?
For further information, visit www.voice4victims.com
If you are interested in having Mr. Hall speak at your next club or group meeting, please email contact information to:
SHallBadgeNotes@aol.com
021305
Archives
|
