I recently made a visit to my hometown. Like lots of people, I have wonderful memories of growing up in the 60s and 70s in a prosperous community. Nancy Sinatra’s song “Downtown” rang true back then. Downtown was fun and where the action was before indoor malls. I remember a huge Montgomery Ward store with a large candy counter where my mom would buy a bag of mixed malted milk balls and chocolate stars. So I was excited to stroll those sidewalks again. But memory lane is not always such a beautiful street. The gorgeous stone church I attended is still there, but the steps I climbed so often to enter the sanctuary are gone and replaced by a wall. My elementary school lies vacant with weeds in front that are taller than the kids that used to attend. My high school also lies empty – someone painted the doors pink before it closed. The streets of small but well kept homes are in disrepair. The town has hit hard times. It depended on one industry and did not diversify. The town leaders did not foresee the future, so now my hometown lies in disarray.
Memory lane is a good place to visit and the past holds many lessons for today. But I can get stuck in the past. Rather than take the lessons it teaches and move forward, I tend to grow melancholy. Like the apostle Paul says, forgetting what lies behind one must press forward. I do not want to stumble now because I am not looking where I am going. I had a beautiful past and God promises a beautiful future eventually. But for now, I would not want to stumble on anything behind me! I shall concentrate on improving today and dream of what lies ahead.
Thanks for sharing. I remember that daddy would give us each a quarter to buy our own bag of candy. We must have circled that counter so many times before we made our decision. Yep, we were a decisive bunch even back when!
The elementary school I attended is now a museum. That would make anybody feel like a relic.