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So-Long Small Town Blues

I’ll forever have a personal vendetta against Starbucks for paving over Parker’s drive in.

When did suburbs replace stables and castles trample corrals? 

I remember driving at least half an hour to Walmart. But we could find what we needed at Kohler’s or Kountry Korner most of the time anyway. The best find was my kitten, Keiko, wrapped up in a small boy’s jacket on the front steps of the grocery store...he and his mama and sisters were trying to find their house cat’s babies  all good homes.

My soul still shakes a fist at the city planners who destroyed a willow that was hundreds of years old, taking down Noelle’s tree-fort with it. They intended to “build a park,”  but left waste in their wake as nature’s playground rotted. And a Summer there in that great tree  was left singular.

Two lanes tripled, nay, sextupled.

Horse country to Honda country. 

They took down the yogurt parlor. They tore up the creek beds. But I smile with fearful gratitude to see the sticky shoe “Towne Cinemas” still glowing with it’s old timey lights and musty old musk. 




So long, small town. I love ya still.   






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