Going home, again, can be quite a trip.....

Lonely On Peachtree Street


Dream like, I return to Atlanta and comfortable Peachtree Street.
What have they done to my hometown since the late 30s, and
why can't I find my old haunts and hang-outs in the city loved for decades while it remade itself into a modern metropolis?
Where are all the small shops and office buildings which
once made life worth going into town on any day?
Why did they tear down the old theaters, especially, the
Lowe's Grand where Scarlett visited with handsome Rhett?
Peachtree's street cars have been replaced with motor buses taking
away shiny tracks no longer gleaming in Atlanta's summer's sun.
Rich's and Davison' marched out to suburban shopping centers, leaving
a city center that offered lunch hours like vacation time.
A world service airport has replaced the Old Terminal Station where dining cars, parlor cars and sleeping cars entertained riding the rails.
Several big corporations have built skyscrapers where small hotels
catered to an international clientele who loved Southern quality.
Just off Peachtree my evening college of journalism and a bit more, is
now Georgia State University, this year fielding its first football team.
The years have been good to Peachtree Street and Atlanta, and
every American is better because they have become famous, but
down where it pulls me back to the good days, I resent the whole thing.
Perhaps, that's the price of development for our collective progeny.
From were I'm sitting, I can see that my team is already winning.


F William Broome 2008