The Cracked Acorn: Changes of Time

It was a sad moment when I learned that the Tastee Drive-Thru Clown was gone! The clown on the Bowling Green, KY by-pass was a victim of the velvet hammer of progress. The nearby medical center probably needed the area for additional parking. This was one of the last places that were really fast food. You drove up to the window, placed your order, and your burger, fries, and milkshake were handed to you within a few minutes. You drove a few feet into the parking lot and enjoyed your meal. It served me well during my college days. My family was treated there on several trips to visit my parents. I can imagine that the local people used this as a landmark- We live near the Tastee Clown-you can’t miss it!

The District of Columbia almost lost THE BIG CHAIR, a trademark of the Curtis Brothers furniture warehouse. It stands almost 20 feet high and again was the reference point for directions for over 40 years.

Small restaurants that were mom & pop operations are about gone. Most have given away to high rises and office buildings. Mom is not around anymore to start the day’s turkey or chicken cooking. Forget about that slice of homemade pie you like for lunch with the blue plate special. The pie is now baked in an adjoining state and trucked into the area during the wee hours of the morning.

Those of us who were born about the end of World War II know that times were different. My father was off to the farm, and my mother made sure I was ready to walk to catch the school bus. At one time, I had to walk a half mile across three fields and back again in the afternoon. I looked forward to enjoying my walk home in the woods of tall walnut and hickory trees. The gravel road to the farmhouse wandered aimlessly with several twists crossing two crude cattle bridges. It was not in a hurry to get you anywhere. I always thought I would have a house built someday in one of its curves.

This never happened.

When I graduated from college, I went east to work in Virginia. During vacation times, I returned to visit the homestead. While I was away, a property dispute arose, and it was settled by bulldozing much of the woods. The old road was gone. A straight new road running alongside a new fence greeted my return. The old road would never be there again for me in this life.

Two roads diverged in a woods,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth.

Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-
I took the one less traveled by. (Robert Frost)

As I travel on life’s pathway, Knowing not what the years may hold; As I ponder, hope grows fonder, Precious memories flood my soul; PRECIOUS MEMORIES, HOW THEY LINGER, HOW THEY EVER FLOOD MY SOUL, IN THE STILLNESS OF THE MIDNIGHT, PRECIOUS, SACRED SCENCES UNFOLD. (lyrics-Sacred Selections for the Church) – Psalm 145:7

(Jacob said) “And this stone,which I have set for a pillar,shall be God’s house:and all that thou shalt give me I will surely give a tenth unto thee.” –  (Genesis 28:22)