I've lived in the same area all 33 years of my life, and so many times when I'm driving down the road, I have thoughts like, "I remember when Goodman Rd. was 2 lanes" or "I remember when Airways was nothing but gravel past Hillbrook." There isn't much around this town that has been preserved. New technology, new development, commercialism. It changes things. But this park where I took the kids, as seen in these photos, it really is just about the same. A new swing set was installed, and you can see some warehouse buildings in the distance that were not there when I was a kid, but everything else is unchanged. This is the park my Grandma Yarbrough would take us when me and my sister were little; it was in walking distance of her house. She would push us so hard on the swings, despite her bad back, and I can still hear her laughter as we would squeal from getting "sent to the moon" on the swings.
This was one of those special moments with my kids when they didn't really know how special it was to me, getting to share with them a little piece of my childhood. How often do adults even get to share a piece of their childhood with their kids?? So many of my childhood hangouts are GONE. There's no more Libertyland, Opryland about 4 hours from home is now a giant outlet mall and a parking lot, the old Southaven Cinema is used as a church building, and Southland Mall isn't safe to venture off to anymore. But this park is still (mostly) in tact.
(Me in '95, age 14; Jake in '11, age 8)
