Feb. 17, 2004 - 21:25 MST

THE WONDERING JEW

Old Folks

So often changes cause memories of the old to rise and ache in the heart. The wish that it could once more be like it was. But it can't, what once was, is no more.

Even the new fangled shopping malls often are bulldozed and new ones crop up in the same place. Can't see where they are much improvement over the old -- but they are NEW.

In the old neighborhoods, the houses that were familiar have been changed with "poptops" altering neighborhoods into strange lands.

In our metro area we were used to some open spaces here and there, a sort of spaciousness prevailed. Now everything is being "developed" meaning more residential, apartments, condos filling those empty spaces. Going somewhere in the morning must be done after rush hour and traffic comes back to its normal chaos.

Bedroom communities surround old town, and that is what they actually are for the most part, bedrooms attached to garages and living rooms. No where near for a child or parent to go for amusement, shopping or enriching experience. And the apartment complexes, condo bondages with no real open grounds, just buildings.

Makes me remember how it was when I was in Japan. I learned that real estate was calculated in tatami's which was the area a sleeping mat occupied, or tsubo's - double wide tatami's. Real estate is precious and hugely expensive. I remember visiting some folks in the area where I was working, the living quarters were about as crowded as a tiny trailer home having about as much storage space or less. A country where they have "cubicles ?" stacked up high, with just room enough for a person to get a suitcase in and have room to sleep. Microscopic motels one might say.

I guess agri-businesses better get on the ball here, before our country is all blacktop, cement, huge highways and buildings.

This old man here often feels the claustrophobia that closes in with change and growth. Both seem to come hard to us Old Folks . . . . . . . . .

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