OUR FADING PAST

It's a secret. You have to promise not to tell anyone. One of my favorite breakfast joints is closing. In six weeks to be exact. Our waitress thought since we were regulars we ought to know. Here we go again. Another something soon to be in my past and only a fading memory. We as a collective group are always anxious for something new. The next gen car, the newest fashions, new movies and DVD's. In fact we've practically have made every Tuesday a national holiday with DVD Tuesday (the actual day when new DVD's are released). Things new are waited in line for and grabbed and raised into the air for all too see and long for. Those things that are old and tired and well worn find themselves in a fight for their lives. Too old to be trendful, too young to be classic. That dangerous time when bulldozer or trash can seems inevitable. Some lucky items may sit on the blanket on the front lawn waiting to be "bargained" down to fifty-cents (take heed Michael Bolton CD's). Other items can expect no less than the bottom of some dumpster (I'm looking at you George Foreman grill). How quick we are to discard. How easy to fling an forget. I know things are only things but how sad to see items that have aledgely past their usefulness laying upon the curb. There's shadows of life in those items. The dresser that once held finery of a lovely lady. The lamp that once shone brightly on even the darkest of nights. Now replaced with more current trends. I call it Christmas tree lost sad. To know what I mean all you have to do is drive by a Christmas tree lot on December 26th. See the unwanted trees piled in the corner? Now I'm not saying we all have give up our shiny new Lexus and hop back into our '82 Ford Escort, but surely things of usefulness must still have a use. Maybe not 8-track tape players or black & white TV's. But how about grandma's old pie pantry or your broken in baseball glove from high school. Are they worth holding onto? Isn't it nice to look ahead while still holding onto something of our past? How about a little breakfast joint that you've been going to for nearly twenty-years? A place with a history far more interesting than most people? A place where coffee is still twenty-five cents a cup, where light fixtures above are made out of old oak wine barrel's. A place where the waitress knows your name and your order before you even sit down. A place where you brought your small children to, where their eyes popped out when they saw the size of the pancakes they ordered and you joked to them that they had to eat them all. Where your kids said someday they would bring their own kids here and now they do. Is this the type of place worth keeping, or has it earned a visit from the wrecking ball and bulldozer? Someday, many years from now, you will pass a large non-descript multi-story office building and point. You will say that long ago on that very site sat a little breakfast joint that many would go to. You will say how good the food was and how nice the people were. Always the sound of people talking and laughing. Coffee was still just twenty-five cents a cup. And your kids will look at you confused and bored as you drive them to that golden arch with the plastic chairs and plastic food to eat what a million others will eat.