The Wishums have moved!

Yes, boys and girls, there is a new WallyWorld in town. Yes, I did brave the store on opening day. Yes, I did survive and no one was injured. No, I did not buy anything (although the prices on Ipods looked pretty good). Why, you might ask, would anybody fight the crowds at a grand opening of Walmart and not buy anything. 1) I expected lots of freebies (there were NONE). 2) I am a people watcher. Human behavior facinates me. Nowhere is there a more eclectric sampling of the population than at a Walmart opening (though the human part is debatable in some cases). 3) Most important, this is MY Walmart. Like most folks who live near a new Super-Walmart, I have mixed feelings about it rising out of the East Montgomery ground where until months ago cows grazed peacefully. Yes I said East Montgomery. This claim dates me and reveals that I have now become a "long-time Montgomery resident". Why? Because when I bought this house 25 years ago it really was considered East Mongomery. In fact, the "old folks of that time told me stories of quail hunting where our house stands and of the lake that used to be in the area. Our house stands on what would have been the edge of the lake years ago. The drainage ditch just behind SuperWallyWorld and through our neighborhood and Forest Hills that continues through Eastbrook took the lake to the Alabama River. Do you understand that this means in my lifetime our neighborhood was woods and a field for hunting outside Montgomery. Back to the time we were moving here--the Eastern by-pass was really a by-pass aroung the East of nearly all of Montgomery. Sure, there have been some houses and a few businesses beyond there for many years but not very many 25 years ago. Folks who have moved here in the past 5 years can not really imagine how rapidly Montgomery has moved to the East. It started down Vaughn Road and exploded. When Eastchase was first discussed, it seemed way out there. Now do you know what has happened? This is why I had to write. Are you sitting down? Does anybody net-surf standing up? The shocking thing for me is that the Walmart just up the street is in the "Midtown Shopping Center". I am not making this up. Without ever loading the truck I have moved from East Montgomery to Midtown! I live in downtown? No doubt, this location probably is about the center of the population of Montgomery. Montgomery will soon spill over into Macon county. The Waters is about a mile from Line Creek that divides Montgomery from Macon county and that area is building FAST. When I ran today on my old route to Marshall Field I realized there is really no field left. All the hundreds of acres of Marshall field where so much running, mountain biking, motorcycling, and parking took place is now County Downs. Have you been back there? They are probably building 60 or 70 houses per year--niiiice houses. How do so many folks in Montgomery afford these houses? Well finance is for another post, the purpose of this post is to announce and come to grips with the fact that I have moved downtown without realizing it.