Passing Time

Hmmm. I used to occasionally shop here when I moved out this way. This would have been somewhere around thirty-five years ago. Of course, it’s been about thirty years since I was last there.

I swung by the other day when I happened to be in the area. I was going to say I didn’t know what to expect, but I guess I expected it to be exactly like it was the last time I had been here.

It’s not.

It was never in the best of shape, certainly not brand new when I lived out this way- but now it's closed, long closed form the looks of things, and in disrepair.

Thirty years ago, this used to be a small general store which, at the time, was run by an older couple. Inside, there were tall shelves stacked to the ceiling with canned goods and there was a small, old time butcher shop - complete with an old, well-worn butcher block counter. Off to one corner was a closet sized post office, caged off from the rest of the store.

I was surprised to see that this place was closed and I was surprised that I felt sad about it. I'm sure the older couple that used to run it have long since passed away. Where did that post office go? Did the store stay open for a while after the old couple were no longer around or did it slowly fade away?

I don't have good luck when it comes to visiting places from my past. More often than not, I'm left disappointed or sad. Some places, such as our old vacation spots, I know to avoid. But some places surprise me, like this one. I didn’t think it held any particular sentimental value for me. It was, after all, only a grocery store.

Maybe, when I leave somewhere, I have an unconscious expectation that time and life stops simply because I don’t happen to be around - and when I return, if I return, I’m disappointed to find out otherwise.

I guess I prefer to believe that no matter how long it's been, life in these places exists unchanged, frozen in time since I was there last- even when it's a place like this and even though my last visit was only thirty years ago.