To the that one in 10,000. Do you ever feel like a ghost? Ever visit a place you once knew well but now it’s so vastly different you barely recognize it? That’s how I have been feeling the past week here in Dallas. I grew up here north of White Rock Lake. If you ever saw the movie Dazed and Confused those are my stomping grounds. Lake Highlands. In 2015? Jeezus! I mean physically the same streets, the same parks, the same homes with a lot older, larger trees, yea, all the same. But the feel, the atmosphere, the boarded up businesses, the ratty Honda accords with grey primer blasting out rap along with mufflers with holes in them rasping out ear wincing doses of decibels on Northwest Highway.
So many closed and boarded up businesses. It’s like the whole place has been turned into a ghetto. Thriving Whataburgers in the day gone and replaced by a boarded up “plant store” that looks like it last saw the light of day over 10 years ago. I kinda felt like Charlton Heston in The Omega Man. The old Pizza Hut down the road has been boarded up on the sides, the front blown out and plate glass and a door put in the front wall to turn it into what looks like a homeless encampment/washateria. That was the coolest Pizza Hut in all of Dallas. Skip Baker used to run it. A world class place that was packed every night of the week. With I dare say the best jukebox in all of Dallas. Now a faded memory long past its prime.
Coming in to Dallas over Lake Ray Hubbard was the same except the old oak rope swing into the lake has been gutted and replaced by a concrete parking lot. Whoa! That was the place to hang out on hot summer weekends. Now just some ritzy name brand hotel with a snooty expensive restaurant across the street. Another memory smashed. OK, at least the old drive in on Plano north of the tracks has to be there right? At the very least the remnants right? The old lot and/or the dirt road leading to the cashiers box where millions of kids passed through there in the trunk of their car. Blast!! Nothing left! I mean nothing!! It’s as if it was smote from the earth.
My city was gone! My old place was still there. There was a huge open backyard at my old place where all the kids would play, now the huge backyard has been fenced in with 10 feet high fences and a huge brick wall from the garage to the alley. Looks like a fortress now rather than the local hangout for kids with too much energy. Whoa, that’s another thing. Where are all the people? It’s like a ghost town. No kids, no people, no animals. Cars parked at the curb but I might as well be the only person in Lake Highlands alive. It’s kind of creepy in a way.
Lest you think you are the sole survivor in a holocaust all one needs to do is hop on LBJ Interstate 635. Those thoughts leave you in seconds replaced by “Jeezus!! I have been instantly transported into a Mad Max movie!!”. Texting drivers acting as if they are trying to hook onto your bumper all the while doing 75-85 mph just inches behind you. Pray you do not need to change lines anytime soon since all the participants in today’s race are guarding their spots closely so someone does not steal them. Heaven forbid! A pack of rats on a treadmill doing 80mph and most of those are distracted with texts, phone calls, applying lipstick etc… making moi very wary of spending any serious time on the local Interstate system in the heart of the city. Give me the good old two lane countryside anytime.
L
Somewhere In Texas
“Something is about to happen. Something very wonderful.”
