You Can't Go Home Again

Every time I go to Nashville I am amazed at the changes. The traffic, the new buildings, the prices. Someone has bought my grandmother's house. The house was in our family for 61 years. The man who bought it is 'remodeling' it for his family. in my grandmother's day it was a 3 bedroom house. Across one side of the house was my grandmother's dining room and living room. She loved those rooms as they were combined into one huge room. All that is left of her house is the foundation, 3/4 of the wall of the front of the house and 1/4 of the back wall. Why these smatterings wereleft I have no idea. Apparently he is planning on making the original single story house into 3 stories. It is rumored to be a $1,000,000.00 house when it is finished. When I heard about the possibility of her house being torn down I thought I might be more upset when I saw it. I wasn't. The memories I hold for that place is in my heart, always will be. What was upsetting is that the neighborhoods I grew up in are changing from middle-class, one family homes to $1,000,000 hulks that leave no yards, no places for children to run around in. And how many parents will actually grow to know their children in those places if they have a several thousand dollar a month mortgage? Glad I left the big city a long time ago.

On the other hand the big city is a nice place to visit once and awhile. The boys and I had a great time visiting some old haunts. We headed out to Cheekwood the first day. The Cheeks were one of those old, big money families that left their mansion to the city. It houses a nice art gallery and is surrounded by lovely gardens. We were drawn this time because there were 6 large, outdoor mazes to ponder. Two years ago Cheekwood had had treehouses. That was a great exhibit. Unfortunately, the mazes did not fare as well. The mazes were too simple in some cases, non-existent in others. We did enjoy walking the grounds tho.

The second day we made a visit to Ellington Agricultural Center where the International Tree Climbing Competition was being held. They had several large trees 'roped up'. Part of the competition seemed to include the ringing of cow bells far out on some of the higher limbs and dropping foam rods into targets on the ground. While we were there they didn't have any announcers so it was hard to tell what was going on. Looked like fun tho, I'd like to give it a try. The equipment looked mostly like what we use when rock climbing. Another walk thru some beautiful gardens was a nice ending to that trip.

And of course no trip to Nashville would be complete without a stop at Dragon Park and the Cumberland Science Museum.