Changes 2 - what's gone

It is of course very difficult to show pictures of what's not there without reference pictures, but as a boy it just never occurred to me to take pictures of what was right around me all the time. Trips to Philmont Scout Ranch, sure, but the mundane life in Midland was as it "always has been and always shall be, world without end, Amen" well, no. Right. So I don't have any "before" pictures from 42+ years ago, sad as that is, and at least for the Central Park pool I have not found any online.

So this posting will be relatively short, I think. At least my very worst fears, pretty well allayed long before I set out, of finding something like Cat Stevens' "Ruins" were simply not to be. And Kathy's reflection alone says the line "And nobody / Helpin' no-one else" does not apply to Midland.

Speaking of the pool, here is all you see today. A pity: I had a lot of fun playing in that pool, diving off the boards, and in my bad-boy times with friends lobbing colored-smoke bombs into the pool. Lots of memories tied to this place -- but I guess it must have become too old and too expensive to repair so they just demolished it.

The only other place I could point to was the Circle. It was a shame to see the roundabout breached, but it seems possible that the Michigan driving style and roundabouts don't mesh. I learned to drive in the SF Bay Area, not known for its driving friendliness, but lived in the Santa Cruz mountains where cooperation was the name of the game on their narrow mountain roads, and then Seattle which had the world's politest drivers -- maybe not as much any more but still up there. And roundabouts... But I digress.

Anyway, seeing this building empty was sad. I do not know if it had all been replaced or merely a façade redone, but this was the old Nugent's (I think) drugstore. The only retail building with a highly functional A/C system in summer -- a great draw for us kids. And a source for all sorts of things such as CO2 cartridges which were never put to their intended use but ended up in rockets and "bombs."

And stuff for school; I still have the tiny red Swingline Tot stapler (plus a box of staples) purchased there for 7th grade at Central Intermediate. (Last use was, I think, on some paper submitted towards my Master's degree.)

This is the hardest picture of all: the south end of the Circle as seen from the north. Where are all the business establishments? Where's the bowling alley?

There's a florist & gift shop on Ashman just off the circle that I think was there in the 60s, but my memories of that are too faint. I was in it only once or twice with my mother.