The economy…well, I am so tired of hearing about how this country is in a recession. It ain’t. It is in a depression – as in the comment many people are saying right now, “I’m depressed because I do not have a job.”
I am very fortunate to still have a job in this economy. But, then, Phenix City has been in a recession since the 1950s. Basically, we, here in East Alabama’s East Coast Community (yes, we are on the coast of the Chattahoochee River and it sounds better than here in Alabama’s East Bank Community.) have seen little to none when it comes to economic growth since the 1950s.
We just seem to remain the same. No matter what our political leaders (and I use that word loosely) have told us over the years. We saw Phenix Plaza die with the opening of Grant City which became K-Mart. K-Mart is still around, but lost its momentum with the opening of Wal-Mart. You can drive along the city’s 280 Bypass and, if you have a good memory, remember all the stores that are now long gone – Howard Brothers, Gaylords, Goolsby Food, Big Star, South Star, Winn Dixie, Victory Auto Parts, Dixie Dog, Del Taco, Po Folks, Western Corral, Mr. J’s Steakhouse, Food Giant, Wendy’s, Torch 280 Supper Club, Torch 280 Truck Stop, Hancock Fabrics, Frank’s Warehouse, Bill, Neil and Phil’s, Neil’s Sports Shop, Pizza Inn, Brand X Restaurant, Durango’s, China Eagle, Texaco Service Station, Shell Service Station, Town and Country Hotel and whatever the name of that do-nut shop was. All are gone and some have left behind empty buildings.
Who would have ever thought – provided you grew up in Phenix City and are more than 50 years old – that the Townhouse and Lane’s restaurants would close. And, the Biff Burger, Dairy Dream and (as I choke with emotion) Chicken Comer’s. If I thought a little more, I could come up with many other stores and restaurants that have long left our tiny hamlet.
The more I think about our economic situation, the more depressed I get.
In the 1950s, Phenix City had a population of about 25,000. The population has not increased much over that – somewhere around 30-35,000 – since those days when compared to surrounding communities. Still, even with an increase of 10,000 people, Phenix City has the tax base of a city half its size or less.
About the only growing industry in Phenix City is its school system, which has seen an increase in students of about 1,400 in the last seven years. The school system, with BRAC on the horizon, may grow at an even more rapid pace in the next few years. That means Phenix City will see more and more homes built to handle the families that will relocate to the area because of BRAC.
Our city government will have to grow to meet the demands of an increasing population. We will need more police, firefighters, public works employees, utilities employees, recreation workers, etc. Our infrastructure will need to be updated – more capability to produce water and waterlines to handle the increased production to name a couple of things.
Where will the money to handle all of this come from? The taxpayers will pay dearly because of the tax base we have created in Phenix City – a tax base created by our spending habits and attitudes. Not long ago, I remember a former city council presenting a list of projects to the citizens of Phenix City for their approval and for their consent to increase property taxes by $1 per month ($12 annually) to fund those projects. I can remember when renovating the old Central annex building was suggested and proposing to move the library was presented. One of our more brilliant citizens objected, saying, “We don’t need a new library. They have one we can use in Columbus.” The same argument was used on every other project presented to the public at that time by this individual. Yes, he was right. Columbus has everything and we can pay to use those things there. We have nothing in comparison – except a growth in the number of bedrooms we have built to handle the economic growth Columbus and other surrounding communities are seeing.
All this being said, we must come up with a program of economic development for Phenix City. I have two – both extreme – and others should be considered before allowing mine to be implemented.
My first plan: declare Phenix City an independent nation and regard the bridges to Columbus as border stops. People traveling out of Phenix City is okay, but when they return they must go through Customs and pay a steep tariff on items purchased outside of Phenix City.
My second plan: remove those bridges leading away from Phenix City. I doubt anyone will want to swim back and forth across the Chattahoochee, but you never know when it comes to Phenix City folks. In many cases, they will go out of their ways to spend money elsewhere.
Thursday, September 23, 2010
Saturday, September 11, 2010
I should have attended more class reunions
“I went to a garden party to reminisce with my old friends
A chance to share old memories and play our songs again
When I got to the garden party, they all knew my name
No one recognized me, I didn't look the same”
Ricky Nelson, once a famous teen idol in the 1950s and the star of an early television show, sang those words in his song “Garden Party.” I understood them a little better after attending the Central High class reunion for 1973-75 last weekend at the Central Activities Center. It was a lot of fun. I want to thank all those people who worked so hard to put it together. It was the first class reunion of any kind that I had attended since I graduated.
But, I wish they had not made up those badges for us to wear.
It hit me like a ton of bricks that I no longer look like I did back in 1975. It hit me even harder that I would have worn such ugly clothing. The badge had my senior portrait – taken straight from the 1975 annual – of me in a plaid coat with a striped tie. It was ugly.
I was not the only person there that could, or should have been, embarrassed by those photos from that annual. I saw folks that no longer favored those photos. That, for most, was a good thing. We all have to grow older, mature and step aside for a new generation to take over our places as youth. I’m working on being a second generation past those days.
My hair is a lot shorter than it was back then. I still, from time to time, allow it to get a little too long, but nothing in length to compare to that 1975 style. I could grow it as long as it was back in 1975 if I wanted, but it would not be the same color without some help from a beautician. There were some folks there that were fighting the aging process by this method – and you could tell. I pointed out a spot on one fellow’s hair that he had missed. He swore he did not dye his hair – and pigs fly, too.
For the most part, the majority of people attending were content to allow the aging process to take place.
The night began with a solemn moment as classmates from the three classes who are no longer with us were honored. My class, 1975, had the most recognized – it seemed like more than 30 had left us.
Alan McDonald, the husband of a classmate and who did not graduate from Central, remarked that the 1975 class had lost more people than he had graduated with at Glenwood. He also said if my photo appeared on the screen that he was going to run out of the place. I assured him that if my photo showed up, I was going to run with him.
Thank goodness my photo was not there, but I could easily have been included with the group had I not gone through heart surgery in February. Because of that, I was among the lucky people who were able to attend the reunion this year. Hopefully, I will attend more over time.
As I mentioned last week, I am getting better at learning about Facebook. It sure came in handy at the reunion. A lot of the people who chose to attend have Facebook accounts with current photos, so I recognized more of them than I probably should have. Most people had to look at my badge – twice – to recognize me. I cannot say that no one recognized me because I see many of the people who attended on a regular basis. A lot of us are still here in this area - Phenix City, Smiths Station and Columbus. I guess we all had hopes that this area could be a better place if we planted our roots deep enough. There is always hope.
Others from our classes left and made better lives in other places. I suspect they make those places better places for their being there. It does not hurt to spread our area’s influence over a larger area. The class of 1975 has members living in places like Ariton, Ala., and Little Rock, Ark., and Los Angeles. I am glad some of them were able to come back “home” for the reunion. I am sure the members of the other two classes at the reunion can boast of the same wide-spread influence of their classes.
As anyone who knows me knows, I love to talk about sports, especially local sports. I used to enjoy talking about sports on a broader scale and I got an opportunity to talk about sports on that broader scale at the reunion with someone sitting at the table I homesteaded when no one was looking. Actually, I just sat down to eat while others were in line getting their food and remained the rest of the night because of the conversation.
I sat at a table with one of my classmates who moved away, Deborah Boddie. Her last name is no longer Boddie. It’s Birdsong now. She married a guy named Otis from Winter Haven, Fla. He played a little basketball in his younger days. When Deborah introduced us, she mentioned he played for the University of Houston. Immediately, my mind told me it just could not be so. There was no way I was sharing a table with a legend.
We chatted about athletes who played at Central who went on to play college sports and professionally as well. He knew about some of our former Red Devils. Since Deborah is a cousin of Ken Johnson, Otis was familiar with him. He also knew Joe C. Meriweather. It was when he started talking about playing against some of the people we were talking about that I realized he really could be that “Otis Birdsong.”
Some of you will remember Otis was the Southwest Conference Player of the Decade for the 1970s and was the second pick overall in the 1977 NBA draft by the Kansas City Kings. He was a four-time NBA all-star. And he married one of my classmates. Deborah and Otis have five adult children and several grandchildren.
And, yes, he was that Otis Birdsong. I had to look him up on the internet to be sure. I wish had just asked him if he was who I thought he was instead of researching his images on the internet after I got home that night.
I wish now that I had attended earlier reunions. Maybe I would have already known about Deborah and Otis. Maybe there are other stories out there I could have discovered about my former classmates. I sure wish I had attended those earlier reunions. I could have filled up a whole lot more inches in the newspaper I’m sure.
A chance to share old memories and play our songs again
When I got to the garden party, they all knew my name
No one recognized me, I didn't look the same”
Ricky Nelson, once a famous teen idol in the 1950s and the star of an early television show, sang those words in his song “Garden Party.” I understood them a little better after attending the Central High class reunion for 1973-75 last weekend at the Central Activities Center. It was a lot of fun. I want to thank all those people who worked so hard to put it together. It was the first class reunion of any kind that I had attended since I graduated.
But, I wish they had not made up those badges for us to wear.
It hit me like a ton of bricks that I no longer look like I did back in 1975. It hit me even harder that I would have worn such ugly clothing. The badge had my senior portrait – taken straight from the 1975 annual – of me in a plaid coat with a striped tie. It was ugly.
I was not the only person there that could, or should have been, embarrassed by those photos from that annual. I saw folks that no longer favored those photos. That, for most, was a good thing. We all have to grow older, mature and step aside for a new generation to take over our places as youth. I’m working on being a second generation past those days.
My hair is a lot shorter than it was back then. I still, from time to time, allow it to get a little too long, but nothing in length to compare to that 1975 style. I could grow it as long as it was back in 1975 if I wanted, but it would not be the same color without some help from a beautician. There were some folks there that were fighting the aging process by this method – and you could tell. I pointed out a spot on one fellow’s hair that he had missed. He swore he did not dye his hair – and pigs fly, too.
For the most part, the majority of people attending were content to allow the aging process to take place.
The night began with a solemn moment as classmates from the three classes who are no longer with us were honored. My class, 1975, had the most recognized – it seemed like more than 30 had left us.
Alan McDonald, the husband of a classmate and who did not graduate from Central, remarked that the 1975 class had lost more people than he had graduated with at Glenwood. He also said if my photo appeared on the screen that he was going to run out of the place. I assured him that if my photo showed up, I was going to run with him.
Thank goodness my photo was not there, but I could easily have been included with the group had I not gone through heart surgery in February. Because of that, I was among the lucky people who were able to attend the reunion this year. Hopefully, I will attend more over time.
As I mentioned last week, I am getting better at learning about Facebook. It sure came in handy at the reunion. A lot of the people who chose to attend have Facebook accounts with current photos, so I recognized more of them than I probably should have. Most people had to look at my badge – twice – to recognize me. I cannot say that no one recognized me because I see many of the people who attended on a regular basis. A lot of us are still here in this area - Phenix City, Smiths Station and Columbus. I guess we all had hopes that this area could be a better place if we planted our roots deep enough. There is always hope.
Others from our classes left and made better lives in other places. I suspect they make those places better places for their being there. It does not hurt to spread our area’s influence over a larger area. The class of 1975 has members living in places like Ariton, Ala., and Little Rock, Ark., and Los Angeles. I am glad some of them were able to come back “home” for the reunion. I am sure the members of the other two classes at the reunion can boast of the same wide-spread influence of their classes.
As anyone who knows me knows, I love to talk about sports, especially local sports. I used to enjoy talking about sports on a broader scale and I got an opportunity to talk about sports on that broader scale at the reunion with someone sitting at the table I homesteaded when no one was looking. Actually, I just sat down to eat while others were in line getting their food and remained the rest of the night because of the conversation.
I sat at a table with one of my classmates who moved away, Deborah Boddie. Her last name is no longer Boddie. It’s Birdsong now. She married a guy named Otis from Winter Haven, Fla. He played a little basketball in his younger days. When Deborah introduced us, she mentioned he played for the University of Houston. Immediately, my mind told me it just could not be so. There was no way I was sharing a table with a legend.
We chatted about athletes who played at Central who went on to play college sports and professionally as well. He knew about some of our former Red Devils. Since Deborah is a cousin of Ken Johnson, Otis was familiar with him. He also knew Joe C. Meriweather. It was when he started talking about playing against some of the people we were talking about that I realized he really could be that “Otis Birdsong.”
Some of you will remember Otis was the Southwest Conference Player of the Decade for the 1970s and was the second pick overall in the 1977 NBA draft by the Kansas City Kings. He was a four-time NBA all-star. And he married one of my classmates. Deborah and Otis have five adult children and several grandchildren.
And, yes, he was that Otis Birdsong. I had to look him up on the internet to be sure. I wish had just asked him if he was who I thought he was instead of researching his images on the internet after I got home that night.
I wish now that I had attended earlier reunions. Maybe I would have already known about Deborah and Otis. Maybe there are other stories out there I could have discovered about my former classmates. I sure wish I had attended those earlier reunions. I could have filled up a whole lot more inches in the newspaper I’m sure.
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