Changes

(Note: The first few entries here will be from a notebook I kept in the 1990s. Once they have been entered I will begin some new compositions and essays. - T.C.)

Pineville (KY), although it appears to be stagnant and suffering from arrested growth, like all towns both large and small is constantly changing.
The town I knew in the late 1950s and early 1960s is not the one I stroll through each day in the 1990s.
Around 1960 I would walk with my grandmother ( After she was assured here slip wasn't showing and her hat was properly aligned.) from Oak Street to Pine Street where she did here grocery shopping. The town seemed to be a bustle of activity - people filled the shops and streets.
We would walk to Kroger's which use3d to be located on Pine around the area now occupied by Cardwell Furniture. After she had made her grocery selections Which she usually carried in a round wicker basket on her arm. She sent my Aunt Irene back for the "heavier" items.) Nannie would sometimes take me to Newberry's - always a treat!
The store seemed to be alive with women milling through the dry goods section or looking over a vast array of household items. I always ended up in the toy department.
Pineville in those days boasted several restaurants including The Kentucky Cafe, The New York Cafe and The Hub Grill. There was also Andy Rego's Pineville Ice Cream Shoppe where one could saunter up to a window facing Kentucky Avenue and order a cone of chocolate mat or a round, home-made ice cream sandwich!
House on the bottom floor of the Masonic Temple were several business that were a source of amusement to a small boy.
Facing Walnut Street were The Sport Mart and The City Market.
The Sport Mart was owned by Arnold Faulkner and had displays that would set my eyes a-goggle. Here were basketballs, footballs, baseballs, bats, tennis rackets and more. The counter that most attracted my attention held a wide variety of rubber fishing worms. Never had I seen so many colors and lengths of worms!
Next door was The city Market, owned and operated by Ralph VanBever.
A jovial, white haired man in a starched white apron, VanBever was the atypical shopkeeper of a bygone era. His store was always clean; the meat counter displaying an array of chops and cold-cuts; the shelves behind the counter heavily laden with canned goods, the labels all neatly facing the same direction, the products in perfect rows.
Today empty store-fronts may be seen around the court square. Kroger's no longer has a store in Pineville. Newberry's recently closed its doors for the last time. Most of the restaurants are gone, although Andy Rego's niece runs The Pineville Ice Cream Shoppe at the same old location - but the window service is a thing of the past. The Sport Mart and The City Market have given way to Farris Drugs.
Yes, Pineville (as do all small towns) changes; yet in our memories it somehow stays the same.

-September 5, 1990