So, I picked up my phone earlier and I found the above message in my Facebook messenger. I racked my brain trying to think of whether or not I knew this person. If you know me, you know me, and I obviously couldn’t remember him if I did know him previously. I read and re-read the comment and I began to ponder…
Where and how did he find me to start this conversation? What post did I make to spur this sort of reaction? Why did he not look at my very public profile to see that this area is my home and has been for years? What emoji should I use first?!?
Instead of blowing up and being rude as per my normal mode of operations, I decided to take it slow and carefully. I asked him if I knew him, and he responded with “Probably not, since you’re not from around here”
So started a conversation of education where I explained that I was, in fact, local to the area.
Come to find out we both graduated from the same high school only one year apart.
He was very angry about how Dunlap in particular has changed so much and, in his opinion, how the changes are for the worse. A lot of his anger seemed to be focused on the “transplants”, the families moving to Sequatchie county from out of state areas. I think that he feels that a majority of these changes are due to their influence.
I didn’t argue with him, as I hate arguing with anyone on the Internet. However, I believe that a majority of the changes happening in Dunlap are the direct result of the choices of local elected officials and local entrepreneurs.
We ended on good terms. He said it was his bad and we parted ways. I didn’t name him or reveal any of the information we talked about that would identify him. Mainly because I’m not mad at him. I understand a little bit about how he feels. It’s not easy seeing a Walgreens sitting where our local drive-in once sat.
People call it “progress”, or “change”. I call it inevitability. When we were young, the world was ours. As we get older, and our children begin having children, we slowly start giving our world away, one piece at a time. We bring it up in conversation, like “remember when the gas station next to the courthouse was full service? They would pump your gas and everything! It was right next to the local radio station…”
Now, that service station is closed and the building that once spun country tunes now houses an extermination company. It’s a change, for certain. Did transplants close the service station or move out the radio station to make way for an extermination company? Of course not. They’re moving into our area while these things are going on, but I don’t think it’s something we can lay at their feet and say is their fault.
Mainly because it’s not a “fault” issue. At least, I don’t believe so. Anyways, all is good in my world, I have one less person to dislike me, and I have the day off from work. Dang it, that makes for a great day! 😁