Solitude of days gone by

Gone are the days of quiet solitude in many of North Carolinas small towns. In fact, most of the small towns are gone. Time and evolution has made its impact and changed the character of most small communities and the quiet has been replaced by the constant rumble of commuter traffic and an ever present background noise.

In times past, residents living in the older houses in a small country town like Apex, NC, would often be seen sitting on the porch or in the yard enjoying a little peace and solitude. Those times now only exist in memories of days gone by and residents are usually inside in front of the TV or gone to the many shopping centers nearby.

I remember well just how quiet it was sitting with my Dad on the front steps late in the afternoon after he returned home from work at the local Ford auto dealership. Those quiet, peaceful times sitting on the steps were only occasionally interrupted by a car on the way out of town.

On occasion, we would venture across the lawn and out into the street to make the two block walk to downtown, past the railroad tracks, to the small, quaint neighborhood gas station to have a 10 cent Coca-cola and sit around the pot-bellied stove to hear the latest gossip. Now and then a passing car stopped out front to purchase gas at the astounding price of 15 cents a gallon. After filling the tank, customers often walked into the one room brick structure to pay for fuel and peer into the glass display cases at cigarettes and snacks or purchase a cigar or some other needed item.

After a time socializing at the station, we would make the short walk back home to sit for a little longer on the front steps until it was completely dark. Then we could see the display of stars and the Milky Way or watch a display of "heat lightning" from a passing summer thunderstorm in the distance. Those days are long gone but the peaceful times will always be remembered in stark contrast to life in current times when most families are caught up in the blazing fast pace of a day with both parents at work and children in day care followed by dinner at a local fast-food diner and another evening doing homework in front of the TV and rushing to run clothes through the washer and dryer for the next day.

Fast paced growth has taken away the serenity of old neighborhoods and being outside near the more heavily traveled town streets is always accompanied by the sound of approaching trucks, motorbikes and loud, fast moving cars producing a constant roar of engine noise and the scent of air pollution that comes with greatly increased traffic.

The character of the central neighborhoods has changed completely now and most of the older residents have passed away or moved on after selling their homes to younger residents. In many cases buyers simply wanted to turn old family homes into rental houses that in turn brought even more turnover and change. The families that lived across the intersection in all three directions from our home are gone and two of the homes are now rental properties. The turnover of residents in rental homes has produced an added effect of shuffling the neighborhood mix and character every couple of years or so.

With the passing of time, town planners and council members have approved changes, often driven by a desire to simply grow the tax base, allowing multi-family apartment buildings to be built in the middle of single family residential blocks, again changing the character of neighborhoods forever. Roads have also been changed to accommodate significant increases of commuter traffic passing along former small town streets.

Consider, for example, the neighborhoods around the intersection of Mason and Center streets. Long ago, Center Street was the end of state road 1010 and it served as the main path in and out of town from the east. Years ago only a small number of cars traveled the road into town bringing students, teachers and business employees into town along with customers for local businesses and shops. Center Street is now considered to be a "thoroughfare" to and from town, carrying thousands of cars a day, most from large new residential neighborhoods outside of town traveling to distant corporate jobs in Raleigh, Chapel Hill, Durham and the Research Triangle Park. Traffic into town to local stores continues but is far overshadowed by the huge volume of non-resident traffic each day.

Town planners, recently moving into a new town office building along Mason Street, recently chose to widen Mason Street to three lanes to accommodate the heavy volume of pass-through traffic, rather than focus on adding new streets better designed to handle traffic through less populated areas and preserve the so-called "historical district" with so many older homes and driveways on the crowded streets. Much talk has been made of preserving the "historic district" but this quickly gives way to approval of new development that might add to the town tax base.

Open land in this former small, rural town has been developed rapidly in recent years and the old practice of dividing land into one half to one acre lots has given way to builder "greed" and a desire to place as many homes in a given space as possible in order to generate profits and increase the tax base. The only homes remaining  with larger lots now belong to a few original residents or to those that purchased them and chose to keep the property intact. Builders choose a different path if they purchase older properties. they frequently divide an acre lot into three or four smaller lots to maximize income with no thought given to bringing an end to another of the "small town" benefits from the past.