It’s just a couple months short of thirty-four years ago I first arrived in this town. It was a lot different back then. The pastor of First Baptist and I hung around together, stirring up a little controversy on our WEBS radio program. I served three churches simultaneously. The hospital was a lot smaller – a lot smaller. The Seventh Day Adventist Church moved from that little building on South Wall Street to Highway 53. The Calhoun Times was published in a little office that serves now as Jimmy Payne’s appliance storage room.

I remember getting a call one evening from a person who was not a member of my church.

“Reverend Kent,” he said. “What are we going to do about the Pizza Hut?”

“The Pizza Hut?” I asked.

“Yes, the Pizza Hut. They’re going to put a Pizza Hut in town.”

“I heard about that,” I said. “Do you have a problem with a Pizza Hut in town?”

He did have a problem I was informed. I then asked him what he thought the problem might be. “Well,” he said, “they’re going to serve beer in there.”

“You don’t think they should serve beer at the Pizza Hut?”

“Nope. I sure don’t.”

“Well,” I suggested, “don’t eat there.”

“That is a problem,” he told me. “My wife and kids love pizza.”

I don’t know if that man’s alive today, but if not it’s just as well. I don’t know where he’d eat. Returning these thirty-four years later, I discover the Pizza Hut is not alone in its beverage offerings. There’s one food place after another all the way from the interstate to downtown.

And that’s not all that’s changed. There’s Wal-Mart. There’s Office Depot. There are more car dealers. There’s Home Depot. And the Adventists have moved to the suburbs. One thing after another has come in. One might be tempted to say, “We’re not in Calhoun any longer, Toto.”

No sooner had Dollar General established itself at the anchor (and only) store at the Sonoraville Mall than the new high school opened. A high school in Sonoraville? Where are these people coming from?

Now, let me be quite clear here: I am not against this change. It represents progress. More than that it represents an expanding tax base, which is good. I’m all for it. I only have one question: Does it have to come so fast.

I never realized how fast the change was coming until last Thursday. Coming home from my appointed rounds I noticed they had erected the pole for the sign at the soon to open Longhorn Restaurant. (Geez, from Pizza Hut to McDonald’s to Cracker Barrel to Ruby Tuesday, to Longhorn’s in three years, how would have thought?) I’m always of a mind to help my editor out. I decided to take a picture of it. There’s a perfect view from my front porch. I got the camera ready and waited. I decided to do some yard work while waiting for the lifting of the sign on the crane. Then I’d snap the picture and email it to the paper.

I loaded up the wheelbarrow at the bottom of the hill, pushed it up the driveway and around to the back of the house. I unloaded it and returned to the front porch. The sign was up. I didn’t get the picture. From the time I walked up my driveway the entire skyline of Gordon County had changed.