My town

I thought I would enlighten you all today with a brief description of my hometown. Well, I call it my hometown, because that is where I live and have lived for the past 26 years. I have conveniently divided my town into geographical regions, with descriptions of each:

Northside
This is the agricultural section of town, including the farmer's Co-op and the sale barn, where cattle sales are held every Wednesday. (Trust me, it's a major event around here.) Northside features a few restaurants, including a catfish place and the "other" steakhouse. Other features include the fairly new health department and the new jail. Northside also includes the nicest lodging accomodations in the city, in the form of the Days Inn. Not a highly populated area, Northside is mostly commerce and agriculture.

Eastside
The highlight of Eastside is definitely the new Wal-Mart Supercenter. Rising like a Phoenix out of Arizona, this retail metropolis lights up the eastern sky every night. Eastside is the fastest growing area of the city. It features most of the restaurants in town, including the ever-popular Western Sirloin steak house and several fast food hot spots. There is a Sears here, a Video Gallery, a Tractor Supply, and a drug store. The area is also sprinkled with auto parts stores, auto repair centers, and body shops. A very nice new subdivision is being built in Eastside as well. It's called Knots Landing, I think. No, it's called something Landing or Acres or Hills or Pines. You know, they all have names like that.

Downtown
This is where I live, in a quaint apartment just a few blocks from the busy city square. The downtown area includes the town square, courthouse, City Hall, and the Tin Lizzies. (Oops, sorry. Got carried away.) When I was very young, the teenagers of that time would cruise around the town square bumper-to-bumper, every Friday and Saturday night. The most popular eating establishment in the downtown area is the popular Nesmith's Hamburger joint. During the day, shoppers may enjoy several shops around the town square, but most everything downtown closes around 5:00 or 6:00 PM.

Midtown
Highlights of the midtown area include the hospital, local Ford dealership, and the fire department. The hospital area also includes a nursing home, and several doctor's offices. The addition of the all-new location of Los Charros Mexican Restaurant has really revitalized this area. The city pool is also here, along with several apartments and rental houses. Other restaurants in this area include the Cardinal (formerlyl Sonic) drive-in and a barbecue place.

Historical district
Includes the oldest weekly newspaper in Alabama, the old Star theater, old Post Office, and the former (and original) location of Piggly Wiggly. It also contains the Emergency Management Agency, and the town's only radio station, a low power FM. The historical district is not very large, because what little historical remains there are, no one really seems to care about.

School district
This includes the elementary, middle, and high schools, of course. You can pack a picnic or take a quiet stroll thru nature in the mini park, also located here. There are lots of homes in this area, as well. The school district also includes the county's public library and it's largest arena, the Coliseum (kinda like Rome, except not).

Westside
This includes the Alexander Park, with four ball fields, several practice fields, four poorly maintained tennis courts, and the recreation center. Softball, baseball, t-ball, soccer, and youth basketball games are played in this area. As much of the activity and industry has grown up on the east side of town, Westside has been in decline. The old putt-putt place is located here. Westside was also home to the now-defunct radio station, the former America's Best Country, 103.1.

Southside/Compton
Southside is the largest geographical region of the town (according to my very unofficial calculations), but is mostly a residential area. There are a few convenience stores, a play school, and a couple of auto repair shops here, and... not much else.

Outskirts of town
Oh, I guess I can't forget a couple of things we claim are actually just a bit outside the city limits, like the quarter-mile dirt track and the 18 hole golf course (which is actually pretty nice). There's also the national forest just a couple of miles south of town.

That's about it, I guess. I hope you enjoyed my little tour. Now you will probably be able to understand why I usually go to Decatur, Huntsville, or Nashville on the weekend :-) Maybe I should become a tourism director or realtor or something.

"Come Sunday morning service at the Church of Christ. There ain't an empty seat there to be found. And this is my town. Where I was born, where I was raised, where I keep all my yesterdays..."