Endangered Historical Site

OK, change is great. Charlotte is no longer the rather small town that we grew up in. So after years of admiring the wonder of a metropolis in the making I now find myself searching for things in that town that have not changed.

That’s getting more and more difficult. Once, I was totally convinced that everything in Charlotte that ever meant anything to me was deliberately being torn down!

Darn, darn and double darn.

I didn’t get a chance over our reunion weekend to visit one of my favorite historic sites, but according to a recent-looking picture I found on the internet, the monument is still standing. I hesitate to mention it because the “conspiratorial” part of me thinks that if the powers that be in Charlotte ever find out that it means something to me…they will tear it down.

But, here goes: an unspoken rite of passage for boys who grew up around the Elizabeth section, was when you became old enough, and cool enough to sit outside Stanley’s Drug Store on the metal rails in front of the store…and look like you belonged there. The word drug store cowboy had not been coined back then, and if you still had pictures of Gene Autry and Roy Rogers on your bedroom wall, you weren’t really ready to ride the “Stanley Rails.”

(As I remember it, the corner of 7th and Pecan looked pretty much the same as it does here. The old A&P was on the right, I'm really not sure what was on the left, but it may have been another grocery store.....Colonial...perhaps? The iron rails still stand.)