This used to be my pasture
London, ON, July 2003
About this photo: Thematic Photographic explores "different" this week. If you'd like to share something from your own archives - or are hankering to grab your camera and head out - please click here.Not far from our house, there's a street corner that not too long ago was about as rural as they come. It was your classic crossroads with thin ribbons of pavement stretching out into endless farmland one way, the distant city the other.
These days, the city is no longer so distant. In fact, it's caught up to this once-quiet place, turning it into one of the hottest intersections of development in town. They call it a power corner (I so despise that term) due to the density of big box retailers that have flocked here. Where these sweet bovines once grazed, a Tim Horton's coffee shop now stands, one of many burgeoning businesses that look like pretty much any other suburban development.
I think I preferred it when the cows and silos dominated the landscape. I guess I'm somewhat old school that way.
Your turn: Is different necessarily better? Worse? None of the above? (Yes, I'm getting metaphysical tonight. Sorry...)
Hello Carmi!
ReplyDeleteIf this were a Caption This, my caption would be:
Peek-a-Moo corner.
Now you see it, now you don't.
Terri
This used to be your pasture? I thought you were Jewish. Shouldn't that have been your Rabbi?
ReplyDeleteAnyway, you should have told your Pasture not to have a cow man!
Though Pastors and holsteins kinda have the same colour scheme.
Would a Pastor for fish be a man of cod?
Just asking.
Where I live still looks like that, Carmi. Silos and cows abound. It's nice but I could sell my house for a lot more if the city would come my way. Just saying. (but I would turn around with the money and find another cow pasture to live in)
ReplyDeleteStumbled into your blog from 'Strange Pilgram' !
ReplyDeleteAnd this is awesome ! I read through some of the posts, and in as much as i can see, the more we seem different the more we are alike ! Different parts of the world...And i quite resonate very well with the optimism that states that we can all be very much better than where we are !
I run a blog based on some of the things that i have clicked to, and its so refreshing to find someone like you !
Ok. On this particular post...This is exactly whats happening here in India too ! I live in Mumbai in an apartment that must have been part of a mountain range.
Just yesterday we were at the IIT Bombay. And spoke about how once upon a time, the lake there was a 'picnic spot' ! Now its a real estate slogan !
Really? In just six years, that corner went from this peaceful scene to a bustling retail intersection? That's rather depressing. But at least you have the photo... I didn't take the pictures I considered taking over the last fifteen or so years, so I don't have the photo record of the changes to my town.
ReplyDeleteFunny thing. In my "Different" post yesterday I was discussing -- in brief (I've discussed it at length in past posts) -- the changes to Raleigh's downtown district. Our City Fathers (which they must be because no City Mother would decorate like this) seem to have gone on a retro-disco 70's binge or something. (Personally I think we need to have them all peeing in cups, because damn.) I'm sure that there are some people who think this is just the coolest thing evah. But my reaction was that the only thing missing was the mirror ball.
ReplyDeleteThematic Photographic 78: "Different" v.3.0 - You Were Warned
When I returned home to Raleigh in 1986 after being away for 3 years in the army, I got lost as soon as I hit the city limits. Lost in the town where I grew up, where I got my driver's license, where I had explored (sometimes intentionally) almost every corner of the city. Three years worth of growth/change/differentness and a native got lost. So seeing this corner go from agriculture to mall-culture in six years is sadly not surprising to me.