Changes in scenery

My friend Krista posted a picture on Facebook as the Bester elementary school in Hagerstown is being torn down.
I never set foot inside Bester,which had two parts,one being a middle school originally dating back to the 1930's,but if you drove through Hagerstown's downtown going south to north,the odds were pretty good that you were familiar with the building.

It made me think of some of the other "new" perspectives that people my age have never seen before around the area.
I recently was riding around and suddenly thought "What the hell happened and where the hell am I?"
Where I was? the old Pangborn manufacturing plant that was being torn down,so instead of facing the building head on and then taking a gradual left turn parallel to the building and its brick facade.
Having spent several of our early married years living near Pangborn and taking Ryan to play at the park there,it was quite jarring to see the different view that saw you look straight back through a wooden area to the North End of town.

Another different view is the demolition of the former Manbeck Bread factory that had pretty much been a dormant eyesore for years.
Still after demolition,the view was different without something there that had been there always in my lifetime.
The larger difference was going north to south where you can now look diagonally and see from a never before seen angle.

Yet another one is in Williamsport where the Red Barron building has hit the ground in order to build a new (and badly needed) Sheetz for the community.
The Red Barron building dated back to the 19th century (So I've been told) and when you enter Williamsport via Hagerstown,you couldn't miss the building.
Now it features a view never seen before as they build the new Sheetz-straight through to "downtown" Williamsport .

One of the most fun reads that I have ever looked at was a coffee table book titled Cleveland then and now,which showed pictures of areas in Cleveland over a 100 year interval.
It was really neat to see the changes and what was there before.
I admit that it's more interesting today to see after a demolition than it is to see a new building in an old slot,but it's still cool to think about as time marches on.

I wonder how my kids will feel 40 years from now as buildings that have always been there for them are razed and what they will think.
I remember things like Wesel Blvd.being nothing but a wooded area without a road or the days when other than drug stores or 7-11's nothing was allowed to be open locally on a Sunday or when Long Meadow shopping center was the fresh shopping spot in town,what will their thoughts be?

Interesting things to think as time marches on...

Photo Credit;Krista Anderson