You know you've been here too long....

Nostalgia kicked in watching pavement applied, and re-applied, and mourning trees that are being clearcut from our old "Outsider's" hangout. (Behind the high school... it the place where a pack of Kool and a sixer of Bud snagged from the parent's cooler were exchanged over testing the sound of new curse words burning off our tongues).

This little town sure has evolved in my lifetime here. I wonder how many people really remember:

• Main Elementary used to be where the Community Schools Offices are, and on the gravel playground near the building was a sandbox, one of those springy ride-on toys, a swingset, hanging bars and a jungle gym that was relocated to Baranof park, and then East Elementary (or they bought two).

• The Junior High gym had a stage and was the auditorium before there was an auditorium. The cafeteria above the gym (art room in the middle school) had an opening where you could look down onto the gym floor.

• East Addition park didn't exist. It was a swamp with a creek that ran through it with a culvert that ran underneath the street until it escaped into Potatopatch.

• The roads were mostly gravel... aside from downtown, the Aleutian Homes and Rezanof. Provided for maximum skiddage slamming the back breaks on my California Mongoose with yellow mag wheels and custom ergonomic grips purchased with lawnmower money from Elkay's bike shop (a small bike shop that was in a dug-out basement of a house on the other side of the park).
  
  
• The big bunker at the top of Fort Abercrombie was open, and you could run through and echo your voice while reading up on decades of spraypainted "I was here's".
  
  
• There was no Safeway, no McDonalds, no Pizza Hut... that area was all trees. (As well as the entire Woodless Acres development, and much of the property behind where Mill Bay Coffee is).
  
  
• Spenard's used to be where Warner is, and where Spenards is now used to be Waldo's supermarket a division of Krafts (downtown where Food For Less is now). In the entry way of Waldo's used to be a brown horse that you could put a dime in and it would give you a rocking ride. City Market was a mini-store where Mack's is now.
  
  
• We had a store called Mark-It-Foods. (Underneath where Total Interiors is now). For some reason they thought it would pass on the savings if they didn't have to price the product, so you were given a wax crayon and hand-wrote the price from the shelf onto your cans or cereal boxes or whatever.
  
  
• The hot place to go was Blairville Laser Station. I curse the Centipede that kicked off the beginning of my carpal tunnel syndrome.
  
  
• The Credit Union used to be a refurbished Dairy Queen before they tore it down and rebuilt it. I really miss Peanut Buster Parfaits.
  
  
• Beachcombers was a bar/nightclub (where Salvation Army is now). Before it moved into that building it was in a boat that was either washed ashore during the tsunami, or just permanently dry docked there.
  
  
• The post office used to be where the old KANA building was that is now replaced by the KNWR Visitor Center.
  

That is just the tip of the iceburg, I'm sure I will think of more that I should have added! Let me know if I missed anything!