Going Home

I took advantage of a break in the weather to make the trip from Carson City to Ely last week. Driving 320 miles each way across the wide open spaces of Nevada gives one a lot of time for reflection. I was going to spend time with my parents who have lived in Ely forever or near to that. It is very strange going "home" now. I have not lived in Ely for over 40 years and short visits there always bring kind of a strange sadness. When I was growing up there were several grocery stores, shoes stores, clothing stores, two movie theatres, and several other small businesses lining main street. Now as I pull into town, the changes I see make me kind of sad. Don't get me wrong, people who live there still love the town, (even if many of them go to Elko or Vegas to shop at Walmart), but it has changed. The Steptoe Drug Store in downtown Ely will soon close it's doors and my children received the news with dismay. As a teenager, I often stopped there to enjoy a carmel, marshmallow sundae. I have over the years taken my kids there for a fountain treat. I have one daughter in law who had a goal to try every thing on the fountain menu.
The grandchildren thought it was a new kind of fast food place. But the places of my childhood continue to change. The high school is no longer on main street, the middle school took it over when the high school moved. I have so many memories of walking from the school to the Economy Drug to have the best tuna sandwich in the world, made by Mavis. We would wander main street, visiting with friends, store owners, Mary, who made the best doughnuts and french bread ever eaten on the planet. We could stop at the malt shop and just enjoy the feeling of a small, loving home town. I am sure that the young people that wander the streets there now have that same feeling, but at my age I don't like change and it doesn't feel like the same place to me. Many of my family members still live there and perhaps they don't notice the change as much, but my visits make me nostalgic. Everyone should have a place in their memory like Ely in the 50's and 60's. It was a perfect place to grow up and build memories.