By Tom Dodge, KERA 90.1 Commentator
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/kera/local-kera-567778.mp3
Dallas, TX –
The geography in Midlothian is finally equal to the influx. A decade ago this rural community had a population of 6,000 or less. David's Super Save served all our grocery needs. If Pee Wee Lawson didn't have what I need in hardware, Erdie Webb sold it and just about everything else we needed. Erdie's handyman, Ray LeFrambois, repaired all the appliances that Erdie sold us. We didn't care that Ray sometimes had to leave all our dishwasher parts strewn on the kitchen floor to answer the alarm for the town's volunteer fire department. For lunch we had the Dairy Queen and Dee-Tee's for fine dining.
Only one street, North Ninth, gave us access to the highway to Dallas, U.S. Highway 67. Along with the usual traffic on U.S. Highway 287, 10,000 enormous trucks a day hurtled directly through downtown, creating peril, noise, pollution, and stress for anyone trying to cross. As the population increased, due mainly to white flight, demographers say, traffic became increasingly unbearable. By 2005 there were more than 6,000 students in the schools, and the town's population probably tripled. Just buying stamps was a risky maneuver and once safely inside the Post Office there was a long wait on line. Once, I timed my grocery errand to correspond with the O.J. verdict and was the only one in the store. After that I began to fantasize that the Academy Awards and Cowboys games would come on every day.
Midlothian no longer resembles the town it was in 1970, not even the way it was in 1997. The most important change is the long-awaited 287 bypass. The enormous trucks and regular highway traffic now use it instead of racing through downtown. Sometimes, I can't believe it. Turning onto 287 at the South Ninth intersection is no longer a death-defying experience. Sometimes there's not a truck in sight, or even a car. I go down there on occasion just to revel in the silence.
And, for those who like a variety of items not provided at Erdie's or Pee Wee's, there are dozens of new businesses, several strip malls full of them, selling everything needed or not needed by the modern consumer. As of Monday, January 15, there is a Super Wal-Mart where the Roadrunner used to be. Brenda Dodge shivered with excitement just thinking of it. She took me out for a look-see. It could not have thrilled her and the other townspeople more. I don't think they need, now, to see the Taj Mahal at Agra. There is the Wal-Mart at Midlothian. "People come from all around to shop here," my lovely wife exulted.
My daughter-in-law called me that day from Blockbuster, another new store, and said she forgot the name of the movie I asked her to bring me. "I had Wal-Mart on my mind!" she explained.
These improvements are welcome. The new stores, streets, and industries are all good for the town. Not to trivialize heart attacks, but the highway bypass came just in time to prevent an equivalent metropolitan catastrophe. But commercial change almost inevitably brings other kinds of change. With all the new commerce in town, TXI may now lose its TIRZ and have to pay its fair share of taxes. The schools, as a result, may lose their Robin Hood privileges. They may also find it difficult to continue asking Jesus for his personal assistance in their prayers before their board meetings. And, eventually, the teachers will look out into their classrooms and see a proportionate number of dusky faces smiling back at them.
Tom Dodge is a writer from Midlothian.
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