Friday, Oct. 17, 2008
Amy Birdwell: Memories Flood Back from Colleyville
There is a wonderful children’s book titled Letting Swift River Go by Jane Yolen.
The story depicts the experience of people who lived in Swift River Valley in 1927 when it was dammed and flooded in order to form a reservoir to provide water for the city of Boston. At the end of the story, a father and his daughter return to the reservoir to reminisce about their time there.
Sadly, they can no longer find any of the homes, churches and places of business they remember, because of the water which now covers their past. Yolen portrays the loss felt by these people who will never truly be able to revisit their hometown because it now lies under water.
As I read this story to a class, I thought how closely it mirrors the experience I will someday have upon driving through the streets of my hometown of Colleyville.
My parents moved to Colleyville in 1975 because of the wide open spaces. They bought a house in a moderately developed neighborhood off Bransford Road, close to the small police station and modest City Hall.
The neighborhood had dirt roads and no city sewage system. There was one grocery store and one service station within a 5-mile radius, and Highway 26 was a two-lane road with no traffic lights.
My memories of playing in Colleyville include running through unpopulated neighborhoods and playing in open fields.
There was no need for sidewalks because there wasn’t enough traffic, so I rode my bike with peaceful abandon.
I remember the sound of quiet when I laid with my bedroom window open on summer nights, and I remember the comfort and warmth of a small town.
My parents still live in that same house in Colleyville, but now I hardly recognize the streets that I’ve known like the back of my hand for so many years.
The old City Hall is an empty field and the small city park in which I once climbed monkey bars is now a baseball park with glaring lights, paved sidewalks and parking lots that dominate the landscape.
The tiny side street on which my church has been located for so many years has now been rerouted completely, and on the corner of the new intersection is a corporate coffee chain.
Most of the quaint homes that landmarked the streets like the features on the face of a loved one have been destroyed and replaced by castle-like "McMansions" that disintegrate the small-town feel I once loved so much.
Colleyville is forever expanding. I love this area, and I am happy for the growing population that brings so many wonderful people and experiences into my life.
In some ways, it could be referred to as progress, but to the child in me it feels like the flooding of my childhood memories.
I wonder if someday I will be unable to locate the places of my favorite pastimes through the flood of change that has washed through my hometown.
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