Webster’s defines tooling as “to cause to go, to drive, to convey in a vehicle”. Last Sunday afternoon, I was tooling around Perry with my dog, Hershey, in my dirty Ford pick-up truck seeing what I could see. That’s what country folks used to do on Sunday afternoons.
Of course, what you were trying to see depended on your age. When young, it was girls (or boys) and then later it was where you could get a good ice cream cone (that’s kinda where I am now).
This past Sunday, I was just looking at our pretty little town so I could report my findings to you. However, I did get me one of those new frosty floats from Wendy’s.
Here goes:
1. Tooling down Carroll Street, I’ll start with my kin folks’ new Christian bookstore in downtown Perry. It’s name, Beauty For Ashes (you Biblical scholars will know it’s in the Bible). Very nice. A credit to our downtown. Books, CDs, T-shirts, all kinds of gift items. And, if they don’t have it, they’ll order it. Go by and give ‘em a look.
2. Driving down Ball Street wondering if the Ball Street Extension project will ever be completed. You know, the Empire State Building was completed in just a little over a year. Construction began on March 17, 1930, and the building officially opened on May 1, 1931. It takes a lot longer than that to get a traffic signal approved and put in place. I guess it says lots about our country, today, and also about the work ethic. We need to do better.
3. Speaking of traffic signals, it seems to me that the ones in downtown Perry have become, once again, un-synced. Try going from our law office to the new Walgreen Pharmacy building without having to stop once or twice - virtually, impossible. Is it the signals, or is it me? I guess our DOT Board member (that’s Larry) ought to get on this.
4. Mentioning Walgreen’s new store reminds me to say, “it looks as if the store is going to be very nice”. Now, we have about the same number of drugstores in downtown Perry that we had 50 or 60 years ago. There are differences: a) there are probably more products on one aisle of the new mega-stores than in all of the drugstores in 1960; and, b) none of the 2008 drugstores serve the wonderful milkshakes and sandwiches that all of the stores did when I was in high school. I wish I could have one more chocolate shake and grilled hotdog fixed by Mozelle Sutton.
5. What about the new, improved intersection at Macon Road and Main Street? Improvements were really needed, and thanks to a donation of land by the Perry United Methodist Church and good work by the City of Perry, it is done! Now, I can make the turn when I head north on my way home.
6. We’ve got a good, little city with fine elected officials (not perfect, but way above-average) and great city employees. A good example of recent good works is the vast improvements being made to what I will call the City’s Big Indian Creek Park. A 10-foot wide sidewalk about a half-mile long is being constructed along the creek. In fact, it might already be in place. And, it’s handicap accessible. Those who have walked it tell me “it’s beautiful”. I haven’t walked it yet, but intend to do so within the next few days. I hope I have better luck than when Bobby Tuggle tricked me into canoing down Big Indian. I spent more time in the creek than on it! Congratulations on a good job to the City, and thanks to the Perry Rotary Club for your sponsorship and help.
7. And out at the AgCenter, the new Executive Director, Randy Moore, is excited about the Governor’s Go Fish project. Randy thinks it’s going to be “very good”! I agree. Go Randy, go fish!
Well, there’s a lot more, but I’m out of space. But, I really enjoyed tooling around our town - and Hershey said she enjoyed it, too.
