Mayberry, Texas -- Ever just go there? (Plano, Abilene: home, gated)

[TexasReb]

Greetings fellow Texans,

I was just wondering if any of y'all ever just take a notion, a hankerin', or something akin to just taking a drive and going back to places you remember as a kid or something? Or, maybe just swinging off I-20 or 30 and follow the signs which show some little out of the way place? Or, just take the "backwoods" rural highway route to your destination?

The trigger for this question came about when listening to this old song by Alan Jackson. The Little Man.

I might as well have grown up in Bowie or Alvord, Texas...as most of the family lived there and it was the setting for lots of family reunions and dinner-on-the-grounds. In fact, they are the fictional setting for some short-stories I later wrote about kissing cousins and lightning bugs.

Last time we went thru there (on the way back from Caddo Lake), in the old areas, it was barely recognizable, what with the Wal-Marts and the impersonal convenience stores all around. The old cafe's were mostly gone as was the mom and pop stores.

Don't get me wrong. I am a fiscal free-market conservative to the max, but I was never a big business conservative in the sense I ever thought that -- as the old saying goes -- what is best for GM is best for America. Some things are just not right...and that is the closest way I can write or get to the essence of the thought...

Anyway, do any of y'all ever just take a poignant drive, or swing off the main highway and just remember when...? Wonder if that world ever really existed, and if, maybe, it still does?

Here are a couple of links:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBh-m1yTZS0&ob=av2el


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AirBbS4R7Z0

[Cowboybootnut]

Sometimes when I travel to and from Plano to Shreveport, I love taking HWY through Elmo, Wills Point, Edgewood, Hawkins, Big Sandy, etc. Same thing when I travel to Abilene or further, HWY 180 Palo Pinto, Albany, Anson, Roby etc.

I enjoy seeing those small towns, a lot of times I'll stop in a cafe or store just to soak up the atmoshpere.

I hope we never forget or lose those towns, they each have their own charm.

[Pontificator]

Reb, as always, you speak my language. And Joe South is one of the folks I can hear in my Daddy's voice. Just for glee, drove over to Cool, TX, today for some downhome Lebanese food at Dee's Diner. Mmm-mmm. I like quirky Texas.

And I like all the home places in Texas.......early days in red dirt, iron stone areas of East Texas, and after marriage, the home places in the Bohemian areas of South Texas. Nothing I love better than driving quiet two-lanes and visiting the mom & pop's. I only like neon if it's decades old.

[DanielWayne]

We always pull of the interstate to check out little towns that I read about on the internet. Fayetville Tx was the most recent place I investigated. That's pretty dang close to a Mayberry town. I want to go back in the Spring because I have read they do bluegrass jam sessions on the town square and everyone is invited.

[love roses]

I love to get off the beaten path! Freeways are fast, but so impersonal. I like driving through small towns and having a look around. I also like to get back to the places I remember from Childhood. A few I haven't made it to in a while are Mathis and Pleasanton. I guess a road trip is inevitable this summer