Thanks to Hurricane Beryl crashing into our eastern shore it's unseasonably, blissfully cool here, only in the 80s. This is rare, remember, it's July, in Texas. Had someone bothered to do their duty to fragile planet earth and paid their carbon tax, had they obeyed the Pope himself? Perhaps, and I took advantage of this welcome lull in the War on Weather to stroll over to the square and from there to the supermarket.
Yes, we still have one, Brookshires, right in the center of this erstwhile cotton town which once numbered some 20,000 souls. It's now less than half that because we sent our cotton industry overseas to make moar money. But hold on. Not very far from me, on the way to the Pick 'n Steal Shamrock filling station, there's a house for sale.
It's been "done up" and looks pretty good, about the same age as mine but without the upper story. So there I was, strolling along the bucolic boulevard that is Franklin on my way to get coffee at the PNS, all the while admiring the refurb of this house.
"Nice job on the house," I say to the woman hosing down a newly laid concrete walkway to the front porch. She's wearing a faded Billy Joel tour T shirt, which I recognize, dating us both, and she recognizes me, after all, I walk this path daily. So it's all very sunny hello. "So what's the price on the house?" I ask, genuinely curious, "They're asking 329k" she replies.
Like, wow. 329k for a pre-WWI bungalow with a single room attic upper story. Maybe, dear readers, I've misjudged the prosperity of our little town. And go figure, the same set up would be twice that in in Dallas, which is only an hour away in slow traffic. That in mind, why are there still so many vacant and semi-abandoned properties in the center of town?
Surely it'd make sense to convert these into places to live and restore civic life to the center of this place. Maybe you can picture it, a town square with shops and restaurants, with life as opposed to asset-stripped dereliction, and all watched over by our Confederate War Memorial, a stern and stoic soldier cast in stone.
To be fair, some people are working towards this not inconsiderable goal, and good for them. Of course they're hoping to make a lot of money off the project, and I hope they do, but it's a bit of gamble. Will Dallas cash move south down I35 to LSPland? It is so far, in a small way. That in mind, where will the people who can't afford nearly half a million bucks to live in a bungalow actually live? Serious question.
Reverie over, I arrived back at the Compound from this latest recce patrol and all was well, the place still standing. We must thank God for his blessings.
Salve,
LSP
