I am a 45 year old male who lives in Metro Atlanta. I am the type it seems is constantly reminiscing about this or that but I'm finding myself lately getting away from this and slowly accepting the fact that the 80's are gone and will never be back.

Things are different now and I am learning to accept this.

I may even break down and buy a cell phone now that payphones are almost impossible to find and if I do they usually don't work. However yesterday I did find one on the way home from downtown Atlanta and called my wife to find out what was needed from store.

"Hey there," I said. Guess what I actually found a phone that works. Just like the typewriter, word processor and letter writing many things I took for granted are now pretty much extinct.

I went downtown yesterday and realized since I hadn't been for about a year that many of the streets were very unfamiliar and for a second or two I found I had lost my bearings.

This reminded me of an event that occured in my youth in the mid 70's when my father and I had a day outing on a Saturday. I grew up in Central Connecticut and we spent the day in Hartford.
I now realize that I should have appreciated the time I spent with him more now that he has passed, this day stood out because it was very unique.

We had just left a store from the downtown area and walking to our car when an older gentleman asked us if we were heading to Newington which was about 10 miles and in the direction of my hometown New Britain, he then asked if he could receive a ride from us.

My dad hesitated for a second and decided to do so and the man got in the car. He seemed very nice so I didn't think anything about it.

We drove and passed the Colt factory and the man commented that the last time he had been through here they were playing a football game in 1927. We then arrived in Newington and he said he needed to go to Byron Street. We drove around for quite a while then my dad realized that the man was either senile or perhaps a little off.

We saw a police cruiser and let them know the situation and they said they would take the man and thanked us.

To this day, I always wondered what happened to the man, he said he had taken the train up from Philadelphia and wanted to surprise his friend. Now that I know about alzheimers it seems as though there was a good chance he may have been affected by this.

Now that I am older I realize that because things change so quickly and time seems to pass so quickly you can in theory be away from a city for what doesn't seem to be a long time but 30 years can pass in the blink of an eye. In this time, buildings are being built and torn down and areas that you were so familiar with can seem so foreign.

I used to get sad at this fact but now I am learning that it is a part of life. Nothing stays the same and the more I am coming to accept this I find that I have less anxiety and stress over seeing things change. Actually I am looking forward to the exciting new things to come without forgetting the past times but remembering them without getting lost in them.