By: Garrett Mitchell, Staff Writer
garrett@thewoodrufftimes.com
You can’t turn left in this town anymore.
That sentence sounds like the title of a song. Maybe it should be. But I digress.
I am not completely certain when I came to that realization, but sitting in traffic long enough leads to amazing epiphanies that get conjured out of thin air. Certain realizations that the town you grew up in is long gone and the unstoppable locomotive of progress means any chance of it coming back has disappeared down the proverbial tracks.
My memories of being driven to school by my mother as a child are crystal clear, even 30 years later. I cherished those mornings, though I am not sure I have ever properly articulated those thoughts to her.
We would cruise through town in her grey Ford Taurus station wagon, listening to 102.5 on the radio. “Kokomo” by the Beach Boys was a big song in the late 80s. I remember that one. It was played every morning. By 1993, when I was eight years old, Billy Joel’s “We Didn’t Start the Fire” was all the rage.
Here in Woodruff, the fire is burning more and more out of control as the world keeps turning. Those of us who have lived here our entire lives are simply trying to withstand the centrifugal force and not get thrown off on the way around.
I suppose I should not be upset. None of us should be. We love our town, where we are from. Apparently, many others have fallen in love with it, too. Otherwise, they would not want to live here.
This is not the Woodruff of our youths. This Woodruff is a hub of industrial growth, and we have become a boom town at the bottom of the triangle that umbilically connects us with Greenville to one side and Spartanburg to the other. We are the sharpest point on the needle, and the community is being injected with an influx of growth and people from across the country.
Heck, we have people from around the globe moving here to this not-so-sleepy little town!
Back in the early 1990s, it would take my mom perhaps 10 minutes to drive from our house, about five miles outside of downtown Woodruff, to school on the eastern edge of the city limits. Now, that trip takes 20. The reason?
You cannot turn left without waiting for a wall of traffic to clear. Even then, it is a dubious task.
But I am ok with that. As much as I may become annoyed or mumble some choice words under my breath, I am proud to see my hometown become a place so many want to call home for themselves, too. It means we have done something right. People want to be here. It means they will be stuck in the same traffic as we all are, and if we are forced to slow down a bit, let us take that time to welcome them.
I say that in a metaphorical sense, of course. Please do not block the intersection once the lights turn green!
Do not be upset with the change. Change is inevitable. No matter how little your desire for it may be, you nor anyone else is going to wish it away. Woodruff is not so little anymore. But my hometown is full of big hearts. Now, we have the infrastructure to match.
Every time I drive around, I marvel at the changing landscape. I remember the green fields where the BMW plant is being built out on Highway 101. I remember the old lumber store where Tractor Supply sits now. I can close my eyes and picture myself driving across the bridge that took you high over the railroad tracks towards Crescent and Cashville.
There was no stoplight and certainly no McDonald’s and CVS. All you had to do was turn left, sometimes without waiting for traffic to clear. It usually took only three songs on the radio to get from home to school. I might make it through an entire track now, just waiting for the cars to pass at one congested junction.
Our town has changed and changed quickly. So much so our heads are collectively spinning. I am at peace with that. I have enjoyed meeting new people, friends, and neighbors. It thrills me to welcome them to the place I call home. It brings me joy to hear how much they love this town. It is their home now, as well.
We all get to experience this together.
Another big hit in the early ’90s was Eric Clapton’s “If I Could Change the World.” It, too, was played nearly every morning on 102.5. We are all playing a part in the change happening in Woodruff. We are helping create what our little part of the world is becoming. We can see that as a good thing or allow it to be a bad thing. I choose to see it as positive. We can make Woodruff the best little big town there is.
If waiting a little bit longer to turn left is the worst that comes of it, then I am okay with that.
Author: Tracy Sanders
I appreciate growth in small towns and think there are some beautiful things happening in Woodruff. I have to strongly disagree with your statement about “having the infrastructure to match”. We are, in fact, no where near where we need to be in that respect. Too much growth, too fast, main street is horrible to drive on and the huge 18 wheelers that are allowed to use it are destroying it and causing a very stressful and dangerous environment. Many, MANY, things should’ve been corrected, like a restricted bypass for these trucks, we’ll before we arrived at the point at which we are now. I’ve found myself in recent months avoiding Main Street at all costs, including eating and shopping just to save myself the stress. I know many share my feelings. One day I expect to hear about a tractor trailer running through one (or several) of these businesses because of the lack of preparedness that exists here.