If Time Could Go Backwards

Do you ever wonder were all the years have gone? If Einstein’s theory is correct, if we travel fast enough we can make time go backwards and sometimes that is all I’d really like, just to have time go in reverse.

Back to a simple time when Charlotte was nothing more than a small town.

If you have lived here all your life then it is called Highway 51 and not Pineville Matthews Road. But 16 is still and always has been Providence Road.

The corner of Queens and Queens doesn’t bother you, and you know that Charlotte Country Club and Myers Park Country Club are not the same.

If you’re old enough, I’m not but my father had an “account” at Myers Park Hardware. Accounts were kept on a ledger and hand written statements were mailed out at the end of every month. I still remember being asked if I wanted to put my bag of Scott’s fertilizer on my account. I paid cash, though I don’t think my father would have cared.

My brother pumped gas at Queen’s Shell station when gas was under a dollar. I remember the day “Ben” retired and the last time I saw Dan Queen up under a car.

The lunch counter at Eckerd’s was a great place for a hot dog while you waited for Dan to change your oil.

Things were a lot simpler back then. Charlotte’s soon to be suburbs were Raintree and Carmel Estates, everything else was farmland including the winding road to Sharon where they had just anounced plans to built a new shopping center called SouthPark.


Herefords graze where Belk's now stands. Circa 1966