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CAT Tracks for October 3, 2011
AFTER THE THRILL IS GONE |
A month of razing by crews of destruction, a night of blazing by a fire of unknown origin...and the deed is done. The seven buildings of Phase II of the downtown Cairo demolition are down.
All that's left is pooper scooper duty.
There are those who have accused me of being obsessed with this topic over the past month or so.
A former teaching colleague even sent me an e-mail stating sarcastically:
"If you're bored, you can help me grade papers."
But, hey...when you live in a city described by outsiders as a "ghost town", you take your thrills where you find them. When the arson business finally slowed down..."demolition derby" became the entertainment du jour!
I posted before pictures last week following the Smith & Groves fire. Below are a few extras that I took as the sun set Sunday:
The East Side of Commercial Avenue
Speaking of "mounds"...
...why do we love them so in the City of Cairo?!
In the July 18, 2011 edition of CAT Tracks entitled The Wickliffe Mounds, my catty commentary pronounced their day as done...that "The Cairo Mounds" would soon hold sway.
As proof of the power of the press, two of them (Mound 1 and Mound 5) were immediately removed. At the same time, tomb raiders swooped in and removed the treasures from "Mound 2" (aka the city dump.)
And then we stopped...
Four of the seven "Cairo Mounds" remain...along with the one volcano.
In fact, there is disturbing evidence that the demolition crews may be constructing replacements for "the ones that got away"...
So...
...with the disappearance of the seven buildings and NOT really excited about "watching the grass grow" on the newly vacated lots (especially with the winter season approaching), I shall (re)turn my attention to "The Cairo Mounds".
I shall particulary keep an eye on the rubble that was once Smith & Groves (and its former neighbors.) A massive amount of "building material"...enough material to construct a mound that would rival the pyramids of "Big Egypt" in size and scope.
And...
LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION!
Sitting as it does at the east end of Cairo's "Million Dollar Street".
Silly me...my innate skepticism, which caused me to roll my eyes when they used a $1,000,000 grant to re-brick an 8th Steet lined with crumbling, abandoned buildings.
My glass-half-empty outlook clouded my view of the future...that the "Million Dollar Street" would one day be the thorougfare leading to the biggest and best of Cairo's "Mounds"...located to your right, Dear Tourist, on your way to view the Ohio River that lies behind the 8th Street levee wall...
I am humbled...
...and shall never doubt again!
And, of course, as the title to this post suggests, I've got a song for the occasion.
I could wax poetic about each stanza of the song, offer tie-ins to the history of Cairo or the status of its aging populace...
...but I shall leave that to your imagination.
I'm tapped out...
...plus, I've got those papers to grade!
By Don Henley, Glenn Frey
Performed by the Eagles
Same dances in the same old shoes
Some habits that you just can't lose
There's no telling what a man might use,
After the thrill is gone
The flame rises but it soon descends
Empty pages and a frozen pen
You're not quite lovers and you're not quite friends
After the thrill is gone, oh,
After the thrill is gone
What can you do when your dreams come true
And it's not quite like you planned?
What have you done to be losing the one
You held it so tight in your hand well
Time passes and you must move on,
Half the distance takes you twice as long
So you keep on singing for the sake of the song
After the thrill is gone
After the thrill is gone
You're afraid you might fall out of fashion
And you're feeling cold and small
Any kind of love without passion
That ain't no kind of lovin' at all, well
Same dances in the same old shoes
You get too careful with the steps you choose
you don't care about winning but you don't want to lose
After the thrill is gone
After the thrill is gone
After the thrill is gone, oh
After the thrill is gone
