So Many Changes in our Lifetime

As I was driving the Vestal Parkway recently, passing all those new hotels, restaurants and stores, I began to reminisce about some of the landmarks that are no longer there.

It's really amazing how the landscape of our towns change in a lifetime. I first arrived in the Binghamton area in the late 70s, and thinking back to that time, how much has changed. I wonder if those of us born in the past 40 years or more have ever wondered if we've experienced more change and advancements in our lifetime than any other time in history?

Think about it. If you were born in the 50s or 60s, it's mind boggling how in those few decades since, so much has changed. For example, is the school you attended still there? There were no computers, cell phones or smart TVs. How about the first home you lived in? I had to do an internet search for mine since I was born in Texas and damn, it was still there, although I don't remember it, since I was too young to remember.

My high school is now a middle school. The first house I lived in when my family moved back to New York was replaced by a highway, and my hometown's drive-in was replaced by a shopping plaza, which is now pretty much empty. Maybe they should rebuild the drive-in.

Getting back to the Vestal Parkway, I remember the bull on top of the Vestal Steakhouse (it's now at the Discovery Center), the V Drive-In and the original Vestal Plaza - wasn't that one of the first plazas to pop up in Broome County?

What area landmarks that are now gone, do you fondly remember?