It's 9AM
Would it make a difference
I saw a picture of an empty parking lot this morning.
Cracked blacktop.
Weeds.
It made me think of the Mall.
The one back in Pine Bluff, the small town I grew up in.
It is dying.
Still.
Despite the millions of dollars spent rehabbing Main Street with a new library and Art Center, it still sits in the top five on most of the worst lists.
Highest murder rate per capita.
Lowest income.
Potholes and no streetlights.
But when I close my eyes, that is not the town I see.
I see a different era.
I remember the taste of water straight from a rubber hose.
I remember the absolute freedom of running wild,
only knowing it was time to come home because the streetlights flickered on.
I remember Danver’s.
It was a burger joint right across the street from my high school campus.
We had open campus, so you could speed out for lunch
They had a burger topping bar that could turn a regular cheeseburger into a culinary masterpiece.
Those are the memories that stick.
The good stuff.
Recently, a motivational speaker who made his money in crypto offered to buy the abandoned Mall in Pine Bluff.
He held a carnival, drummed up a bunch of excitement about resurrecting the place,
and tapped right into the nostalgia of the citizens.
Then he backed out quietly.
He claimed he lost his earnest money over some tax liens, dropped the deal, and walked away.
It was just another case of a boy crying wolf, leaving the people of a dying city crying.
What if?
I think about that a lot.
Why do we let our past decay while we wait for someone else to save it?
Small-town America is full of decay, but it is also ripe for rebirth.
I look at places like Wilson, Arkansas, where a couple moved back to their Delta town and turned a single block into a destination with a Michelin-rated anchor cafe.
They did not wait for a savior.
They built one.
My grandparents were depression-era folks.
They knew what it was like to have nothing, so they taught me how to make do and how to homestead.
They taught me grit.
You cannot build a future if you are constantly mourning the past.
And you cannot resurrect a dead town—or a dead dream—
by just hoping someone else brings the money.
You have to do the hard shit yourself.
Take the lessons from the dirt, the rubber hoses, and the cracked blacktop.
Use them as the foundation for whatever you are building today.
Stop waiting.
Clever Sleuths & Cozy Mysteries group promo
FREE Feel-Good Fiction - July group promo
Amateur Sleuth - First In Series or Stand Alone Copy group promo