If you would, turn with me to Jeremiah, chapter 29. It’s located in the prophetic section of your Bible – right past the Psalms – in between Isaiah and Lamentations.
I grew up not far from here in Huntington Woods in Camp Croft. So, I’m very familiar with this area. You know, it’s changed a little bit since I was growing up here. I used to ride my bike up the steep hill on Old Georgia Road, now known as Carolina Country Club Road. Actually, I was a chubby little kid, so I had to walk my bike up the hill. And I would cross the two lanes of Highway 56 to go to the “Fast Fare” at the top of that hill with a dollar in my pocket and I would buy a coke and a comic book.
I did that every Saturday. And if the Fast Fare didn’t have the comic book I needed for my collection, I would ride my bike up to Eckerd Drugs Store right beside the Winn-Dixie which was across the street from my Elementary School, EP Todd.
When I got to be a teenager, I got my first job at the Winn Dixie. My high school sweetheart and now wife, Lisa, worked at Roses. Sometimes we would take our breaks at the Hardee’s on the corner.
Of course, now, there’s a Bi-Lo where the school was, the Hardee’s has moved, Winn Dixie and Roses have closed, The Fast Fare is something else and I’m pretty sure they don’t sell comic books. And now, any parent who would allow their child to ride their bike all those places and cross the four lanes of traffic on Highway 56 would probably be thrown in jail for it.
Things have changed, haven’t they?
