Is This Heaven?
Almost everyone I meet is from some area outside of coastal Brunswick County. Some came here originally on vacation when they were younger. Some came almost every year either with parents or as parents bringing children of their own to see the ocean, relax a little and play on the beach for a week. Some came to play golf and dreamed of retiring and buying a home at the beach. Some have homes in other areas of the state or nation and come here often to relax.
I spoke with a man at Hardee’s recently. He was retired truckdriver from the North Carolina mountains. He was an avid golfer and even a “close to scratch” golfer on his home course back in the mountain region where he had played several times a week. He and his wife bought a home at one the local golf resort communities a few years back before retirement and once they retired they sold their mountain home, paid off the mortgage on their dream retirement home and moved here fulltime. Once an avid golfer he went on to say that past injuries didn’t allow him to play on the golf course as he had once dreamed about but was still happy that he was here at the beach and living out his dream retirement.
Some of us came here to find jobs, some came to retire. Yes it is booming. Yes there is a lot of traffic. Yes there are a lot of people on the golf courses, beaches, restaurants, roads, grocery stores, shops and sometimes during the summer months its seems like you have to stand in line to get in line.
Oh, you say….what does all of this have to do with traffic problems and public input? The answer is……..BE THANKFUL.
TO THE CITY PLANNER: Be Thankful because without all these people there would be no need for a city planner.
Sure, it would have been better if someone could have looked into their crystal ball and accurately predicted when and where everyone would live and work but there were some misses along the way.
People have a way of managing. Planned and crisis management are two types of management we see the most.
Planned: Lay it out on paper, build it, hope it sells.
Crisis: Boy we guessed wrong, it sold 10 times faster than we thought. Now let’s go to the fix it mode.
RESIDENTS: BE THANKFUL that we have willing people in planning, crisis and fix-it mode in all of our area beach towns and cities. Some American cities are in reverse boom crisis. Their people are leaving businesses. Plants are closing, traffic is down, property values are declining, tax bases are disappearing and services are hard to come by.
In the movie “Field of Dreams”, the question is asked, “Is this heaven?”. Kevin Costner response was, “No, this is Iowa.” His father went on to state, “Oh, I was sure this was heaven”. Kevin Costner asked, “Is there a heaven?”. John his father stated, “Oh yes, its the place where dreams come true.” Kostner responds with, “Maybe this is heaven.”
For most of us Brunswick County is Heaven on earth or at least where our dreams have come true. Let’s all try to be a little more patient, courteous and forgiving on the roads and lines until the planning, roads and other structures can catch up.
Happy Pappy
