No, it’s not an Earth shattering representation of history. The city’s fallen on hard times, thanks to a bunch of bad corporate choices and a whole mess of stupid educational choices, but this was my home for the first 21 years of my life and there’s a lot to be said for revisiting history as it was 50 years ago, when I was born.
Midtown Plaza is gone. The clock that was its centerpiece was relocated and a great deal of downtown is a ghost town. And yet…
And yet. U of R is still there. Eastman School of Music is there. Strong Museum of Play is there.
I’ve been away since 1986, though I return occasionally. I still think of the clock in the middle of Midtown Plaza and the monorail that took you through Santa’s mountain with all the fake glittery snow. Light Impressions was one of my favorite places to hang out. Got my first Sandra Boynton things at Scrantoms. Cathay Pagoda was an amazing Chinese restaurant in the center of downtown.
Memory is a way to travel through time and space. So are movies like these.