OK, now before I begin
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE no one take my post personal. I in no way, shape or form intend to flame anyone, and I understand that what I am about to write does not reflect any particular individuals overall opinion. But I have been waiting for this type of discussion for a few days, so here goes.
We've all been following the discussions recently about NH Natives, us vs. them, the coming of progress and the disappearance of our past. The end of the Weirs is at hand! You can't tell me how fast to go on the lake! That boats too big for our lake! The tourists are coming!
You get my point.
Now lets look at the evolution of this particular thread. What started out as sadness, bitterness and perhaps even anger at the loss of anther Alton landmark and a piece of our history has now turned into a discussion regarding the areas lack of pizza and bagel places "like back home". The pizza place and bagel shop have gotta go somewhere. Do we cut down more trees to build more stores? Do we tear down precious landmarks to build them? Will the Hathaway house be empty next to the new Dunkins, or full? Will the pizza and bagel places be empty half the year when its just us locals? Do we really need places "like back home" if we're trying to get away from "back home"? (Am I starting to sound like less??
).
Now I ask you to take a moment and digest this (a Micheal Holley "Everybody just calm down" moment
) before reacting. Again, I am not picking on anyone for their view, it wouldn't be the same here without all of them. We do a very good job of balancing out our opinions here on this forum, and its a wonderful microcosm of our area and the people who not only live here every day, but come by to visit.
But it is easy to see how quickly our quiet little slice of heaven can become modified by progress and, looking for the right term here, our visitors.