Hometown Arlington

Growing up Arlington has always been my home. Arlington has been my community as it has been for my family for five generations. We have lived on the same land for these five-generations and the road we live on is even named after my family. That’s the kind of community I come from, that small town community where everyone knows everyone. For my grandma this was true, she did know everyone and when she was my age Arlington was a small town but she has seen it change to become more like a city then a small little country town. Which really makes it true that communities change with time but the traditions still stay the same. In 1950 Arlington was a quiet town, where farming was the main source of  income and where everyone knew everyone. Times were a lot slower pace back then, where church and family were the main focus in life. The only way to communicate was with a wall phone that ran on a party line, and the main form of travel was more with a bike than a car. Gas was only 25 cents and the entertainment they had was to go to the movies, which they did a lot. There were no phrases like “cool” or “hey dude”, if anything “dude” was a name for a ranch hand on a farm. Every year there was a Fourth of July parade and Arlington Hardware was a place to get supplies, as was the Co-op. The Silvana fair was the hit thing to go to in the summer, and football games to go to in the fall. Back then it was just an easier time to live where things were just simpler and there wasn’t any crime or drugs. It was a safer time to live in.  Now, in Arlington it’s not such a quiet town. It’s more common to not know anyone when you walk in to a bank then to know someone. People are always in a hurry to get somewhere or to leave somewhere. There are not as many farms now.  There are more small shopping malls and fast food restaurants. Every year I see more and more farms disappear and in there place goes an other housing development. It’s very rare to see children riding their bikes down the road because of how unsafe it can be. There are many forms of entertainment now, other than just going to the movies, in fact people rarely go to the movies because it cost too much. There are so many forms of communication now that it’s ridiculous; there are cell phones, email, home phone, pagers, and even My Space. Its not like back in the 50’s when people use to talk more in person, now its all about the different forms of communication. People could go their whole lives now with out talking in person. Which I think has changed our community, it has made our community more impersonal. People aren’t as friendly or willing to get to know other people, they just stick to there every day busy life. There is a lot more crime and definitely a very high drug rate then back in the day. Which is sad to think that are community has come to that, when it use to be such a safe place.
Even thought Arlington has changed over the years there are a few things that always stay the same. These things are tradition that have happened for many years and are still happening today. Such as the Arlington Fourth of July parade, ever since I was little every Fourth of July I have gone to this parade, and every year it is the same.  Even the one-year when it couldn’t be on Main Street because the whole down town was under construction and re-modeling, they still had the parade. It just was a street above Main Street instead. There is also the Silvana fair that happens every year no matter what, even though it has change venues a few times, the fair itself has stayed the same. There are many small traditions in a community that no matter how much time passes stay the same, some are big celebrations like a parade and some are small traditions like the one people have on my road. There are several families on my road that have had family members on the same piece of property for generations, just like my family. This is a small tradition in our community to keep the land in our family. Traditions like these are what make up our community. They give groundwork of the people that belong in the community and help the community grow and build like it should. Some of these traditions such as the Fourth of July parade or even the Silvana fair bring the people in our community together to bond and form a more unified place. Other small traditions do the same but just in a smaller way. There are a lot of different kinds of communities, some are big and some are small but they all seem to have some sort of tradition behind them. No matter how much the world and things change around us, these traditions will always stay the same. They are the base of the community and will always be and as long as these traditions stay the same the community will at least stay the same because it will form around these traditions. Which really makes it true that communities change with time but the traditions still stay the same.