I may have mentioned to you before that I’m not a big fan of change. Yet, everywhere I look things change. I took a little trip to Key Town and the amount of change in that old neighborhood really got me to thinking – and reading a little about change

Albert Einstein said, “The measure of intelligence is the ability to change,” which may say quite a lot about me! 2 Corinthians 5:17 says, “Therefore if any man be in Christ he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new”. That is certainly change I can welcome.

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about the changes brought about by road builders. And, I know I’ve mentioned before the old roads that are growing up in scrub brush and briars. The trip through Key Town encompasses all of these.

As a child I rode my horse many, many times down the old Key Town Road. Even then it was long-since abandoned and the houses had fallen down and rotted away. Still, there was the remains of a fireplace, foundation rocks or returning flowers. The road was still very clearly visible and mostly navigable – at least by my sure-footed horse.

In the years that have passed, properties have sold and fences built. The trees just keep growing and now little saplings seem more like towering timbers. Goodness that makes me sound old!

The ever-present briars create an impenetrable barrier to once familiar paths. Without the tromping hooves of cattle, the barrier thickens every year. Still, the flowers that cheered a family persist. Shards of a Mason jar testify to some woman’s efforts to feed her family through a cold winter. The creek is the same and if you look very closely you can see the depression of a road cut deep by steel wagon wheels and countless feet.

Our whole world seems obsessed with change right now and I’m going to continue to fight the good fight against a lot of that. I’m going to keep telling the old stories and remembering these lost towns even as the briars and scrub brush reclaim them. I can’t help but take note of some of the changes and maybe show you a glimmer of what used to be.

Almost 5 years ago I wrote about “Mountain Family”, and the family featured there was from Key Town. I think I’ll spend the next couple of weeks telling you a little about the other families there. Stay tuned…