<body><div>Change can’t erase precious memories News Staff Wed, 06/07/2023 - 15:10 Image <ul class="slides"><li> Penny McBride </li></ul> Body I had a delicious lunch with a friend at Fresh Pickens’ new location in Grand Central at Milam on Monday. While not fully complete, I could not help but marvel at the transformation the little grocery store from my childhood has undergone. <nbtemplate data-id="AdPlaceholder" data-content="JTdCJTdE"></nbtemplate> My family shopped at the Piggly Wiggly, turned Super S for years. But I mostly remember it as the place I learned personal responsibility. Still a little kid and horsing around, my older brother and I knocked several prayer candles from a shelf, sending shattered glass in all directions. The store manager assured my father it was only an accident, but Dad insisted his kids be shown the broom and dustpan and thoroughly clean the mess we made. Dad paid for the candles at check-out, also at his insistence. He made sure the two of us, and pretty much everyone else in the check-out lines, knew our allowance would be garnished appropriately.&nbsp; A 50-year-old lesson not forgotten. On the way back from lunch, I slowed for a piece of construction equipment to cross the street for the Albert Hotel project. I looked at the parking deck that replaced the residence and neighboring office building of R.L. and Cleo Frantzen, dear friends of my parents. <nbtemplate data-id="AdPlaceholder" data-content="JTdCJTdE"></nbtemplate> The house had a wonderful basement, which now lives in my mind as a time capsule, bookended by memories of playing house with the Frantzen girls’ toy kitchen and disco records blaring on the turntable the night we were allowed to have our first gathering to which boys were invited. I returned to my office, from which I enjoy a wonderful view of the National Museum of the Pacific War. It made me think of all the times I had stared out my grandmother’s window across the street at the empty lot the museum now occupies. A couple years following our inadvertent act of prayer candle vandalism, I gave my brother the all clear to race his bicycle around a huge tree in the center of that lot before launching himself, high and airborne, to land on Austin Street. It was always a sight to behold, but all the more exciting when the bike tire came off mid-air. He stuck the landing with a mangled thud that required stitches. <nbtemplate data-id="AdPlaceholder" data-content="JTdCJTdE"></nbtemplate> I’m often asked how I feel about the way Fredericksburg has changed. For the most part, I think it is wonderful. Where else do former grocery stores turn into world-class, Smithsonian-affiliated museums or trendy shopping and entertainment venues? How many towns, 12,000 in population, attract an amenities-loaded luxury hotel? And let’s not forget the millions in sales tax revenues, shouldered by non-residents, that help pay for what you and I enjoy. Beyond each of these are many other developments that bring new dimension and opportunity. I credit this to forward-thinking leaders throughout our history who welcomed entrepreneurism but stood firm on measures to protect quality. Now the time is ours. There was a time we questioned, build it and they will come? Now we wonder how we’ll have enough workers for proper operation and a quality customer experience? And, how to temper development against finite natural resources and quality of life? <nbtemplate data-id="AdPlaceholder" data-content="JTdCJTdE"></nbtemplate> Far better to ponder the problems borne of abundance than those created by scarcity. I am grateful for life-long memories that symbolize our community’s resilience and preservation. McBride is the president and CEO of the Fredericksburg Chamber of Commerce. <a class="a2a_button_facebook"></a><a class="a2a_button_twitter"></a></div></body>

Mountain View, CA

Change can’t erase precious memories
News Staff
Wed, 06/07/2023 - 15:10

  
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      Penny McBride
    


              
      

  
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              I had a delicious lunch with a friend at Fresh...