In a message dated 3/1/99 9:29:23 AM Eastern Standard Time, [log in to unmask]
writes:

<< One consulation: The WalMarts are reversible:  When they are no longer
deemed
 useful - the box can come down / the grass and fields replanted. >>

 What's a little more difficult is replacing the 125 year old 36'x80'
Pennsylvania style bank barn with the ornately trimmed louvers and glass ball
lightning rods. For years when a person traveled into Wooster from the North,
the beautiful dairy farms just seemed to magically turn into neighborhoods.
Neighborhoods with simple little houses that sat back from the road to allow
for the wide crowned oaks and maples planted along the roadways.

The greatest of the oaks of Wooster was the famous Gateway Oak which welcomed
those southbound travelers with it's majestic spreading branches. A tree so
large it challenged the great bank barns for the place of highest stature in
the vast agriscape.

The Gateway Oak is gone now. Removed to make way for the right turn lane into
Wal Mart. Many long time residents mourned it's felling. Even staged a protest
of sorts. But the asphalt prevailed. I was actually glad to see it removed.
How happy could it have been alone in the berm, with all it's friends
bulldozed into progress?

It would be nice if time itself was reversible.

Rudy