29 APR 07: THE BIG TEN

As the sun rose ten years ago today, I was trying to drain my waterbed as quickly as I could. It wasn't because it had sprung a leak. It was because a moving company was coming - and I feared carrying a full mattress might leave me with a personal injury lawsuit.

BLOG SPECIAL EVENT: Today marks ten years since I moved to Columbus, from the south Atlanta suburbs. I gained a new job, an average six degrees in daily temperature -- and a longer-lasting car, because I fill my gas tank only about half as often.

I'd made a "scouting trip" to Columbus before the formal moving day, and selected an apartment. One place turned me down, because it offered a second-floor apartment - and the landlord quickly admitted the floor couldn't handle my waterbed. I don't handle it much nowadays myself. I haven't added any special chemicals in years, and the water doesn't look green yet.

But after the movers found a place for all my items, my new home didn't have electricity yet. So my first official night in Columbus was spent at the old "Heart of Columbus Motel" near 10th and Veterans Parkway. It's now the downtown EconoLodge - and I somehow doubt it charges the $25 I paid in 1997.

(I actually tried sleeping in my bed on the first night in Columbus. But the baseball RedStixx had a home game, and the Golden Park lights stayed on late into the night -- right through my curtainless window. Were there THAT many fans back then, for cleaning up the ballpark?)

Before I went to the motel, I jogged on the sidewalks of downtown Columbus on the evening of April 29. I went about 1.7 miles non-stop that night - and there wasn't much traffic on that Tuesday night to get in the way. Nowadays, of course, you have to dodge some obstacles. If the Streetscape doesn't get you, the tables for smokers might.

I've staged "anniversary runs" downtown every April 29 or so since I moved to Columbus. But I fear this evening's effort will not go well, since I'm still recovering from fluid on my lungs. I was happy to go 0.7 miles nonstop Saturday night, largely on the Riverwalk - and the pine trees near Golden Park simply were emitting too much carbon dioxide for my lungs to handle.

Until the power came on in my apartment, I ate dinner at restaurants for a few days. I found the "fast-food zones" on Veterans Parkway downtown, Victory Drive, and the 280 Bypass into Phenix City. This will seem so quaint 20 years from now - when youngsters learn there were places other than Columbus Park Crossing.

It's interesting to consider how much things have changed in Columbus, since I moved here in April 1997....

+ Bobby Peters was Mayor, not Judge - and he was engaged to a woman named Bobbi. If they had married, you could have had an interesting sequel to "Talladega Nights."

+ Columbus had a couple of radio stations with local news departments. Today, it has one - and sometimes I wonder if WDAK really counts.

+ The WRBL news anchors were Brad Means and Amanda Rossiter, and their faces were on billboards around town. Now Means is in Augusta, Rossiter reports for CNN - and I'm not sure that station can afford to buy billboard space anymore.

+ Columbus had two enclosed shopping malls - although they could have turned empty sections of Columbus Square into apartments back then, and people probably would have approved overwhelmingly.

+ A big dirt parking lot was available for city employees next to the Government Center. How all the staffers have coped since the RiverCenter was built, I'm not really sure....

+ The official web site of the newspaper was l-e-o.com , as in "Ledger-Enquirer Online." Maybe if they had added a search engine with "Leo" the Lion on it, that name still would be in use.

+ The area had FoodMax supermarkets, and Montgomery Ward and Gayfer's stores at Peachtree Mall. The first two are gone now - and if Dillard's had any sense, they'd rename the Parisian store they just bought "Gayfer's" to fool people.

+ The city has lost one pro baseball team, two indoor football teams, one indoor soccer team and one minor league basketball team - yet somehow has changed men's basketball coaches at the university only once.

But in ten years, some things in Columbus have NOT changed. Tim Chitwood still handles "Monday Mail" in the newspaper. The Cottonmouths still play hockey, albeit in a different league. And amazingly, my rent has NOT increased since I moved in. Quietly drop the check in the slot every month, and sometimes the landlord forgets about you....

When I moved to Columbus ten years ago, I honestly thought I would miss living in metro Atlanta. But it turns out I don't miss my old home at all. I've grown comfortable here, despite all the changes in town and the challenges I've faced. But is it too much to ask for someone - ANYONE - to open a Cinnabon shop?

E-MAIL UPDATE: The hot topic of the moment is one of the biggest churches in Columbus - at least for one writer. This message actually reached us before the item we posted Saturday:

You said in an earlier blog [24 Apr] that you can imagine there are plenty of lies being told from the stage at Cascade Hills Church...and reference the fact that Bill has said that Jesus was born on December 25th. I have not heard that lie told, although I do believe that Bill Purvis accepts that date as the celebrated date for the birth of Christ. I have however heard him step up and say "Welcome to our third packed service". After looking around I realized that the seats were not full...and since I was there at the two other services volunteering my time I can testify that the other two services were less than half full....What gives Mr. Bill? Remember THE TRUTH SHALL SET YOU FREE. If by chance he did get wind of this statement he would laugh it off like it were no big deal...I mean its not that big of a lie now is it? Maybe we should look into some of those bigger lies...like the one about not taking a salary from the church.

Maybe you're misunderstanding what Pastor Bill Purvis meant -- and it was his third service packed full of folksy stories.

I've heard other people give misleading statements about attendance numbers, although it seems to happen more often in sports. How many times have I heard Marv Albert describe "capacity crowds" at basketball arenas, only to see empty seats near the court? Maybe those seats had fans which reached their capacity for alcohol too soon.

I attended one Saturday night service at Cascade Hills Church where Bill Purvis talked about the thousands of people on the membership rolls. He openly admitted half the listed members don't show up for services -- and to be blunt, that's true at a lot of churches of different denominations. You're only dropped from the rolls if you ask to be. But if you're not attending already, would you think to do that?

More comments about Cascade Hills are being held for our next Saturday religious discussion. Now let's see what's making news on this anniversary weekend:

+ WRBL revealed a strange twist in the Hispanic home invasion murder case. The mother of two suspects was arrested, on charges of conducting her OWN home invasion during March.

+ Auburn University trustees approved a five-percent tuition increase for next fall. Add up all the increases since 2001, and Auburn tuition has jumped at least 50 percent. I won't mention the exact amount, because it might be on the football team's math final exam.

+ The Atlanta Falcons's top choice in the pro football draft was Arkansas defensive end Jamaal Anderson. Huh -- ANOTHER one?!?! Was he required to dance the "Dirty Bird" at the combine?

SCHEDULED MONDAY: Our "Prairie Home Companion" review (we have to wait for the Sunday replay)....

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