What is your favorite place to go in your city? A difficult ask by the daily writing prompt because I live in a small town not a city.

But we do have a city nearby. A very old mill town called Ellicott City. It’s a city I’m connected to in many ways. My better half’s family lived there. When we got married our first apartment was there. I began my 5 decades in newspapers in that city. Owned a business there.

The place has been through a lot of traumas. Fires, train accidents and floods. It has reinvented itself so many times I’ve lost count. There were two fire stations, but both had moved. There was a lumber and flour mill there. That’s gone. There was a thriving newspaper business that’s long gone. There was a corner market and that is gone.

The list of what has gone and come and gone and come again is too long for this post but it’s a town always in transition, but it stays the same somehow. Friendly, unique, picturesque, filled with small homes and shops, with restaurants and bars. Farmers markets, movie nights, and many theme occasions. Santa still rides down Main Street as he did decades ago.

They kick off the holiday season with midnight madness and tree lighting. The fire station, now up Old Columbia Pike, has a huge holiday train garden for the kids and adults like me.

Oh, the town has many issues. A historical society that tries to keep it true but also doesn’t know the only constant in life is change. Many town factions and groups all squabble from time to time.

Many of the places that made it special for decades are gone or going. Tersiguel’s is closing after 50 years I believe this year. Old Mr. Yates in his market, Fisher’s bakery with the sweetest sweets I’ve ever had has been history for a long time. Coco Lane and Commercial Farmers Bank that I used to walk down the street to cash my first work checks.

It’s different now but loaded with new treasures and shops and restaurants and sights. Flood mitigation efforts should preserve this town from its past devastating floods. But you can never fully protect against Mother Nature of course.

So, my favorite place is Main Street and the memories I have of it. I walk up and down this hilly place often. It’s great exercise, most everyone has a smile and hello. I look in shop windows, take pictures, maybe grab a snack or drink. It relaxes me and with all the history I have, it feels a bit like home.